CFP for Transformations: Irish Literature and Social Change Call for Proposals for a new edited collection on Transformations: Irish Literature and Social Change The early decades of Irish independence are now remembered as a time of repression and socioeconom...

Call for Proposals for a new edited collection on 'Transformations: Irish Literature and Social Change’: the artistic works which have reflected and even helped to activate what could be described as a revolution in the Irish experience of class, disability, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.

Inflated Egos and Tyrannical Windbags: R.M. Smyllie, Erwin Schroedinger, and the Sin of Pride in <em>The Third Policeman</em> The nameless narrator of The Third Policeman is in hell not only for the sin of murder but also for the sin of pride that led to it. Pride is defined in the Catholic Catechism as undue self-esteem that seeks attention and honour and sets a person in competition with God. Tempted by Divney (an fear dubh, Irish for the devil), the narrator kills Phillip Mathers for his money, to finance the publication of his edition of all known commentaries on the outlandish theories of the scientist-philosopher de Selby, the idol with whom he is obsessed. The book is intended to gain fame and fortune for himself and immortality for the savant. When the unrepentant murderer is blown up by a bomb planted by Divney which he believes to be Mathers’s cashbox, he immediately finds himself condemned to a hell of his own making. Mirroring the fact that what landed the narrator there was his obsession with editing a book about a deluded scientist, O’Brien turns the instruments of his punishment, Sergeant Pluck and Policeman MacCruiskeen, into elaborate caricatures of, respectively, a well-known editor (R.M. Smyllie of the Irish Times) and a famous scientist (Erwin Schrödinger, professor of theoretical physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies). O’Brien knew both men socially, but he did not hide the fact that he saw Smyllie as a pompous windbag, and Schrödinger – from his own perspective as a life-long Catholic who believed in salvation and damnation – as a Godless, potentially sinful speculative thinker. Both men were avid cyclists. In The Third Policeman, the bloated policemen’s obsession with bicycles and bicycle pumps reflects both the inflated nature of their personalities, which mirror the inflated ego of the narrator himself, and the cyclical, closed nature of the hell (which ‘goes round and round’) to which the latter has been condemned.

New in the Parish Review: Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies > “Inflated Egos and Tyrannical Windbags: R.M. Smyllie, Erwin Schroedinger, and the Sin of Pride in The Third Policeman” by José Lanters:

13. Joseph LaBine: Flann O'Brien and Radio A special edition of the Radio Myles podcast dedicated to Joe and Toby's special edition of the Parish Review about Flann O'Brien and the radio.

Now, for your listening pleasure, the latest instalment of the podcast Radio Myles. Toby Harris and Joseph LaBine provide fascinating context to mid-century Irish radio and their excellent special issue of the Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies on O’Brien and the Radio. Get your headphones ready!

“What goes on on the shrapnel-pocked crust of H.M. Mother Earth”: Brian O’ Nolan and the Second World War This article examines the significance of the Second World War to the writings of Brian O’Nolan via the multidisciplinary and multilingual research of the entire corpus of O'Nolan's Cruiskeen Lawn art...

Hot off the press at the Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies is Aoibh Crimmins' article, '"What goes on on the shrapnel-pocked crust of H.M. Mother Earth": Brian O’Nolan and the Second World War'. Crimmins investigates the thorny issue of engagements with fascism in the Cruiskeen Lawn. Read it here!👇

Flann O'Brien and Social Media Rosemary Jenkinson analyses how a contemporary Flann O'Brien would fare in the toxic, combative era of social media, with reference to the Flamingo edition of The Best of Myles.

Have you long been aching to know how Flann O’Brien would have fared on Twitter? Or here on Bluesky? In the latest publication in the Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies, Rosemary Jenkinson reveals all!

#speirgorm

Cross-Genre Reflections in Paul Muldoon’s ‘Le Flanneur’ I read Paul Muldoon's dense, complex, shifting sonnet, ‘Le Flanneur’ (2011), to explore Muldoon’s reflections on and affinities with Brian O'Nolan. 'Le Flanneur' delicately considers O'Nolan's life, c...

Next up in the Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies, Calista McRae reads Paul Muldoon's sonnet, ‘Le Flanneur’ (2011), against his reflections on and affinities with Brian O'Nolan.

McRae traces both writers’ interest in cliches, terrible puns, and language that is funny, tricky and very readable.

👉🏻 Songs to the Siren, a new exhibition opening 24 January at The Model in Sligo, reflects on the pseudonyms and hidden identities of Flann O’Brien / Brian O’Nolan.

Curated by artists Paul Hallahan and Lee Welch, this is a must-see for fans of O’Brien (and of Tim Buckley, who inspired the title!)

A Conversation with Nicole Flattery - CISS Irish Writing Fellow 2025 Earlier this year, Dunedin Public Libraries and Ōtepoti UNESCO City of Literature had the joy of hosting young Irish author Nicole Flattery, in conversation with Professor Maebh Long, the Eamon Cleary...

A lovely write up of the conversation the great Nicole Flattery and I had when she was the 2025 Writing Fellow at the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, Univerisity of Otago:

CHASE placement opportunity at the Open Library of Humanities The Open Library of Humanities is seeking a PhD student to assist with editorial, marketing and technical duties as part of our small, hardworking team. The placement is only available …

We are HIRING! The Open Library of Humanities is seeking a PhD student to assist with editorial, marketing and technical duties. The position is fully funded and open to funded PhD students at CHASE institutions. 📅 31/03: www.openlibhums.org/news/883/ Please RT!

