Flann O'Brien
Encyclopedia
Brian O'Nolan (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966) was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature
. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds
, The Third Policeman
and An Béal Bocht
(written under the nom de plume
Flann O'Brien) and many satirical columns in The Irish Times
(written under the name Myles na gCopaleen), O'Nolan has also been referred to as a "scientific prophet" in relation to his writings on thermodynamics
, quaternion theory and atomic theory
.
O'Nolan was born in Strabane
, County Tyrone
. Most of his writings were occasional pieces published in periodicals, which explains why his work has only recently come to enjoy the considered attention of literary scholars. O'Nolan was also notorious for his prolific use and creation of pseudonyms for much of his writing, including short stories, essays, and letters to editors, which has rendered the compilation of complete bibliography of his writings an almost impossible task—he allegedly would write letters to the Editor of The Irish Times
complaining about his own articles published in that newspaper, for example in his regular Cruiskeen Lawn column, which gave rise to rampant speculation as to whether the author of a published letter existed or not. Not surprisingly, little of O'Nolan's pseudonymous activity has been verified.
A key feature of O'Nolan's personal situation was his status as an Irish government civil servant, who, as a result of his father's relatively early death, was obliged to support ten siblings, including an older brother who was an unsuccessful writer. Given the desperate poverty of Ireland in the 1930s to 1960s, a job as a civil servant was considered prestigious, being both secure and pensionable with a reliable cash income in a largely agrarian economy.
The Irish civil service
has been, since the Irish Civil War
, fairly strictly apolitical: Civil Service Regulations and the service's internal culture generally prohibit Civil Servants above the level of clerical officer from publicly expressing political views. As a practical matter, this meant that writing in newspapers on current events was, during O'Nolan's career, generally prohibited without departmental permission on an article-by-article, publication-by-publication basis. This fact alone contributed to O'Nolan's use of pseudonyms, though he had started to create character-authors even in his pre-civil service writings.
In reality, that O'Nolan was Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen was an open secret, largely disregarded by his colleagues, who found his writing very entertaining; this was a function of the makeup of the civil service, which recruited leading graduates by competitive examination—it was an erudite and relatively liberal body in the Ireland of the 1930s to the 1970s. Nonetheless, had O'Nolan forced the issue, by using one of his known pseudonyms or his own name for an article that seriously upset politicians, consequences would likely have followed—hence the acute pseudonym problem in attributing his work today. He was, indeed, forced to retire from the civil service in 1953.
where he was an active, and controversial, member of the well known Literary and Historical Society. He contributed to the student magazine Comhthrom Féinne (Fair Play) under various guises, in particular the pseudonym Brother Barnabas. Significantly, he composed a story during this same period entitled "Scenes in a Novel (probably posthumous) by Brother Barnabas", which anticipates many of the ideas and themes later to be found in his novel, At Swim-Two-Birds. In it, the putative author of the story finds himself in riotous conflict with his characters, who are determined to follow their own paths regardless of the author's design. For example, the villain of the story, one Carruthers McDaid, intended by the author as the lowest form of scoundrel, "meant to sink slowly to absolutely the last extremities of human degradation", instead ekes out a modest living selling cats to elderly ladies and becomes a covert churchgoer without the author's consent. Meanwhile, the story's hero, Shaun Svoolish, chooses a comfortable, bourgeois life rather than romance and heroics:
In 1934 O'Nolan and his student friends founded a short-lived magazine called Blather. The writing here, though clearly bearing the marks of youthful bravado, again somewhat anticipates O'Nolan's later work, in this case his Cruiskeen Lawn column as Myles na gCopaleen:
. At Swim-Two-Birds
works entirely with borrowed (and stolen) characters from other fiction and legend, on the grounds that there are already far too many existing fictional characters, while The Third Policeman
has a fantastic plot of a murderous protagonist let loose on a strange world peopled by fat policemen, played against a satire of academic debate on an eccentric philosopher, De Selby
, and finds time to introduce Sergeant Pluck's atomic theory of the bicycle. The Dalkey Archive
features a character who encounters a penitent, elderly and apparently unbalanced James Joyce
(who dismissively refers to his work by saying 'I have published little' and, furthermore, does not seem aware of having written and published Finnegans Wake
) working as an assistant barman or 'curate' -- another small joke relating to Joyce's alleged priestly ambitions—in the resort of Skerries, and a scientist (De Selby) looking to suck all of the air out of the world, and in which Policeman Pluck learns of the mollycule theory from Sergeant Fottrell.
