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Reposted by The International Flann O’Brien Society

Oliver Sharpe @sharpe-writing.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

📚 Today's AI Literary Zeitgeist #21 Book: The Third Policeman – Flann O'Brien Today feels like reality has become slightly surreal: the absurd and the serious sitting side by side, while nobody quite agrees on which is which. What’s does it tell us?

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

This book is bonkers but I'm loving it. "Why would anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?" [The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien]

'I came here to inform you officially about the theft of my American gold watch.'
He looked at me through an atmosphere of great surprise and incredulity and raised his eyebrows almost to his hair. "That is an astonishing statement,' he said at last.
'Why?'
'Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?'
Hark to his cold inexorable logic.
'Search me,' I said.
'Who ever heard of a man riding a watch down the road or bringing a sack of turf up to his house on the crossbar of a watch?'
'I did not say the thief wanted my watch to ride it,' I expostulated. 'Very likely he had a bicycle of his own and that is how he got away quietly in the middle of the night."
'Never in my puff did I hear of any man stealing anything but a bicycle when he was in his sane senses,' said the Sergeant,' - except pumps and clips and lamps and the like of that. Surely you are not going to tell me at my time of life that the world is changing?"
'I am only saying that my watch was stolen,' I said crossly. 'Very well,' the Sergeant said with finality, 'we will have
to institute a search.'

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poondonkus @poondonkus.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I read At Swim-Two-Birds, by Flann O'Brien. Lord, but they don't write them like this anymore, they don't. More's the pity, he agreed, no they don't. The sentiment was rejoined with spirit, ratified to the convivial satisfaction of all present, and resolved. Conclusion of the foregoing.

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

My review after reading "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien is: go get the book now and read it. Wonderfully absurd novel, you'll find enormous policemen obsessed with bicycles, learned discussions of the bizarre theories of the fictional scholar De Selby, and much more.

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The International Flann O’Brien Society @flannobriensoc.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Check out Brian Ó Conchubhair's award-winning biography of Flann O'Brien/Brian O'Nolan. In all good bookshops!

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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I've just finished the fantastic "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien (highly recommended) and I'm just starting "The Time of the Angels" by Iris Murdoch.

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The International Flann O’Brien Society @flannobriensoc.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Out now! The Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies is packed with great work on the connections between O'Brien and Huxley, including a valuable introduction by guest editors @tobias-w-harris.bsky.social, Emily Reed and Claudia Olk. Thanks to the @openlibhums.org it is wholly free & open access.

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The International Flann O’Brien Society @flannobriensoc.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

James Bacon, who has done great work on Flann and trains, is giving a talk on the history of the censorship of comics in Ireland at the National Library on 6 August at 6pm. Flann will get a mention! More details via the link below:

nli.ie

Banned Comics at the NLI

A history of censorship of comics in Ireland

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Clare Moriarty @quiteclare.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Though 'The Third Policeman' is my favourite, 'At Swim-Two-Birds' and 'Country Girls' had bigger impacts on my life, I think. Does one even need to read beyond the O'Briens?! 😄

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Mahmud El Sayed @mahmudelsayed.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Lots of Odyssey memes on social media today but we'll never top Flann O'Brien's At-Swim-Two-Birds and his introduction of two minor characters, Timothy Danaos and Dona Ferentes.

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Catherine Eaton @sparrowpost.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

At Swim-Two-Birds is so bizarre and delightful. Nothing can prepare a person for it (perhaps among the highest praise I can give a book).

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The International Flann O’Brien Society @flannobriensoc.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Next in the playlist of music to read Flann O'Brien by is Trá Pháidín's new album ‘Cloch ‘s Claí’. Its launch track, called 'An Béal Bocht' after Myles na gCopaleen's 1941 novel, casts a satirical eye on Ireland's relationship with Irish and the Gaeltacht. Check it out!

klofmag.com

Trá Pháidín Announce New Album ‘Cloch ‘s Claí’ & Share ‘An Béal Bocht’ Video

Trá Pháidín announce “Cloch ‘s Claí”, their first for World of Echo, and share a video for launch track “An Béal Bocht”.

