The quotable Flann O’Brien

It’s hard to stop quoting Flann O’Brien, once you start. The Irish man of letters was born a hundred years ago and to celebrate the centenary there are at least three conferences in his honour, the latest of which takes place this weekend at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, with another in the Irish club in Birmingham. For those of us who are obsessed by Flann O’Brien — otherwise known as Myles na Gcopaleen, or by his own name of Brian O’Nolan or assorted other pseudonyms — this is not an entirely welcome phenomenon.

You know what happens when the lit-crit community get hold of an author, don’t you? He’s discussed in terms that render him inaccessible to the reading public; he’s turned into the subject matter of PhDs and he becomes appropriated by the English departments of overseas universities. Even worse, his works can be turned into examination texts (George Bernard Shaw cursed anyone who made his works part of a syllabus; didn’t work).