Other books by Flann O'Brien include The Hard Life
(a fictional autobiography meant to be his "misterpiece"), and An Béal Bocht
, (translated from the Irish as The Poor Mouth), which was a parody of Tomás Ó Criomhthain's
autobiography An t-Oileánach - in English The Islander.
The Hard Life
and The Dalkey Archive
are largely considered to be works which are considerably inferior to O'Brien's early work. It has been often suggested that the fact that The Third Policeman
was not published in his lifetime had a profound effect on O'Brien. This is perhaps reflected in The Dalkey Archive
where sections of The Third Policeman are recycled almost word for word, namely the Atomic Theory.
As a novelist, O'Nolan was powerfully influenced by James Joyce
. Indeed, he was at pains to attend the same college as Joyce - University College Dublin
, and Joyce biographer Richard Ellmann
has established that O'Nolan, fully in keeping with his literary temperament, used a forged interview with Joyce's father John Joyce
as part of his application . He was none the less sceptical of the Cult of Joyce which overshadowed much of Irish writing, "I declare to God if I hear that name Joyce one more time I will surely froth at the gob."
Flann O'Brien is considered a major figure in twentieth century Irish literature
. The British writer Anthony Burgess
stated that, "If we don't cherish the work of Flann O'Brien we are stupid fools who don't deserve to have great men. Flann O'Brien is a very great man." Burgess included At Swim-Two-Birds on his list of 99 Great Novels
.
At Swim-Two-Birds is now recognized as one of the most significant Modernist novels before 1945. Indeed it can be seen as a pioneer of postmodernism
, although the academic Keith Hopper has persuasively argued that The Third Policeman, superficially less radical, is actually a more deeply subversive and proto-postmodernist work, and as such, possibly a representation of literary nonsense
. At Swim-Two-Birds was one of the last books that James Joyce
read and he praised it to O'Nolan's friends - praise which was subsequently used for years as a jacket blurb on reprints of O'Brien's novels. The book was also praised by Graham Greene
, who was working as a reader when the book was put forward for publication and also the Argentine writer, who might be said to bear some similarities to O'Brien, Jorge Luis Borges
.The novel has had a troubled publication history in the USA. Southern Illinois University Press
has set up a Flann O'Brien Center and begun publishing all of O'Nolan's works. Consequently, academic attention to the novel has increased.
O'Brien influenced the science fiction writer and conspiracy theory satirist Robert Anton Wilson
, who has O'Brien's character De Selby, an obscure intellectual in The Third Policeman and The Dalkey Archive appear in his own The Widow's Son. In both The Third Policeman and The Widow's Son, De Selby is the subject of long pseudo-scholarly footnotes. This is fitting, because O'Brien himself made free use of characters invented by other writers, claiming that there were too many fictional characters as is. O'Brien was also known for pulling the reader's leg by concocting elaborate conspiracy theories.
, mostly in English but also in Irish, which showed a manic imagination that still astonishes.
His newspaper column, "Cruiskeen Lawn" (transliterated from the Irish crúiscín lán, "full/brimming small-jug"), has its origins in a series of pseudonymous letters written to The Irish Times
, originally intended to mock the publication in that same newspaper of a poem, "Spraying the Potatoes", by the writer Patrick Kavanagh
:
The letters, some written by O'Nolan and some not, continued under a variety of false names, using various styles and assaulting varied topics, including other letters by the same authors. The letters were a hit with the readers of The Irish Times, and R. M. Smyllie
, then editor of the newspaper, shortly invited O'Nolan to contribute a column.
The first column appeared on 4 October 1940, under the pseudonym "An Broc" ("The Badger"). In all subsequent columns the name "Myles na gCopaleen" ("Myles of the Little Horses" or "Myles of the Ponies") was used. Initially, the column was composed in Irish, but soon English was used primarily, with occasional smatterings of German, French or Latin. The sometimes intensely satirical column's targets included the Dublin literary elite, Irish language revivalists, the Irish government, and the "Plain People of Ireland." The following column excerpt, in which the author wistfully recalls a brief sojourn in Germany as a student, illustrates the biting humor and scorn that informed the Cruiskeen Lawn writings:
Ó Nuallain/na gCopaleen wrote Cruiskeen Lawn for The Irish Times until the year of his death, 1966.
