As no doubt you all know George Berkeley, a Kilkenny man who became Church of Ireland Bishop of Cloyne, was a formidable intellectual and philosopher. If I understand his main claim to fame, he held that such things as tables, chairs and brickbats have no objective existence beyond our imagining them. So if a neighbour thows a brick at your head and it connects with it, the brick has no existence. It’s all in your head.
So when Conor Cruise O’Brien had a televised conversation with Harry Kreisler in Berkeley University in California in 2,000 AD, if we accept George Berkeley’s thesis, O’Brien imagined Kreisler, imagined he was in Berkeley University and imagined he was in California. Perhaps I imagined I stumbled over the interview on Youtube. But I imagine you too can access it.
In real space and real time (1948-1957) I used take the Hill of Howth tram from Baker’s Lane near the summit, down to Howth Railway Station at sea-level, then walk a mile to the Burrow Road in Sutton to St Fintan’s CBS. In the 1950s I often sat opposite a neighbour whose name I didn’t know, who was perpetually stuck in a book, or magazine or other paper. I never recall hearing him speak. It was only in late 1961 when he resigned as the UN’s man in Katanga that I realised I’d been a fellow-traveller with Conor Cruise O’Brien.
I bought “TO KATANGA AND BACK” and for years read everything he wrote. I was in awe of his scholarship, envious of his prose style, supportive of his expressed opinions.
I had been living in London for five years when he won a seat for Dublin North-East in Dail Eireann in 1969 and I cheered the result. When he lost it in the 1977 Election, I cheered, whooped and jumped in the air with elation. I don’t think I changed much in my attitudes in the intervening years, but “The Cruiser” certainly had.
Harry Kreisler introduced the Cruiser as a Renaissance man. He didn’t challenge any of his statements. Twenty-three years had elapsed since the electorate had rejected him and it was clear that their ingratitude had traumatised him. He emphasised his good fortune of being spared a Catholic education in Ireland.
Apparently he has written an ill-informed piece on the Irish Christian Brothers, the only authority drawn on by Professor Roy Foster at Oxford in his appraisal of an influential body of men.
Another intellectual whose conversation with Harry Kreisler of Berkeley University is accessible on Youtube is Tariq Ali. It too is very interesting, as is anything written by him. Tariq Ali’s intellect appeared undamaged despite having been taught in Lahore by The Irish Christian Brothers.
POSTSCRIPT
My own experience of the Christian Brothers is on the BLOG “THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AND THE PROMOTION OF VIOLENCE”
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