Frank O’Connor was the pen-name of the Irish writer Michael O’Donovan. Born in the slums of Cork city on September 17, 1903, he was an only child, raised in poverty by his father, Michael (Mick) O’Donovan, an alcoholic former soldier in the British army, and his mother, Minnie O’Connor, who regularly supplemented the family income by working as a charwoman. O’Connor, a timid and frail child, regularly missed school because of illness. In his memoir,
An Only Child(1961), O’Connor described himself as a classic mother’s boy. His father, whom he feared, re-enlisted in the British army during World War 1 and was absent for a number of years during O’Connor’s childhood. One result of this strained relationship was that O’Connor sought out literary father-figures as a young…
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Citation: Lennon, Hilary. "Frank O'Connor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3374, accessed 25 November 2024.]