He contributed substantially to Envoy
and formed part of the Envoy / McDaid's pub circle of artistic and literary figures that included Patrick Kavanagh
, Anthony Cronin
, et al. He also contributed to The Bell
.
's play The Colleen Bawn
, who is the stereotypical charming Irish rogue. At one point in the play, he sings the ancient anthem of the Irish Brigades on the Continent, the song "An Crúiscín Lán" (hence the name of the column in the Irish Times).
Capall is the Irish word for "horse" (from Vulgar Latin
caballus), and 'een' (spelled ín in Irish) is a diminutive suffix. The prefix na gCapaillín is the genitive plural in his Ulster Irish
dialect (the Standard Irish would be "Myles na gCapaillíní"), so Myles na gCopaleen means "Myles of the Little Horses". Capaillín is also the Irish word for "pony
", as in the name of Ireland's most famous and ancient native horse breed, the Connemara pony
.
O'Nolan himself always insisted on the translation "Myles of the Ponies", saying that he did not see why the principality of the pony should be subjugated to the imperialism of the horse.
before his death. The couple had no children, although he was survived by a nephew, Conor O'Nolan, a notable Irish academic, journalist, and glasses enthusiast. O'Nolan was an alcoholic for much of his life and suffered from ill health in his later years. He died from a heart attack on 1 April 1966.
thought "Had Myles escaped he might have become a literary giant." Fintan O'Toole
thought "he could have been a celebrated national treasure – but he was far too radical for that."
The Cruiskeen Lawn columns have been published in a series of collections:
Postmodern literature
The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post–World War II literature and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact...
. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction....
, The Third Policeman
The Third Policeman
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written between 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained...
and An Béal Bocht
An Béal Bocht
An Béal Bocht is a 1941 novel in Irish by Brian O'Nolan, published under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century. An English translation by Patrick C...
(written under the nom de plume
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Flann O'Brien) and many satirical columns in The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
(written under the name Myles na gCopaleen), O'Nolan has also been referred to as a "scientific prophet" in relation to his writings on thermodynamics
Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...
, quaternion theory and atomic theory
Atomic theory
In chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to the obsolete notion that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity...
.
O'Nolan was born in Strabane
Strabane
Strabane , historically spelt Straban,is a town in west County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It contains the headquarters of Strabane District Council....
, County Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...
. Most of his writings were occasional pieces published in periodicals, which explains why his work has only recently come to enjoy the considered attention of literary scholars. O'Nolan was also notorious for his prolific use and creation of pseudonyms for much of his writing, including short stories, essays, and letters to editors, which has rendered the compilation of complete bibliography of his writings an almost impossible task—he allegedly would write letters to the Editor of The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
complaining about his own articles published in that newspaper, for example in his regular Cruiskeen Lawn column, which gave rise to rampant speculation as to whether the author of a published letter existed or not. Not surprisingly, little of O'Nolan's pseudonymous activity has been verified.
A key feature of O'Nolan's personal situation was his status as an Irish government civil servant, who, as a result of his father's relatively early death, was obliged to support ten siblings, including an older brother who was an unsuccessful writer. Given the desperate poverty of Ireland in the 1930s to 1960s, a job as a civil servant was considered prestigious, being both secure and pensionable with a reliable cash income in a largely agrarian economy.
The Irish civil service
Civil service of the Republic of Ireland
The Civil Service of Ireland is the collective term for the permanent staff of the Departments of State and certain State Agencies who advise and work for the Government of Ireland. It consists of two broad components, the Civil Service of the Government and the Civil Service of the State...
has been, since the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
, fairly strictly apolitical: Civil Service Regulations and the service's internal culture generally prohibit Civil Servants above the level of clerical officer from publicly expressing political views. As a practical matter, this meant that writing in newspapers on current events was, during O'Nolan's career, generally prohibited without departmental permission on an article-by-article, publication-by-publication basis. This fact alone contributed to O'Nolan's use of pseudonyms, though he had started to create character-authors even in his pre-civil service writings.
