Flann O'Brien

Flann O'Brien was the nom de plume of Irish writer Brian O'Nolan who also wrote satirical columns in The Irish Times under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. Born in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, O'Nolan read English, Irish and German at University College Dublin and went on to work as a civil servant in the capital. His hilariously funny, metafictional début, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), is both a modernist masterpiece and a foretaste of postmodernism. Other books by Flann O'Brien include The Third Policeman, published posthumously in 1968, The Dalkey Archive (1964) and the parody of Irish misery memoirs, An Béal Bocht / The Poor Mouth (Irish: 1941; English: 1973). Brian O'Nolan died in Dublin in 1966.