Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies

‘The Handiwork of Wisdom’: ‘Re-Homing’ Brian O’Nolan at the 8th International Flann O’Brien Conference in Strabane Dominic Harkin reports on the 8th International Flann O'Brien Conference – An Fód Dúchais: Home Heritage and Origins, The Alley Theatre, Stabane, 25‒27 June 2025.

Latest from The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies / @theparishreview.bsky.social > “‘The Handiwork of Wisdom’: ‘Re‑Homing’ Brian O’Nolan at the 8th International Flann O’Brien Conference in Strabane” by Dominic Harkin: doi.org/10.16995/pr....

Screenshot with list of published articles at the Parish Review

The first three publications of Volume 9, Issue 2 (2025) of The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies / @theparishreview.bsky.social have been published. Read them here: parishreview.openlibhums.org/issue/1743/i...

To mark the centenary of Ireland's 1st public radio transmission, treat yourself to "Flann O'Brien & the Radio" in the new Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies

Filled with new insights on O'Brien's relationship to the history & development of Irish radio!
🔗👉 parishreview.openlibhums.org/issue/1700/i...

H. L. Morrow and Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann This article spotlights H. L. Morrow as a significant adaptor of Brian O’Nolan’s writing for radio. As well as adapting Thirst as the half-hour television broadcast ‘After Hours’ for the BBC, Morrow a...

Out now: "H. L. Morrow and Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann" by @pauleamonnfagan.bsky.social, published in the The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies' Special Issue "Flann O'Brien and the Radio: doi.org/10.16995/pr.... / @theparishreview.bsky.social

H. L. Morrow and Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann This article spotlights H. L. Morrow as a significant adaptor of Brian O’Nolan’s writing for radio. As well as adapting Thirst as the half-hour television broadcast ‘After Hours’ for the BBC, Morrow a...

Article 4
"H.L. Morrow & Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann"
by Paul Fagan (@pauleamonnfagan.bsky.social)

Explores the archival traces of Morrow's 3 Radio Éireann adaptations of O’Nolan’s work: Thirst (1958), Something in the Air (1959), Faustus Kelly (1960)
parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

Playing the Game: Brian O’Nolan’s Broadcast Media Positions This essay seeks to enrich and complicate the evermore detailed picture which we have of O'Nolan as a cross-media writer. In particular, this essay attends to the conversation between O’Nolan’s effort...

Article 3
"Playing the Game: Brian O’Nolan’s Broadcast Media Positions"
by Elliott Mills

Explores the tension between O’Nolan’s efforts to secure work on Irish radio and his use of his Myles persona to air grievances about that same broadcast media world
parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

Sonic Materiality in Brian O’Nolan’s Fiction This article argues that Brian O’Nolan’s fiction consistently stages sound as a material force, one that becomes most tangible at the moment of its mediation. Drawing on theories of sonic materiality ...

Article 2
"Sonic Materiality in Brian O’Nolan’s Fiction"
by Zan Cammack (@zancammack.bsky.social)

Shows how O’Nolan’s fiction represents sound as a material force that is most tangible at the moment of its mediation through gramophones, records & radios

parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976 Radio broadcasting has major significance for O’Nolan’s career. This article reads O’Nolan’s work within the context of contemporary theories of radio, arguing that radio transmission was a live event...

Article 1
"Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976"
by Tobias W. Harris and Joseph LaBine

Explores how O’Nolan’s early radio exposure, and contemporary radio theories & practices, inform the role of communications technology in his writing.
🔗 parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

Ring in 2026 with "Flann O'Brien and the Radio", a special issue of the Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies, guest edited by Tobias W. Harris & Joseph LaBine and published open-access by @openlibhums.org!

See the full issue👉 parishreview.openlibhums.org/issue/1700/i...

Details of individual articles👇

Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976 Radio broadcasting has major significance for O’Nolan’s career. This article reads O’Nolan’s work within the context of contemporary theories of radio, arguing that radio transmission was a live event...

