Flann O’Brien was born Brian O’Nolan in County Tyrone, on 5 October 1911, and grew up in Dublin.
He was a civil servant for eighteen years, but in the 1930s began writing a bi-lingual column for The Irish Times under the pseudonym Myles na Gopaleen (Myles of the Small Horses). He also wrote a column for The Nationalist and Leinster Times under the pseudonym George Knowall.
His fiction includes At Swim-Two-Birds (London, Longman-Green, 1939/republished, London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1960); An Béal Bocht, Dublin, The Dolmen Press, 1941); The Dalkey Archive (MacGibbon & Kee, 1964); The Third Policeman (MacGibbon & Kee, 1967); The Hard Life (a translation of An Béal Bocht by Patrick C.Power, London, Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1973).
In addition many of his satirical and surrealist non-fiction columnns for The Irish Times have been published as The Best of Myles Under the name Myles-na-Gopaleen, his only staged play is Faustus Kelly (Dublin, The Abbey Theatre, 1945).
Works on his life and work include Anthony Cronin’s No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O’Brien (London, Grafton, 1990).
He died in Dublin on April 1, 1966.
Flann O’Brien The Brian O’Nolan Estate
The Flann O’Brien Page at Dalkey Archive Press
Flann O’Brien at The National Library of Ireland
Flann O’Brien Author Page at Amazon.co.uk
Flann O’Brien Author Page at Amazon.com