In reality, that O'Nolan was Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen was an open secret, largely disregarded by his colleagues, who found his writing very entertaining; this was a function of the makeup of the civil service, which recruited leading graduates by competitive examination—it was an erudite and relatively liberal body in the Ireland of the 1930s to the 1970s. Nonetheless, had O'Nolan forced the issue, by using one of his known pseudonyms or his own name for an article that seriously upset politicians, consequences would likely have followed—hence the acute pseudonym problem in attributing his work today. He was, indeed, forced to retire from the civil service in 1953.
Early writings
O'Nolan wrote prodigiously during his years as a student at University College DublinUniversity College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
where he was an active, and controversial, member of the well known Literary and Historical Society. He contributed to the student magazine Comhthrom Féinne (Fair Play) under various guises, in particular the pseudonym Brother Barnabas. Significantly, he composed a story during this same period entitled "Scenes in a Novel (probably posthumous) by Brother Barnabas", which anticipates many of the ideas and themes later to be found in his novel, At Swim-Two-Birds. In it, the putative author of the story finds himself in riotous conflict with his characters, who are determined to follow their own paths regardless of the author's design. For example, the villain of the story, one Carruthers McDaid, intended by the author as the lowest form of scoundrel, "meant to sink slowly to absolutely the last extremities of human degradation", instead ekes out a modest living selling cats to elderly ladies and becomes a covert churchgoer without the author's consent. Meanwhile, the story's hero, Shaun Svoolish, chooses a comfortable, bourgeois life rather than romance and heroics:
- 'I may be a prig', he replied, 'but I know what I like. Why can't I marry Bridie and have a shot at the Civil Service?'
- 'Railway accidents are fortunately rare', I said finally, 'but when they happen they are horrible. Think it over.'
In 1934 O'Nolan and his student friends founded a short-lived magazine called Blather. The writing here, though clearly bearing the marks of youthful bravado, again somewhat anticipates O'Nolan's later work, in this case his Cruiskeen Lawn column as Myles na gCopaleen:
- Blather is here. As we advance to make our bow, you will look in vain for signs of servility or of any evidence of a desire to please. We are an arrogant and depraved body of men. We are as proud as bantams and as vain as peacocks.
- Blather doesn't care. A sardonic laugh escapes us as we bow, cruel and cynical hounds that we are. It is a terrible laugh, the laugh of lost men. Do you get the smell of porter?
Novels
Flann O'Brien novels have attracted a wide following for their bizarre humour and Modernist metafictionMetafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
. At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction....
works entirely with borrowed (and stolen) characters from other fiction and legend, on the grounds that there are already far too many existing fictional characters, while The Third Policeman
The Third Policeman
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written between 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained...
has a fantastic plot of a murderous protagonist let loose on a strange world peopled by fat policemen, played against a satire of academic debate on an eccentric philosopher, De Selby
De Selby
De Selby is the name of a fictitious Irish philosopher and scientist, originally invented by Flann O'Brien for his novel The Third Policeman. In this novel the character is known as "de Selby", with the latter capital D appearing in use in O'Brien's The Dalkey Archive...
, and finds time to introduce Sergeant Pluck's atomic theory of the bicycle. The Dalkey Archive
The Dalkey Archive
The Dalkey Archive is a novel by the Irish writer Flann O'Brien. It is his fifth and final novel, published in 1964, two years before his death. It features a mad scientist, De Selby, who tries to destroy the world by removing all the oxygen from the air. He has also many strange inventions...
features a character who encounters a penitent, elderly and apparently unbalanced James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
(who dismissively refers to his work by saying 'I have published little' and, furthermore, does not seem aware of having written and published Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
) working as an assistant barman or 'curate' -- another small joke relating to Joyce's alleged priestly ambitions—in the resort of Skerries, and a scientist (De Selby) looking to suck all of the air out of the world, and in which Policeman Pluck learns of the mollycule theory from Sergeant Fottrell.
Other books by Flann O'Brien include The Hard Life
The Hard Life
The Hard Life: An Exegesis of Squalor is a comic novel by Flann O'Brien . Published in 1961, it was O'Brien's fourth novel and the third to be published....
(a fictional autobiography meant to be his "misterpiece"), and An Béal Bocht
An Béal Bocht
An Béal Bocht is a 1941 novel in Irish by Brian O'Nolan, published under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century. An English translation by Patrick C...