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Maebh Long @maebhlong.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Coming soon from UCD press! New Zealand's Irish Revolution draws on new primary sources and archival material to examine New Zealand responses to the events in Ireland 1912-1923. I was delighted to write on the way the poets of the Easter Rising, Joyce and Yeats were linked in NZ newspapers.

ucdpress.ie

New Zealand’s Irish Revolution

Offering original New Zealand perspectives on the Irish Revolution from the third Home Rule crisis to the establishment of the Irish Free State, this collection explores the political, social, and cul...

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Reposted by The International Flann O’Brien Society

Tom @bighappyhead.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

“Is it about a bicycle?” ― Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman

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Tvermar @tvermar.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien #booksky #currentlyreading #nowreading

Photograph of the novel “The Third Policeman“ by Flann O’Brien

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Chris @staggerlee42.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

What are the books you yammer on about to anyone who'll listen? MASON&DIXON, Thomas Pynchon AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS, Flann O’Brien THE WAVES, Virginia Woolf MISS MACINTOSH, MY DARLING, Marguerite Young AMERICAN TABLOID, James Ellroy ALICE IN SUNDERLAND, Bryan Talbot

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Neglected Books @neglectedbooks.com · 18/07/2026

The Best of Myles. I found this in the stacks of the Suzzallo Library in 1977. It was out of print and no one (in America, at least) was paying attention to the work of Flann O'Brien. It was the first or second book to lead me to distrust the canon and start looking for other neglected books.

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The International Flann O’Brien Society @flannobriensoc.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

At Swim-Two-Birds: the best possible option for the Leaving Cert, or as likely as honours maths to have students crying in the toilets?

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Chris @staggerlee42.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

‘The revolutionary role of the Irish-made ‘Lucania’ bicycle - a particular boon to Irish-Irelanders trying to boycott British imports - has not yet been fully appreciated.’ I think Flann O’Brien recognised this… #BookSky💙📚

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🅲🅰🅼🅸🅴 ℕ𝕆𝕀ℝ @ecamie.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

"A good book may have three openings entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of the author, or for that matter one hundred times as many endings." -- Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds #writinglife #writerslife #quotestoliveby

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Bob Fry @bobfry.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

It’s Bloomsday, the day on which the events of Joyce's Ulysses take place I recommend Anthony Cronin’s Arena documentary “Three Irish Writers” about the work of Flann O’Brien,Patrick Cavanagh & Brendan Behan. It also has film of the 1st Bloomsday celebration. It’s a gem. youtu.be/PfNozMdMr3Q?...

youtu.be

Anthony Cronin documentary on Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan & Flann O'Brien. Part 1 of 4

YouTube video by Ben McGuire

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Marguerite @marguerites.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Given the stories from 1954 about Flann O’Brien, Patrick Kavanagh, et al being recorded pissing on Sandymount Strand while absolutely rat-arsed, it sounds like the ukuleles are the only new addition.

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Niall Ó hAodha @hoosay.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Two of Anto Cronin’s books cover this auspicious event, which from what I remember basically boiled down to Cronin, Kavanagh, Flann O’Brien and a couple of others leaving the pub long enough to stand outside the Martello tower in Sandymount for a couple of photos before heading back to the pub.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.eurosky.social · 16/06/2026

Feeling a quiet swell of national pride that, forget Joyce; Bloomsday is just 100% pure weapons-grade Flann O'Brien. via @josefoshea.bsky.social

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Paul Fagan @pauleamonnfagan.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Check the chapter out if you're into Flann O'Brien & modernist apocalypses, and read the full book online if you're interested in thoughtful, engaging, urgent chapters on modernist ethics! www.jstor.org/content/oa_b...

jstor.org

Ethical Crossroads in Literary Modernism on JSTOR

Establishing a new theoretical foothold at the crossroads of human, nonhuman, and posthuman studies in literary modernism, Ethical Crossroads in Literary Modern...

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Roy Lonergan @roylonergan.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Five favourite books that didn’t make the Guardian 100 in no particular order: The Third Policeman - Flann O’Brien Pavane - Keith Roberts A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M Miller Master and Commander - Patrick O’Brian Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

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The Paul of the House of Usher @katamaridumassy.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Flann O'Brien - The Third Policeman (Published 1967 by MacGibbon & Kee)

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Maebh Long @maebhlong.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I very much enjoyed speaking with @drchrismurray.bsky.social about Kevin Barry's novel 'The Heart in Winter' for the Irish Books Podcast. You can check out our discussion below, or wherever you choose to get your podcasts.

