Flann O’Brien

Happy Birthday Flann O’Brien…

| Readers 1435

Had he survived, Strabanes own Brian O’Nolan would have been 110 today. Unfortunately, alcohol meant he barely made it to half that age, dying at 54. A surreal comic genius, his books are still popular today – most notably The Third Policeman. The Third Policeman was written between 1939 and 1940, but after it initially failed to find a publisher, the author withdrew the manuscript from circulation and claimed he had lost it. The book remained unpublished at the time …

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#GiantsCauseway: Fenians lose out to Bible.

| Readers 67

*sigh* According to UTV, the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre now includes exhibits that acknowlegde the young-earth Creationist view of how the world-famous stones are formed. Pete has detailed the backstory to this before and others have picked up the creationist lobbying trail around the Ulster Museum. UTV report that The National Trust said it wanted to “reflect and respect” the fact that some people contest the views of mainstream science. With that, the National Trust have now neatly denigrated and rejected centuries …

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…if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation

| Readers 131

The words of Brian O’Nolan, variously Brian Ó Nualláin, Myles na gCopaleen, Myles na Gopaleen and, of course, Flann O’Brien. That O’Nolan was referencing his own dissolute student days at UCD only mildly distracts from the prophetic undertone of his words: I paid no attention whatsoever to books or study and regarded lectures as a joke which, in fact, they were if you discern anything funny in mawkish, obtuse mumblings on subjects any intelligent person could master single-handed in a …

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