October 5, 2011, marks the centenary of the birth of Irish writer Flann O’Brien. Born Brian O’Nolan in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, he adopted the pseudonym Flann O’Brien in order to hide his true identity from his employer, the department of local government. The Irish civil service had a ban on its employees from making public comment. O’Nolan also wrote under the name Myles na gCopaleen for the Irish Times newspaper, penning the comical Cruiskeen Lawn column from 1940 until his death in 1966.
O’Brien’s first and best-known novel, At Swim Two Birds, was published in 1939. In it, he displayed the virtuosity that was to make him, arguably, one of the key figures in literary postmodernism. The book opens with an inquiry into why a book should have just one opening, before proceeding to provide the reader with three. On the surface, At Swim Two Birds is about an unnamed student who is writing a book about a character (Dermot Trellis) who himself is writing a book. However, O’Brien is more interested in the idea that fictional characters have their own lives independent of their creator and are capable of exerting that independence, which, of course they proceed to do in the course of the book. O’Brien also uses the novel to deliver a pastiche of any number of things, from ancient Gaelic sagas and Irish folklore to the Bible and Victorian encyclopaedias.
In a commemorative feature for the Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole puts his finger on why O’Brien took a rather absurdist approach to the narrative process. Suggesting that realistic literature was impossible in a newly-formed state where revolutionary fervour had quickly given way to cultural, economic, and political stasis, O’Toole quotes another Irish writer of the period, Frank OConnor, who wrote in 1942 that it was impossible to produce a normal social novel in an Irish context.
O’Brien’s other works included The Third Policeman, which was not to be published in his lifetime; The Hard Life; and a Dalkey Narrative. Another novel, An Béal Bocht, translated from the Irish as The Poor Mouth, was published under the Myles na gCopaleen pseudonym. Writing as Myles, O’Nolan’s columns in the Irish Times proved hugely popular. He wrote the columns in both English and Irish, although as it became more successful, the Cruiskeen Lawn would appear in English only. Satirical by nature, Myles’ pieces frequently took aim at various targets, from the Irish literary establishment to the “Plain People of Ireland.” The Myles na gCopaleen name can be roughly translated as “Myles of the Little Horses” and was likely a play on Irish stage-names.
O’Nolan’s journalism would ultimately see him pushed out from his civil service job after he ridiculed in print the government minister he was serving under. He was to die young, aged just 54, having struggled with alcoholism and general ill-health.
Source: Looby, Robert, "Flann O'Brien: A Postmodernist When It Was Neither Profitable Nor Popular."
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