, (translated from the Irish as The Poor Mouth), which was a parody of Tomás Ó Criomhthain's
Tomás Ó Criomhthain
Tomás Ó Criomhthain was a native of the Irish-speaking Great Blasket Island off the coast of County Kerry in Ireland. He wrote two books, Allagar na h-Inise written over the period 1918–23 and published in 1928, and , completed in 1923 and published in 1929...
autobiography An t-Oileánach - in English The Islander.
The Hard Life
The Hard Life
The Hard Life: An Exegesis of Squalor is a comic novel by Flann O'Brien . Published in 1961, it was O'Brien's fourth novel and the third to be published....
and The Dalkey Archive
The Dalkey Archive
The Dalkey Archive is a novel by the Irish writer Flann O'Brien. It is his fifth and final novel, published in 1964, two years before his death. It features a mad scientist, De Selby, who tries to destroy the world by removing all the oxygen from the air. He has also many strange inventions...
are largely considered to be works which are considerably inferior to O'Brien's early work. It has been often suggested that the fact that The Third Policeman
The Third Policeman
The Third Policeman is a novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written between 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained...
was not published in his lifetime had a profound effect on O'Brien. This is perhaps reflected in The Dalkey Archive
The Dalkey Archive
The Dalkey Archive is a novel by the Irish writer Flann O'Brien. It is his fifth and final novel, published in 1964, two years before his death. It features a mad scientist, De Selby, who tries to destroy the world by removing all the oxygen from the air. He has also many strange inventions...
where sections of The Third Policeman are recycled almost word for word, namely the Atomic Theory.
As a novelist, O'Nolan was powerfully influenced by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
. Indeed, he was at pains to attend the same college as Joyce - University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
, and Joyce biographer Richard Ellmann
Richard Ellmann
Richard David Ellmann was a prominent American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats...
has established that O'Nolan, fully in keeping with his literary temperament, used a forged interview with Joyce's father John Joyce
John Joyce
John Stanislaus Joyce was the father of writer James Joyce, and a well known Dublin man about town. The son of James and Ellen Joyce, John Joyce grew up in Cork, where his mother's family, which claimed kinship to "Liberator" Daniel O'Connell, was quite prominent.Following his father's death in...
as part of his application . He was none the less sceptical of the Cult of Joyce which overshadowed much of Irish writing, "I declare to God if I hear that name Joyce one more time I will surely froth at the gob."
Flann O'Brien is considered a major figure in twentieth century Irish literature
Irish literature
For a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature. Irish literature encompasses the Irish and English languages.-The beginning of writing in Irish:...
. The British writer Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
stated that, "If we don't cherish the work of Flann O'Brien we are stupid fools who don't deserve to have great men. Flann O'Brien is a very great man." Burgess included At Swim-Two-Birds on his list of 99 Great Novels
Ninety-nine Novels
Anthony Burgess's book Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 — A Personal Choice covers a 44-year span between 1939 and 1983. Burgess was a prolific reader, in his early career reviewing more than 350 novels in just over two years for the Yorkshire Post...
.
At Swim-Two-Birds is now recognized as one of the most significant Modernist novels before 1945. Indeed it can be seen as a pioneer of postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
, although the academic Keith Hopper has persuasively argued that The Third Policeman, superficially less radical, is actually a more deeply subversive and proto-postmodernist work, and as such, possibly a representation of literary nonsense
Literary nonsense
Literary nonsense is a broad categorization of literature that uses sensical and nonsensical elements to defy language conventions or logical reasoning...
. At Swim-Two-Birds was one of the last books that James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
read and he praised it to O'Nolan's friends - praise which was subsequently used for years as a jacket blurb on reprints of O'Brien's novels. The book was also praised by Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, who was working as a reader when the book was put forward for publication and also the Argentine writer, who might be said to bear some similarities to O'Brien, Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
.The novel has had a troubled publication history in the USA. Southern Illinois University Press
Southern Illinois University Press
Southern Illinois University Press, founded in 1956, is a university press located in Carbondale, Illinois.The press publishes approximately 50 titles annually, among its more than 1,200 titles currently in print....
has set up a Flann O'Brien Center and begun publishing all of O'Nolan's works. Consequently, academic attention to the novel has increased.
