About Flann O'Brien
Brian O'Nolan (Irish: Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), whose pen names included Flann O'Brien, was an Irish Civil Service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth-century Irish literature. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in modernist and postmodern literature. His four English-language novels, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), The Hard Life (1961), The Dalkey Archive (1964) and The Third Policeman (1967), were published under the pen name Flann O'Brien. His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an Irish-language novel, An Béal Bocht (1941), were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen. O'Brien's novels have attracted a wide following both for their unconventional humour and as prominent examples of modernist metafiction. As a novelist, O'Brien was influenced by James Joyce. He was nonetheless sceptical of the "cult" of Joyce, saying "I declare to God if I hear that name Joyce one more time I will surely froth at the gob." == Biography == === Family and early life === O'Brien's father, Michael Vincent O'Nolan, was an official in HM Customs, a role that required frequent moves between cities and towns in England, Scotland and Ireland. Although of apparently trenchant Irish republican views, because of his role and employment he needed to be discreet about them. At the formation of the Irish Free State in 1921, O'Nolan senior joined the Irish Revenue Commissioners. O'Brien's mother, Agnes (née Gormley), was also from an Irish nationalist family in Strabane, and this largely nationalist and Catholic town formed somewhat of a base for the family during an otherwise peripatetic childhood.
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