Flann the man

Damian McCarney

Whether known by his pen names Flann O’Brien or Myles na Gopaleen, or his real name, Brian O’Nolan - the unique writing can only belong to one person - Ireland’s finest satirist.
Actor Val O’Donnell will bring his acclaimed tribute ‘Flann’s Yer Only Man’ to the Ramor Theatre stage this Saturday night. As well as charting key aspects of the Strabane native’s life, Val will perform extracts from many of Flann’s best-loved writings, such as his novels At-Swim Two Birds, The Third Policeman or Myles na Gopaleen’s celebrated Irish Times column ‘Cruiskeen Lawn’.
“This is a particularly interesting year for him, because it was the fiftieth anniversary of his death last Friday (April 1),” says Val, who conveys both the encyclopaedic knowledge of a true Flann devotee.

Val helps to organise Myles Day, an annual day-long celebration of the great writer in the Palace Bar, where he was a regular, and met other literary giants such as his friend and playwright Brendan Behan, and poet Patrick Kavanagh. 

Strange upbringing

Sadly O’Nolan became a heavy drinker towards the end, and Val notes that many attribute his alcoholism in part at least to his “very unusual upbringing”.
Their father’s insistance that they learn through Irish resulted in the children being home-schooled; O’Nolan only began national school aged 12.
“The whole upbringing was very very strange and it didn’t help them as children to adapt socially. I think that created immense shyness in him and some of his siblings as well, and that accounted for a lot of the difficulty in coping with people. And people would say the drink was a refuge from that extreme shyness.”
The Celt asks if that strange upbringing also helped to create his unique genius?
“Yes,” Val says hesitantly, “probably. He immersed himself in a whole library at home, so he was way ahead of other children in his education in many areas, like science and developed an interest in a whole range of topics children usually wouldn’t have. That developed a very unusual learning that he would bring into a lot of the columns - an interest in steam engines, engineering ideas and philosophy.”
Val’s initiation into the crazy O’Nolan world through teachers recommending At Swim-Two-Birds.
“It’s not an easy book to read very early on, and it gets a darker tone towards the end, but it’s anarchic.”
Val recalls Graham Greene’s description of At Sea-Two-Birds, when he compared its comic charge to “the kind of glee one experiences when people smash china on the stage”.
Val concludes of its attraction: “It’s someone breaking up established order and the way of doing things, I think that appeals to younger people.”
Greene wasn’t the only notable At Sea fan; Dylan Thomas, Jorge Luis Borges, and James Joyce also relished it.

Favourite
Val’s favourite O’Nolan’s writings are the “madcap inventions” of the Myles na Gopaleen Research Bureau
“He had patent Emergency (WWII) trousers - these were trousers which were fitted with very long, narrow, eel-like pockets capable of transporting four bottles of stout in each leg, and saving on very scarce brown paper. Intoxicating icecream was another one, and he had special patent leather ballet boots for over weight ballerinas.”
Val hopes the Virginia audience enjoy the show just as much as the many audiences who have enjoyed it nationwide.
“There’s a lot of laughs in it, because he was a humourist really,” says Val. “People are really pleased to know some key information about this guy as well as being entertained by some of the best satire since Jonathan Swift.”
Val O’Donnell’s hilarious Flann’s Yer Only Man plays the Ramor Theatre, Virginia on Saturday, April 16 at 8.30pm.