In Memoriam: BREANDÁN Ó CONAIRE, comhghleacaí agus scoláire In memory of BREANDÁN Ó CONAIRE

Alan Titley’s moving homage to Breandán Ó Conaire is now published, fully open access, in the Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies. The tribute is published in both Irish and English.

Elliott Mills’s great commentary on Flann O’Brien and the Irish Civil Service in the new episode of Radio Myles makes a perfect companion piece to Katherine Ebury’s episode on O’Brien and the death penalty.

Check out the Radio Myles podcast, expertly hosted by Tobias W. Harris, to hear more!

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.

Such a pleasure to have @pauleamonnfagan.bsky.social at Otago, and what a brilliant opening keynote he gave!

Donegal to Dakar: the Irish play about British rule hitting home in post-colonial Senegal An African staging of Brian Friel’s Translations resonates deeply as the country distances itself from France

Donegal to Dakar: the Irish play about British rule hitting home in post-colonial Senegal

The Irish Academy of Fine Arts, at the GPO Why the GPO? &nbsp;The GPO offers a rare and remarkable opportunity. Many of the great academies of Europe, such as the Royal Academy in London, the Repin Academy in St. Petersburg, the Ecole de beaux...

This is a brilliant idea 💡

Let's not make one of the most historical buildings in Dublin a fecking mall!

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: my.uplift.ie/petitions/th... @uplift.ie

It’s great, isn’t it!

Lynley Edmeades’ ‘Hiding Places‘ is bloody amazing. I don’t want to tell you what to do, but you should go buy a copy immediately.

10. The Society in Strabane In this guest edition of Radio Myles, Maebh Murphy presents a compilation of voices and atmospheres, scholarly ideas and craic agus ceol from the 8th International Flann O'Brien conference in Strabane...

In the next episode of everyone’s favourite podcast, Radio Myles, Maebh Murphy presents a compilation of voices and atmospheres, scholarly ideas and craic agus ceol from the 8th International Flann O'Brien conference in Strabane. It’s a knockout episode so get those headphones on agus éisigí anseo!

Screenshot of journal article. Title: “Immune from a Thousand Ailments”: Advertising Immunity in Australia, 1890–1945. Authors: Maebh Long (Otago), Jessie Burnette (Waikato), Pascale Grard (Waikato), and Marie Theunisz (Waikato). Abstract: In the late 19th century, as the Australian public was adjusting to germ theory, a narrative of immunity provided new ways to understand resistance to disease. Advertising, particularly for patent medicines, frequently adopted a hyperbolic rhetoric of immunity to sell products. In this article, we use the Trove database to present the ways immunity was presented to the public in newspaper advertising between 1890 and 1945. Our article combines a broad overview of portrayals of immunity with three focused analyses that demonstrate immunity’s discursive range, its decoupling from immunological understandings and its insertion into capitalism. First, we show how clothing brands framed their products as modes of enhanced boundary protection superior to patent medicines. Second, we look to the connections between immunity and racial identity, revealing how advertisements followed an immunological logic: White Australians, advertisements implied, could immunise themselves against the unfamiliar by incorporating small elements of difference into their diet and health regimes. Finally, we unpack the advertisements’ oscillation between immunity as an enhancement to the body and as a remedy for an inherent bodily weakness. This movement, illuminated through Jacques Derrida’s logic of the supplement, reinforced the alignment of immunity with products and brands rather than immunological functions.

Our final article for 49.1 - Long, Burnette, Grard & Theunisz explore how a narrative of immunity was used to sell various products in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

#OzStudies #Advertising #immunity #MedicalHistory

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Graphic announcing that Maebh Long and Matthew Hayward's THE RISE OF PACIFIC LITERATURE is the Winner of the 2025 Modernist Studies Association Book Prize. It includes the book's cover and a 20% discount code with CUP20SM at cup.columbia.edu

We are pleased to announce that Maebh Long and Matthew Hayward's THE RISE OF PACIFIC LITERATURE is the Winner of the 2025 Modernist Studies Association Book Prize. buff.ly/THSpdk5 @moderniststudies.bsky.social

I’m looking forward to reading your book! It looks wonderful.

Save 20% on new and forthcoming books in Modernist Studies with code CUP20SM at cup.columbia.edu. It features an array of book covers.

Announcing our new and forthcoming books in Modernist Studies! buff.ly/HCJbjw9 @xenoglossic.bsky.social @kristingrogan.bsky.social @fuscowrites.bsky.social @maebhlong.bsky.social @matfournier.bsky.social @adam-mckible.bsky.social @skkeller.bsky.social @notquitehydepark.bsky.socia

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!

Lecturer - English Company Description: Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of AucklandThe University of Auckland is New Zealand’s pre-eminent University, with a turnover of $1.1bn, including research revenue of over $...

Auckland university is hiring a Lecturer (that’s Assistant Prof for all you Americans) in English, specialising in the long nineteenth century, to a permanent position commencing before Semester 1, 2026 (or by negotiation). Focus is nineteenth century fiction - details below!

Thanks Sean!

Thanks Paul! We’re really looking forward to hanging out in November!

Thank you Susan!

Thank you!

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 sta...

Einat Adar reviews 'Dissonant Waves', Sam Dolbear and Esther Leslie’s monograph on Ernst Schoen, pioneer of early radio. Available open access now in the Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 9.1!

We are hugely honoured to have won the 2025 MSA Book Prize for The Rise of Pacific Literature: Decolonization, Radical Campuses and Modernism. Thank you to everyone involved. It was a huge joy to work on such a wonderful period in Pacific writing.