O'Brien influenced the science fiction writer and conspiracy theory satirist Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
, who has O'Brien's character De Selby, an obscure intellectual in The Third Policeman and The Dalkey Archive appear in his own The Widow's Son. In both The Third Policeman and The Widow's Son, De Selby is the subject of long pseudo-scholarly footnotes. This is fitting, because O'Brien himself made free use of characters invented by other writers, claiming that there were too many fictional characters as is. O'Brien was also known for pulling the reader's leg by concocting elaborate conspiracy theories.
Journalism
As Myles na gCopaleen (or Myles na Gopaleen), O'Nolan wrote short columns for The Irish TimesThe Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
, mostly in English but also in Irish, which showed a manic imagination that still astonishes.
His newspaper column, "Cruiskeen Lawn" (transliterated from the Irish crúiscín lán, "full/brimming small-jug"), has its origins in a series of pseudonymous letters written to The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
, originally intended to mock the publication in that same newspaper of a poem, "Spraying the Potatoes", by the writer Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
:
The letters, some written by O'Nolan and some not, continued under a variety of false names, using various styles and assaulting varied topics, including other letters by the same authors. The letters were a hit with the readers of The Irish Times, and R. M. Smyllie
R. M. Smyllie
Robert Maire "Bertie" Smyllie , was editor of The Irish Times from 1934 until his death in 1954.Short-sighted, massively overweight, given to wearing a poncho and sombrero, and cycling to work with his typewriter slung over the bars of his bicycle and a half bottle of Scotch sticking out of his...
, then editor of the newspaper, shortly invited O'Nolan to contribute a column.
The first column appeared on 4 October 1940, under the pseudonym "An Broc" ("The Badger"). In all subsequent columns the name "Myles na gCopaleen" ("Myles of the Little Horses" or "Myles of the Ponies") was used. Initially, the column was composed in Irish, but soon English was used primarily, with occasional smatterings of German, French or Latin. The sometimes intensely satirical column's targets included the Dublin literary elite, Irish language revivalists, the Irish government, and the "Plain People of Ireland." The following column excerpt, in which the author wistfully recalls a brief sojourn in Germany as a student, illustrates the biting humor and scorn that informed the Cruiskeen Lawn writings:
Ó Nuallain/na gCopaleen wrote Cruiskeen Lawn for The Irish Times until the year of his death, 1966.
He contributed substantially to Envoy
Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art
December 1949- July 1951. Dublin, Ireland. Editor & Founder: John RyanDuring its brief existence, Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish J. P...
and formed part of the Envoy / McDaid's pub circle of artistic and literary figures that included Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
, Anthony Cronin
Anthony Cronin
Anthony Cronin is an Irish poet. He received the Marten Toonder Award for his contribution to Irish literature....
, et al. He also contributed to The Bell
The Bell (magazine)
The Bell Magazine Dublin, Ireland. A monthly magazine of literature and social comment which had a seminal influence on a generation of Irish intellectuals.- History :...
.
Name translation
The name is taken from a character (Myles-na-Coppaleen) in Dion BoucicaultDion Boucicault
Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot , commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the...
's play The Colleen Bawn
The Colleen Bawn
The Colleen Bawn, or The Brides of Garryowen is a melodramatic play written by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault. It was first performed at Miss Laura Keene's Theatre, New York, on 27 March 1860 with Laura Keene playing Anne Chute and Boucicault playing Myles na Coppaleen. It was most recently...
, who is the stereotypical charming Irish rogue. At one point in the play, he sings the ancient anthem of the Irish Brigades on the Continent, the song "An Crúiscín Lán" (hence the name of the column in the Irish Times).
Capall is the Irish word for "horse" (from Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
caballus), and 'een' (spelled ín in Irish) is a diminutive suffix. The prefix na gCapaillín is the genitive plural in his Ulster Irish
Ulster Irish
Ulster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the Province of Ulster. The largest Gaeltacht region today is in County Donegal, so that the term Donegal Irish is often used synonymously. Nevertheless, records of the language as it was spoken in other counties do exist, and help provide...
dialect (the Standard Irish would be "Myles na gCapaillíní"), so Myles na gCopaleen means "Myles of the Little Horses". Capaillín is also the Irish word for "pony
Pony
A pony is a small horse . Depending on context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. There are many different breeds...
