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Donal Conor Dermod David Donat Cruise O'Brien (1917-11-03 – 2008-12-18) was an Irish writer, politician, diplomat, academic and newspaper editor.
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- Irishness is not primarily a question of birth or blood or language; it is the condition of being involved in the Irish situation, and usually of being mauled by it. On that definition Swift is more Irish than Goldsmith or Sheridan, although by the usual tests they are Irish and he is pure English.
- "Irishness", in New Statesman, January 17, 1959
- Written under the pseudonym Donat O'Donnell.
- Of history and its consequences it may be said: "Those who can, gloat; those who can't, brood." Englishmen are born gloaters; Irishmen born brooders.
- To Katanga and Back: a UN Case History (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962) p. 31
- If I saw Mr. Haughey buried at midnight at a crossroads, with a stake driven through his heart – politically speaking – I should continue to wear a clove of garlic round my neck, just in case.
- The Observer, October 10, 1982
- The main thing that endears the United Nations to member governments, and so enables it to survive, is its proven capacity to fail, and to be seen to fail. If there is something you are expected to do, but don't want to do, or even have done for you, you can safely appeal to the UN in the comfortable certainty that it will let you down.
- New Republic, November 4, 1985
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