FROM HIS SWIVEL chair behind an old mahogany desk on the fourth floor of the Observer building on the fringes of London's press world of Fleet Street, Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien, former Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, former TD, now Senator for Trinity College Dublin, can see the massive clock faces on the domes of Christopher Wren's cathedral of St. Paul's. By Henry Kelly

THE BISHOP-ELECT of Kerry, Father Eamonn Casey, now just finishing his work at the Catholic Housing Aid Society in London, hasn't given his notice of elevation to the bishopric "much thought". "Until the day I finally hoist my sail and get out of her and arrive in Kerry I won't be able to sit down and even think about it for myself." He speaks between leaps and bounds-to the door, to the telephone, to the top of the stairs to shout down a request or, occasionally, a very polite command. "I don't want to rule but I have to.