Genius under many guises

‘A satisfactory novel should be a self-evident sham,’ in an opinion Flann O’Brien (1911-1966) shared with one of his fictional characters, ‘to which the reader could regulate the degree of his credulity’. Furthermore, the inhabitants of novels should be allowed ‘a private life, self-determination and a decent standard of living’.

The distinction between reality and fantasy in the author’s life was nebulous. His own identity, by choice, was often unclear. One of 12 children, as an adult he preferred seclusion, hiding behind the interchangeable masks of a multiple persona. Keith Donohue introduces him as a ‘serial pseudonymist’, Brian O’Nolan (his baptismal name), Myles na Gopaleen (the newspaper columnist) and Flann O’Brien (the novelist) , and an uncertain number of others. At University College Dublin, he wrote for the college magazine as Brother Barnabas. Later, when urgently pressed for funds, he contributed to various Irish provincial newspapers as George Knowall. He became most famous as Myles na Gopaleen, for a quarter of a century the writer of a column in the Irish Times called ‘Cruiskeen Lawn’ (The Overflowing Little Jug).