", as in the name of Ireland's most famous and ancient native horse breed, the Connemara pony
Connemara pony
The Connemara pony is a pony breed originating in Ireland. They are known for their athleticism, versatility and good disposition. The breed makes excellent show ponies.-History:...
.
O'Nolan himself always insisted on the translation "Myles of the Ponies", saying that he did not see why the principality of the pony should be subjugated to the imperialism of the horse.
Personal life
Although O'Nolan was a well known character in Dublin during his lifetime, relatively little is known about his personal life. He joined the Irish civil service in 1935, working in the Department of Local Government. From the time of his father's death in 1937, he supported his brothers and sisters, eleven in total, on his income. On December 2, 1948 he married Evelyn McDonnell, a typist in the Department of Local Government. On his marriage he moved from his parental home in Blackrock to nearby Merrion Avenue, living at several further locations in South DublinSouth Dublin
South Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is one of three smaller counties into which County Dublin was divided in 1994. The county seat is Tallaght, the largest suburb of Dublin and the biggest urban centre in the county. Other important centres of population are Lucan and Clondalkin...
before his death. The couple had no children, although he was survived by a nephew, Conor O'Nolan, a notable Irish academic, journalist, and glasses enthusiast. O'Nolan was an alcoholic for much of his life and suffered from ill health in his later years. He died from a heart attack on 1 April 1966.
Legacy
In 2011 the '100 Myles: The International Flann O'Brien Centenary Conference' (July 24 - 27) was held at The Department of English Studies at the University of Vienna , the success of which has led to the establishment of 'The International Flann O'Brien Society'. In October 2011, Trinity College Dublin hosted a weekend of events celebrating the centenary of his birth. A commemorative stamp worth 55c featuring a portrait of O'Nolan's head by his brother Micheál Ó Nualláin was issued for the same occasion. This occurred 52 years after a famous criticism of the Irish postal service by the writer. A bronze sculpture of the writer stands outside the Palace Bar on Dublin's Fleet Street. Kevin MyersKevin Myers
Kevin Myers is an Irish journalist and writer. He writes for the Irish Independent and is a former contributor to The Irish Times, where he wrote the "An Irishman's Diary" opinion column several times weekly...
thought "Had Myles escaped he might have become a literary giant." Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole
Fintan O'Toole is a columnist, assistant editor and drama critic for The Irish Times. He has written for The Irish Times since 1988 and was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001. He is a literary critic, historical writer and political commentator, with generally left-wing views...
thought "he could have been a celebrated national treasure – but he was far too radical for that."
As "Myles na gCopaleen"
- An Béal Bocht / The Poor MouthAn Béal BochtAn Béal Bocht is a 1941 novel in Irish by Brian O'Nolan, published under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century. An English translation by Patrick C...
, (1973)
The Cruiskeen Lawn columns have been published in a series of collections:
- The Best of Myles
- The Hair of the Dogma
- Further Cuttings from Cruiskeen Lawn
- Flann O'Brien At War: Myles na gCopaleen 1940-1945
- Myles Away from Dublin
- Myles Before Myles
- At War
As "Flann O'Brien"
- At Swim-Two-BirdsAt Swim-Two-BirdsAt Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction....
(1939) - The Hard LifeThe Hard LifeThe Hard Life: An Exegesis of Squalor is a comic novel by Flann O'Brien . Published in 1961, it was O'Brien's fourth novel and the third to be published....
(1962) - The Dalkey ArchiveThe Dalkey ArchiveThe Dalkey Archive is a novel by the Irish writer Flann O'Brien. It is his fifth and final novel, published in 1964, two years before his death. It features a mad scientist, De Selby, who tries to destroy the world by removing all the oxygen from the air. He has also many strange inventions...
(1964) - The Third PolicemanThe Third PolicemanThe Third Policeman is a novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It was written between 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained...
