8th International Flann O'Brien Conference

An Fód Duchais: Hime, Heritage and Origins

The 8^thInternational Flann O’Brien Conference

25^th– 27^thJune 2025

Keynote Speakers:

• Dr. Tobias W. Harris (Birkbeck, University of London)

• Dr. Michael Pierse (Queen’s University Belfast)

• Dr. Emily Ridge (University of Galway)

The 8th International Flann O’Brien ConferenceAfter successful gatherings in Cluj (2023), Boston (2022), Dublin (2019), Salzburg (2017), Prague (2015), Rome (2013), and Vienna (2011), the International Flann O’Brien Conference returns in 2025—this time to Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

Jointly hosted by the International Flann O’Brien Society, the Strabane Historical Society, and the University of Notre Dame, the conference will bring together scholars, artists, and the public to explore new directions in Flann O’Brien studies and to celebrate the enduring legacy of one of Ireland’s greatest 20th-century writers.

Why Strabane?Set on the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Strabane lies at a confluence of rivers—the Mourne and the Finn—forming the River Foyle. Known in Irish asAn Srath Bán(“the white river-holm”), Strabane evokes themes of fluidity, hybridity, liminality, and contested spaces—concepts central to the life and work of Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan) and his brother Ciarán Ó Nualláin. The town served as a “second home” for the Ó Nualláin family and offers a rich cultural and historical backdrop for this year’s event.

Strabane is also the birthplace of notable figures such as hymn writer Cecil Frances Alexander (All Things Bright and Beautiful) and John Dunlap, printer of the American Declaration of Independence.

8th International Flann O'Brien Conference 

25-27 June 2025 

All events at Alley Theatre unless otherwise stated

Itinerary of Events 

Tuesday 24 June

11am “Flann O’Brien” Theatrical performance by Justin Logue  
8.00pm Informal pre-conference gathering at Farmer’s Home, 19 Railway St.

Wednesday 25 June 

9.00-11.00am Conference Registration 

9.30am Walking Tour of Flann O’Brien’s Strabane led by Michael Kennedy. (Meet at Alley Theatre 9.20am) 

11.00-12.00 Lunch and Official Welcome 

12.00-1.30pm 

Panel I: Old and New Chair: Harun Šiljak1. Eoin McGloin: ‘neither work nor monotony’- Lethargy as Transcendence in Myles na gCopaleen’s An Béal Bocht
2. Dominic Harkin: ‘We plan the world of the future’: Autodidacticism and the Science of Self-help in O’Brien’s late novels3. Joseph LaBine: European Modernism or “the Celtic Way”: Revisiting Niall Montgomery and Brian O’Nolan’s Stances on Poetry 

1.30-2.00pm Tea/Coffee 

2.00-3.30pm 

Panel II: Science and Health Chair: Alana Gillespie1. José Lanters: R.M. Smyllie, Erwin Schroedinger, and the Sin of Pride in The Third Policeman
2. Maebh Long: ‘a waif and sick children’: Illness and Editing in Cruiskeen Lawn3. Joe Brooker: Home and Flann O’Brien 

3.30-4.00pm Tea/Coffee 

4.00-5.30pm 

Panel III: Technology and Media Chair: Ian Ó Caoimh1. Maebh Murphy: Writing the Gramophone as a Tool of Extraction in An Béal Bocht
2. Harun Šiljak: The Third Policeman in the 41st Precinct: Flann O’Brien and Disco Elysium3. Catherine Flynn: His Master’s Voice: Authority and Broadcasting

5.30-6.00pm Break

6.00pm Keynote address: Emily Ridge. Dul Siar, Dul Siar: The Ever-Receding West in An Béal Bocht Chair: Maebh Long 

7.30pm Official Opening Civic Reception and Strabane Brass Band

Thursday 26 June 

9.00-10.30am 

Panel IV: Huxley Chair: Brian Ó Conhcubhair1. Joseph LaBine: Newspaperist Novelists: Aldous Huxley and Brian O’Nolan
2. Bryan Counter: Untaming the World: Dialogue and the Work of Art in Point Counter Point3. Harun Šiljak: Not so strange new worlds: difference and repetition in Huxley and O’Nolan 

10.30-11.00am Tea/Coffee 

11.00-12.00 Keynote Address: Tobias Harris. Ag Fuineadh Ama: Opening Closed Ground in the Works of Brian Ó Nualláin Chair: Ruben Borg 

