Louis de Paor: "Lethal in Two Languages: Flann O'Brien and Máirtín Ó Cadhain"

Presented by Fall 2016 Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies Louis de Paor. A passing reference to Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman in the television series Lost, and new translations of Ó Cadhain’s Cré na Cille (The Dirty Dust) have generated new interest in the lives and works of two of Ireland’s most accomplished yet neglected writers. Ó Cadhain once boasted that he was lethal in the two official languages of the Irish State, while Flann O’Brien, one of the great comic writers of the 20^th century, insisted that many of those he pilloried found him “far from funny.” This talk will focus on some of the parallels and differences between two of Ireland’s most brilliant writers and contrarians, on the historical context in which they emerged, and their contributions to world literature.

 Reception to follow in the Burns Library Irish Room.