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The Mest of Myles
by "Myles na gCopaleen"
This is a bit different. Flann O'Brien is the pen name of Irish Civil Servant, and author, Brian O'Nolan (1911-1966). He wrote several novels in the Modernist manner: At Swim Two-Birds (1939), The Hard Life (1962), The Dalkey Archive (1964), and The Third Policeman (written around 1939-40, published poshumously).
He is best known for his long-running column in the Dublin newspaper The Irish Times called "Criuskeen Lawn", presented as though by an imaginary writer called Myles na gCopaleen (Myles of the Ponies) who, along with Sir Myles (the da) , the Plain Peope of Ireland, 'the brother', and others, form part of the column's characters. It's a freewheeling affair, with Myles at one point referring to his days at Clongowes College in the 1890s, at another point going on about his days as a "steam man" on the Irish railways, playing word games with the reader, telling shaggy dog jokes, giving a breathless sports report on an imaginary sport to a baffled Plain People of Ireland, retailing snatches of dialogue overheard, for instance:
A pretty golden little baggage was talking to her lover.
‘D’you know, Godfrey, only last night I learnt many interesting things about my family. D’you know that my great-grandfather was killed at Waterloo?’
‘Rayully, sweetness, which platform?’
The golden head was tossed in disdain.
‘How ridiculous you are, Godfrey. As if it mattered which platform.’
There were columns entirely in Irish, or in Latin, and sometimes in English, but written using Irish orthography, eg:
Éadhbard Hill fbhait acsplainéisin cean iú gibh for thabhaing des seidisius dochúmaints in iúr poisiéisiun?
(Which I finally realised said: Edward Hill what explanation can you give for having these seditious documents in your possession?)
The column ran ffrom around 1939-40 until the author died in 1966, and some years later The Best of Myles appeared, the first of a series of collections of pieces from the columns.
My copy is a Paladin paperback from 1990, but it has recently (March 2016) become available as an ebook from HarperCollins. It is quite a big book, illustrated with drawings which look like woodcuts, perpetrated by the author, and the mass of material is marshalled into some sort of order, a difficult feat given its intentionally chaotic nature.
Recommended for those who enjoy someone making the English language sit up, jump through hoops, and disappear up its own fundamental orifice.
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