Flann O'Brien

Carol Taaffe (Trinity College Dublin)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Eoghan Smith (Carlow College), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Born 10 Oct 1911
Died 1 Apr 1966
Activity 1931-1966

Places

Born in Ireland, Republic of (Eire)
Active in Ireland, Republic of (Eire)

Activities

Primary

Film/TV Script-writer/ Screenwriter
Humorist
Journalist
Novelist
Satirist

Resources

O'Brien's Works

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Flann O'Brien was the pseudonym of the Irish humorist, Brian O'Nolan (1911-1966), otherwise notorious as the

Irish Times

columnist, Myles na gCopaleen. As Myles, he had a vast and loyal following in Ireland for over twenty years, enjoying an intimate relationship with his daily audience. The novelist Flann O'Brien has tended to have an independent life in the academic sphere, variously depicted by his critics as a Joycean acolyte, a precocious postmodernist, or a slightly cheerier Beckett. Brian O'Nolan's position is rather more interesting, since he was a post-Revival Irish writer who straddled two literary traditions and two literary professions, never wholly acceding to the conventions of either.

Brian O'Nolan was born in Strabane, Co.Tyrone on 10th October, 1911. The third of twelve

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2351 words

Citation: Taaffe, Carol. "Flann O'Brien". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3369, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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