Famous O'Briens in History
| LIAM O'BRIEN (O'BRIAIN) - (188-1974) Patriot and scholar. |
| Born in Dublin; educated at O' Connell CBS and RUI. Won the first NUI travelling studentship in 1911: studied Early Irish in Germany and also studied in Paris. Lecturer in French, UCD, 1914. Joined the Irish Volunteers, fought in St Stephen's Green in the 1916 Rising, and was interned in Frongoch in Wales until the general release of prisoners in December that year. Professor of Romance languages, UCG, 1917. He continued his activities in the movement for the independence and stood as Sinn Fein candidate for South Armagh in the general election of 1918. Although a total stranger to his constituents he polled six thousand votes, against eight thousand for his Unionist opponent. In 1920 he became a judge in the Republican courts. These Courts were illegal under British rule, and he was imprisoned for a year. He took the Treaty side in 1922 and after standing unsuccessfully in 1925 for election to Seanad Eireann retired from active participation in politics. He translated many books and plays from French, Spanish, and English, into Irish and was a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. Cuimbni Cinn (1951) gives a vivid and candid account of the 1916 Rising. He took a leading part in the founding of Taibhhearc na Gaillimhe in 1928 and often acted there. Chairman, An Club Leabhar, for eighteen years and member of executive committee, Conradh na Gaeilge, for ten years. His services in the cause of good relations between Ireland and France were recognised in 1951 when the French Government made him a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. His converstional powers and wide range of interests earned him the description of "a one-man open university'. He retired from his chair in 1959 and came to live in Dublin, where he died on 11 August 1974. |
|
|
|
