Flann O'Brien Biography

Flann O'Brien was born Brian O'Nolan in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 5 October 1911, and was raised in Dublin. He was a civil servant for eighteen years, and 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 works include "At Swim-Two-Birds" "An Béal Bocht" (Translated into "The Hard Life" by Patrick C.Power), "The Dalkey Archive" , "The Third Policeman" , In addition many of his satirical and surrealist non-fiction columnns for The Irish Times have been published as "The Best of Myles" He also wrote a play, "Faustus Kelly". He died in Dublin on April 1, 1966.

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'Now take a sheep', the Sergeant said.
'What is a sheep [but] millions of little bits of sheepness whirling around and doing intricate convolutions inside the sheep? What else is it but that?'

- from The Third Policeman.

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