Flann O'Brien

Flann O'Brien was the best known pseudonym of Brian O'Nolan (1911-1966), who also published under the name Myles na Gopaleen. He was a twentieth century Irish humorous writer.

Under the name Flann O'Brien, he published a series of novels that have attracted a wide following for their bizarre humour. At Swim-Two-Birds works entirely with recycled characters from other fiction (and legend), on the grounds that there are already far too many fictional characters in circulation, while The Third Policeman has as superficial plot an Irish country youth's vision of hell, as byplay against that a satire of academic debate on an eccentric philosopher, and finds time to introduce the atomic theory of the bicycle. The Dalkey Archive features a character who encounters a penitent, elderly James Joyce (who never wrote any of his books) working as a busboy in the resort of Dalkey and a scientist looking to suck all of the air out of the world. Other books by Flann O'Brien include The Hard Life, and The Poor Mouth (originally written in Irish as An Béal Bocht).

As a novelist, O'Nolan was powerfully influenced by James Joyce. Indeed, he was at pains to attend the same college as Joyce, and Joyce biographer Richard Ellman has established that O'Nolan, fully in keeping with his literary temperament, used a forged interview with John Joyce as part of his application.

As Myles na Gopaleen, O'Nolan published a regular column entitled "The Cruiskeen Lawn" in the Irish Times, usually in English, but sometimes in Irish, and sometimes in Latin. These pieces have been collected into a number of books with titles such as The Best of Myles and Cuttings from the Cruiskeen Lawn (an example of bilingual humour, which O'Nolan often used). O'Nolan had been one of the first proponents of the study of Irish, and yet as a newspaper columnist he consistently satirized Irish nationalists. Some of the characters introduced in the "Cruiskeen Lawn" column (in particular The Brother) are explained in The Hard Life.

Flann O'Brien's writing is sufficiently creative that he counts as a major figure in twentieth century Irish literature.