#37 | At Swim Two Flann-oraks

Host Darach and Motherfoclóir regular Siún share many obsessions, but the one they discuss on today's show is the writer Flann O'Brien… also known as Myles na gCopeleen… also known as Brian O'Nolan. As a displaced Northerner, O'Nolan was an outsider in the Irish language word in the Free State, belonging to neither the official Gaeltachts nor the bourgeois Dublin revivalists. This - as well as the restrictions placed on published writings by civil servants - contributed to a body of writing that is broadly hilarious and subtly subversive, darkly bitter and wildly imaginative. Darach and Siún consider his lasting appeal, how he was the 1930s equivalent of a Twitter superstar and how parts of his journalism predict today's world of social networks. You can check out Siún's fab as Gaeilge podcast Beo Ar Éigean at https://www.rte.ie/gaeilge/beo-ar-eigean/ --- Contact the show at https://twitter.com/motherfocloir or email us at motherfocloir@headstuff.org.

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