I'm very pleased to publish an essay by myself and Joseph LaBine about the contexts for Flann O'Brien and the radio. We cover material, cultural and the Adornian theoretical surroundings for Irish radio that shaped writing in Ireland at this time: parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976 Radio broadcasting has major significance for O’Nolan’s career. This article reads O’Nolan’s work within the context of contemporary theories of radio, arguing that radio transmission was a live event up to the 1930s and is critical to the oeuvre. It aims to understand broadcast radio in the context of its modernist, popular and avant-garde resonances by claiming that texts written for unrecorded, live radio production rely on a broadcasting frame that is socially and politically constructed. The referent is not the radio-text per se, but the context of live radio broadcasting. The central role of communications technology in O’Nolan’s life and work revolves around his early radio exposure and experience. Critical methodologies that aim to examine an autonomous body of work for radio by a single author disregard the aesthetics of collaboration, in-between-ness, and technological constraints inherent in radio production during this period. Engaging this context, this article begins with the global development of radio in the 1920s and 30s, before moving onto Irish radio, and then considers theories of radio and sound that were emerging at the time O’Nolan began publishing his early work, which in turn demonstrates the centrality of the wireless as a technological context for Flann O’Brien studies, for late-modernism, and for the popular imagination in twentieth-century Ireland.    

Latest from The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies: “Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976” by Tobias W Harris and Joseph LaBine:

The piece explores the archival materials of 3 Radio Éireann broadcasts Morrow adapted from O'Nolan's writing: Thirst (1958), Something in the Air (1959) & Faustus Kelly (1960). It also casts light on Morrow as a critically neglected but key figure in 20th Century Irish radio. I hope you enjoy it!

H. L. Morrow and Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann This article spotlights H. L. Morrow as a significant adaptor of Brian O’Nolan’s writing for radio. As well as adapting Thirst as the half-hour television broadcast ‘After Hours’ for the BBC, Morrow a...

Out now: my new article "H. L. Morrow and Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann", published in the Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies' special issue "Flann O'Brien and the Radio"

Available to read, free and open-access from @openlibhums.org here:
parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

H. L. Morrow and Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann This article spotlights H. L. Morrow as a significant adaptor of Brian O’Nolan’s writing for radio. As well as adapting Thirst as the half-hour television broadcast ‘After Hours’ for the BBC, Morrow a...

See the old year out in style with the final article in the @theparishreview.bsky.social special issue "Flann O'Brien & the Radio"

"H.L. Morrow & Brian O’Nolan on Radio Éireann" by Paul Fagan dips into the archive to uncover O'Nolan's first major adaptor
parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976 Radio broadcasting has major significance for O’Nolan’s career. This article reads O’Nolan’s work within the context of contemporary theories of radio, arguing that radio transmission was a live event...

Read "Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976", Toby Harris and Joe LaBine's contribution to their excellent special issue of the Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies on "Flann O'Brien and the Radio"!
Free & open-access from @openlibhums.org here:
parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

Flann O’Brien and the Irish ‘Radio-Mind,’ 1926-1976 Radio broadcasting has major significance for O’Nolan’s career. This article reads O’Nolan’s work within the context of contemporary theories of radio, arguing that radio transmission was a live event...

The latest article in the Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies is 'Flann O’Brien and the Irish "Radio-Mind," 1926-1976' by Tobias W. Harris and Joesph LaBine. This article reads O’Nolan’s work within the context of contemporary theories of radio, tuning in to the crackle and static of the wireless.

An Béal Bocht - View media Over 128 years of moving images from Northern Ireland, featuring amateur and professional films from 1897 to 2025, brought to you by Northern Ireland Screen.

Our final staff pick of the year is this beautiful adaptation of Myles na gCopaleen's An Beál Bocht.

#Speirgorm

To mark the opening of the 8th @flannobriensoc.bsky.social conference, here's the prog for the 1st ever Flann O'Brien symposium, in Dublin 1986. With remarks from Evelyn O'Nolan, Hugh Kenner, John Ryan, Anthony Cronin, John Wyse Jackson & readings from Paul Muldoon, Cyril Cusack, Michael Longley etc

Winners of 2025 Flann O'Brien Awards Announced! Winners Announced! Every two years, to coincide with the International Flann O’Brien Society conference, the Society awards official prizes to the best article/book chapter and best single author or e...

Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Flann O'Brien Society Awards:
Best Book: Brian Ó Conchubhair, 'Myles na gCopaleen agus Flann O’Brien: An Saol Bocht'
Best Article: Joseph LaBine, ‘“Information, Please”: Brian O’Nolan and the Radio’
parishreview.openlibhums.org/news/840/

It was wonderful working with @jessiepb.bsky.social and Marie on Montgomery's drafts of Cruiskeen Lawn articles. We learned so much about the co-authorship of many of the Myles na gCopaleen pieces and about O'Nolan as an editor.

The Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies is sad to learn of the death of Breandán Ó Conaire, author of the pioneering 1986 study "Myles na Gaeilge".
Read Breandán's 2018 TPR article on O’Nolan’s Irish language background for free via @openlibhums.bsky.social: parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/3...

Playing the Game: Brian O’Nolan’s Broadcast Media Positions This essay seeks to enrich and complicate the evermore detailed picture which we have of O'Nolan as a cross-media writer. In particular, this essay attends to the conversation between O’Nolan’s effort...

Elliott Mill's just-published article presents the complex experience of being a writer in the changing landscape of mass communication and entertainment in postwar Dublin. Check out his open-access work on O'Brien's multiple, contrasting perspectives on the radio here!

11. Katherine Ebury: Flann O’Brien, death and the law Katherine and Toby dissect death in 'Two in One' before exploring Irish executions, reading Achille Mbembe's necropolitics and turning to Flann, the energy humanities, and the geological turn.

I really enjoyed the latest episode of "Radio Myles: The Flann O'Brien Podcast" in which Katherine Ebury (one of my favourite O'Brien scholars) discusses law, the death penalty and necropolitics in "Two in One" (one of my favourite O'Brien texts)! Listen here👇
radiomyles.substack.com/p/11-katheri...

10. The Society in Strabane Podcast Episode · Radio Myles: the Flann O'Brien Podcast · 15/10/2025 · 38m

Very cool audio conference report by @maebhm.bsky.social from this summer's International Flann O'Brien Society conference in Strabane - both helping and exacerbating my FOMO for having missed it.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/1...

Review of Sam Dolbear and Esther Leslie, <em>Dissonant Waves: Ernst Schoen and Experimental Sound in the Twentieth Century</em> (Goldsmiths Press, 2023) Dissonant Waves tells the life story of Ernst Schoen, a pioneer of early radio and the Leader of the Programming Department at Südwestdeutsche Rundfunkdienst AG (SWZ), the Frankfurt regional radio station. It also tells the story of his social milieu – musicians, artists, philosophers and writers which included Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and other well-known figures. The writers follow in the spirit of Ernst Schoen’s experimental aesthetics, innovating the biographical genre by presenting a fragmented, non-linear narrative, especially in the first part of the book. For Flann O’Brien scholars and enthusiasts, the volume offers an insight into the avant-garde possibilities of mass communications media and radio in particular. Both Flann and Schoen challenged the distinction between high art and popular culture in their own ways and engaged in a search for new means of expression. 

New in The Parish Review / @theparishreview.bsky.social > Einat Adar reviews "Dissonant Waves: Ernst Schoen and Experimental Sound in the Twentieth Century" by Sam Dolbear & Esther Leslie:

I'm so pleased to see the Einat Adar's review of my book, 'Breaking the Limits: Flann O’Brien’s Avant-garde Aesthetics', appear in the esteemed Litteraria Pragensia!

The journal is publicly available and you can read the review here: litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/u...

A quick reminder that The Parish Review is open to all, saor in aisce.

Sonic Materiality in Brian O’Nolan’s Fiction This article argues that Brian O’Nolan’s fiction consistently stages sound as a material force, one that becomes most tangible at the moment of its mediation. Drawing on theories of sonic materiality ...

New in @theparishreview.bsky.social > “Sonic Materiality in Brian O’Nolan’s Fiction" by Zan Cammack: doi.org/10.16995/pr....

The Cover for 9.1 Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies features a cartoon by Micheal O Nuallain. It shows a man under a tree about to smash a radio with an axe.

The first article in the Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 9.1 is out! Zan Cammack’s work is great start to the issue on Flann and the Radio, which features a truly excellent cover. A+ work guest editors @tobias-w-harris.bsky.social and Joseph LaBine!

parishreview.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...

It's very exciting to see our special issue of the Parish Review dedicated to Flann O'Brien and RADIO appear with its first article, broadcast by Zan Cammack!