(written 1939-40, published 1968) - Slattery's Sago Saga (unfinished)
- The Brother (1974 stage show by Eamon MorrisseyEamon Morrissey (actor)Eamon Morrissey is an Irish actor, best known for his comic performances on stage and television.-Early life:An only child, Morrissey was born in Dublin and grew up in the suburb of Ranelagh. His parents encouraged his early interest in stage performance and he won several medals for his...
based on Flann O'Brien works) - A Bash In The Tunnel (Brighton: Clifton Books 1970), essays on James Joyce by Flann O’Brien, Patrick KavanaghPatrick KavanaghPatrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
, Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, Ulick O'ConnorUlick O'ConnorUlick O'Connor is an Irish writer, historian and critic.-Early life:Born in Rathgar, County Dublin in 1928, O'Connor attended St. Mary's College, Rathmines and later University College Dublin, where he studied law and philosophy, becoming known as a keen sporting participant, especially in boxing,...
& Edna O’Brien. John RyanJohn Ryan (Dublin artist)John Ryan Dublin, Ireland was an Artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, patron and publican.John Ryan was many things but primarily a key figure in Bohemian Dublin for many years. He knew nearly every artist of note that lived in, or passed through, Dublin from the 1940s onwards...
(editor).
See also
- List of Northern Irish writers
- Literary and Historical Society, University College DublinLiterary and Historical Society, University College DublinThe Literary and Historical Society is the oldest debating society in University College, Dublin , and is the official College Debating Union. Founded in 1855 by Father John Henry Newman , it is one of the most prestigious and well-known student societies in Ireland...
Further reading
- Clune, Anne, and Tess Hurson, eds., 1997. Conjuring Complexities: Essays on Flann O'Brien. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queens Univ. of Belfast. ISBN 085389678X
- Cronin, Anthony, 2003. No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien. New Island Books. ISBN 1-904301-37-1
- Curran, Steven ‘“No, This is Not From The Bell”: Brian O’Nolan’s 1943 Cruiskeen Lawn Anthology’, in Éire-Ireland, 32, 2 & 3 (Summer/Fall 1997), pp. 79–92.
- Curran, Steven ‘Designs on an “Elegant Utopia”: Brian O’Nolan and Vocational Organisation', Bullán, V, 2 (Winter/Spring 2001), pp. 87–116.
- Curran, Steven ‘“Could Paddy Leave Off from Copying Just for Five Minutes?”: Brian O’Nolan and Éire’s Beveridge Plan’, Irish University Review, 31, 2 (Autumn/Winter 2001), pp. 353–76.
- Guinness, Jonathan 1997. Requiem for a family business. Macmillan, London. ISBN 0-333-66191-5 at pp. 8–9.
- Hopper, Keith, 1995. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Postmodernist. Cork University Press. ISBN 1-85918-042-6
- Hopper, Keith, 2009. Flann O'Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-Modernist. Cork University Press. ISBN 978-185918-447-9
- Jordan, John, 2006. Flann O'Brien"; "A Letter to Myles"; and "One of the Saddest Books Ever to Come Out of Ireland"; in Crystal Clear, Lilliput Press. ISBN 1-84351-066-9
- Riordan, Arthur, and Bell Helicopter, 2005. Improbable Frequency. Nick Hern Books. ISBN 1-85459-875-9.
- Vintaloro, Giordano, 2009. L'A(rche)tipico Brian O'Nolan. Comico e riso dalla tradizione al post-. [Italian: The A(rche)typical Brian O'Nolan. Comic and Laughter from Tradition to Post-] Trieste: Battello Stampatore. ISBN 88-87208-50-6.
- Wappling, Eva, 1984. Four legendary Figures in At Swim-Two-Birds. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-1595-4.
- EnvoyEnvoy, A Review of Literature and ArtDecember 1949- July 1951. Dublin, Ireland. Editor & Founder: John RyanDuring its brief existence, Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish J. P...
, A Review of Literature and Art. Inaugurated in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions which had forced many writers to seek publication outside their homeland. O'Nolan contributed substantially to Envoy and formed part of the Envoy/ McDaid's pub group of artists and intellectuals. - The BellThe Bell (magazine)The Bell Magazine Dublin, Ireland. A monthly magazine of literature and social comment which had a seminal influence on a generation of Irish intellectuals.- History :...
, A monthly magazine of literature and social comment which had a seminal influence on a generation of Irish intellectuals.
External links
- Brian O'Nolan Papers, 1914-1966 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center
- '100 Myles' & 'The International Flann O'Brien Society' http://www.univie.ac.at/flannobrien2011/IFOBS.html