podcasts.apple.com

Tragic Balladry in the Wild West: Kevin Barry's The Heart in Winter

Podcast Episode · Irish Books · 3 June · 39min

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British Association for Modernist Studies (BAMS) @modernistudies.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Next, Gina Case reviews 'Flann O’Brien and the European Avant-Garde, 1934–45: Dublin’s Dadaist' (2025) by Tobias W. Harris, which places the late modernist O’Brien into conversation with the European avant-garde movements. modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2026/05/29/b...

modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com

Book Review: Flann O’Brien and the European Avant-Garde, 1934–45: Dublin’s Dadaist

29 May 2026 Gina Case, Boston College Tobias W. Harris’s first monograph, Flann O’Brien and the European Avant-Garde, 1934-45: Dublin’s Dadaist (2025) begins with a perfectly absurd excerpt from a …

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Maebh Long @maebhlong.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Applications for a new, 2 year postdoctoral position are now open! Please share widely. The Eamon Cleary Postdoctoral Fellowship in Irish Studies, based at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand, is open to Ph.D. graduates in any area of Irish studies.

otago.taleo.net

Eamon Cleary Postdoctoral Fellow in Irish Studies

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

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Paul Fagan @pauleamonnfagan.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Excited to receive✨️proofs✨️for my chapter on exploitations of nonhuman skins in At Swim, An Béal Bocht & Two in One via book production, clothing, taxidermy In "Flann O'Brien: Palimpsests, Translations, Intertexts", ed Anne Fogarty, Scott Hamilton, Erika Mihálycsa: out soon from @corkup.bsky.social!

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Paul Fagan @pauleamonnfagan.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

"a pivotal moment in Flann O’Brien studies...a landmark in O’Brien scholarship and the broader nonhuman turn" - Thierry Robin's Études irlandaises review of "Flann O'Brien & the Nonhuman", which I'd the pleasure of editing with Katherine Ebury & John Greaney journals.openedition.org/etudesirland...

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pannonica @acinonnap.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

cc: @flannobriensoc.bsky.social

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P. O'Leary @p-oleary.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Fascinating. From Flann O'Brien to Beckett, and lots in-between.. #Banjax www.wordorigins.org/big-list-ent...

wordorigins.org

banjax — Wordorigins.org

7 May 2025

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Badlai @adlaim.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

On the overground to work. A man is *glaring* at me as if I'm some terrible miscreant. Sir, I am a 37 year-old man reading a Flann O'brien novel with some coconut water. I'm not sure what kind of threat I pose

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Seán Costello @seanjcostello.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

“There are four winds and eight sub-winds each with its own colour. The wind from the east is a deep purple, from the south a fine shining silver. The north wind is a hard black and the west is amber.” (Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman)

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T.P.O.A.M.I.W.I.D. @iwaseatingthat.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Maybe this is just a deeeeeeeep cut Flann O’Brien reference.

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IF a Stone @dougray7.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Post a book quote that you love.

When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night,
A pint of plain is your only man.
Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds

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Dr Robert Bohan @robertbohan.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

[15] Kernoff advocated modernism at a time when much Irish art was conservative & provincial. He was unique in being based in Ireland & innovative. Up the Workers Republic Ireland (nd), Flann O’Brien (nd) & Emergency Hat, Self Portrait (1941)

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eolaí the artist @eolai.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I read "The Third Policeman" last week, and against the world we're living in today it doesn't seem so mad or hellish, but thankfully Flann O'Brien still makes me laugh. #SpéirGhorm

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Rhys Hughes @rhysaurus.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

The Guardian is apparently inviting readers to name their three favourite novels. My own list would probably run something like this: * Froth on the Daydream - Boris Vian * The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien * The Non-Existent Knight - Italo Calvino #booksky

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Fred Austere @fredaustere.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

“If I hear that word Joyce again, I will surely froth at the gob.” - Flann O’Brien

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The International Flann O’Brien Society @flannobriensoc.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

EXTREMELY EXCITING news about 'Killing Kelly', a film adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s ’Two in One’ starring Jason Isaacs and Thomasin McKenzie. Production to begin in Dublin later this year and we cannot wait for the skin-tingling, skin-wearing, skin-fusing comedy horror.

dreadcentral.com

'Killing Kelly' Wears the Skin of Jason Isaacs?!

First details on 'Killing Kelly', a crazy Ireland-set dark comedy thriller heading to Cannes from 'Skeleton Key' director Iain Softley.

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