O'brien, Flann

Related Category: English Literature, 20th cent. to the Present: Biographies

pseud. for Brian Ó Nualláin(ō nō´lən) 1911–66, Irish novelist and political commentator. Born in County Tyrone and raised in Dublin, he entered the Irish civil service in 1937 and formally retired in 1953. From 1940 until his death, he wrote a political column called “Cruiskeen Lawn” for The Irish Times, under the pseudonym of Myles na Gopaleen; his biting, satiric commentaries made him the conscience of the Irish government. As Flann O'Brien, he published three wildly funny novels, At Swim–Two–Birds (1939, rep. 1960), The Dalkey Archive (1964), and The Third Policeman (1976), and well as Faustus Kelly (1943), a play.