12.00-1.00pm Lunch 

12.30pm 

Film Screening Chair: Marianne O'Kane Boal David O'Kane “Babble,” (2008), a filmed performance combining the work of O'Nolan, Kafka and Borges, running time 30 mins. Eamon O'Kane “Re-enactment,” (2009), film of King James II visit to Cavanacor at the time of the Siege of Derry in 1689, running time 15 mins, also inspired by Brian O'Nolan short story from 1942 'Footnote to the Battle of the Boyne' 

1.00-2.30pm 

Panel V: Strabane & Donegal Chair: José Lanters1. Marianne O’Kane Boal: Ag Tabhairt Aghaidh ar an Macasamhail (Confronting the Double) - Creative interpretations of Brian O’Nolan’s Strabane and its Surroundings
2. Séamas Mac Annaidh: “Barney Maglone” as a precursor of “Myles na Gopaleen”3. Brian Ó Conchubhair: Coming Home: Strabane, Melius and Indiu. 

2.30-3.00pm Tea/Coffee 

3.00-4.30 

Panel VI: At Swim (in Transit) Chair: Ruben Borg1. James Bacon: Flann, on the Tram: At Swim-Two-Birds and Dublin’s Lost Tramways
2. Chih-hsien Hsieh: What Was Sweeny Doing on the Tree?—On the Simplified Chinese Translation of At Swim-Two-Birds3. Jeaic Mag Fhinn: At Swim-Two-Birds as Gaeilge 

4.30-4.45 Break 

4.45-6.15pm 

Panel VII: Social Contexts & Formative Communities Chair: Brian Ó Conchubhair1. Robin Hull: The Life and Intellectual Development of Mr. Huxley
2. Myles Schaller: Trolling Academia3. Ellen Ferguson: Flann and Existence as Perception

7.00.pm Book launch: Flann O’Brien and the European Avant-Garde, 1934–45 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) and Launch of Micheál Ó Nualláin Art Exhibit by Anna Uí Nualláin

Friday 27 June 

9.00-10.30am 

Panel VII: Remapping Estranged Spaces Chair: Emily Ridge 1. Liam Campbell & Paddy Fitzgerald: Exploring the Migrant in Flann O’Brien
2. Mikelyn Rochford: Spatialization and Disorientation in the Afterlives of Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman and Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s Graveyard Clay3. Alana Gillespie: The “fresh forgetting of the unremembered”: Haunting, the Uncanny and the Malleable Past in Cruiskeen Lawn and The Third Policeman 

10.30-11.00am Tea/Coffee 

11.00-12.30pm 

Panel IX: Sources and Forebears Chair: Marianne O'Kane Boal1. Brian Lambkin: Flann O’Brien and the “Culdees”
2. Pádraig Ó Méalóid: What’s in a name? Trellis? Tressell?3. Ian Ó Caoimh: Two Patricks and one Brian: Unacknowledged Forebears? 

12.30-1.30pm Lunch 

1.00pm Film Screening Chair: Marianne O'Kane Boal David O'Kane “Babble” (2008) a filmed performance combining the work of O'Nolan, Kafka and Borges, running time 30 mins. Eamon O'Kane “Re-enactment” (2009), film of King James II visit to Cavanacor at the time of the Siege of Derry in 1689, running time 15 mins, also inspired by Brian O'Nolan short story from 1942 “Footnote to the Battle of the Boyne” 

1.30-2.30pm Keynote Address Michael Pierse, False Alternatives and Grim Absurdities: Flann O'Brien and the satire of Independent Ireland in At Swim-Two-Birds and An Béal Bocht 

2.30-3.00 Tea/Coffee 

3.00-5.00pm 

Panel X: Individual Stories Chair: Harun Šiljak1. Tess Finnegan Burchmore: “Leading a double life”: Namelessness, Madness, and nonplus’s Resident Medical Officer
2. Rosemary Jenkinson: Flann and Social Media3. Elliott Mills: I open up my home to the anonymous other: Accepting and Resisting Textual Hospitality in Brian O’Nolan’s Early Writings 

7.30pm Conference Banquet, Oysters Restaurant, 37 Patrick Street (https://www.oystersrestaurant.co.uk)Presentation of 2025 International Flann O’Brien Society Awards

About the International Flann O’Brien Society

TheInternational Flann O’Brien Society (IFOBS)is dedicated to promoting the study and appreciation of Brian O'Nolan’s life and work—under his many literary guises, including Flann O’Brien, Myles na gCopaleen, and others. The Society organizes international conferences, publishes research, and supports events that explore his lasting influence on literature and culture.

Follow us on Facebook for updates and announcements: Äfacebook.com/FlannOBrienSoc