George O'Brien | |
---|---|
Born | Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland | February 14, 1945
Nationality | Irish |
Genre | Non-fiction |
George O'Brien (born 14 February 1945 in Enniscorthy, County Wexford) is an Irish memoirist, writer, and academic.
O'Brien was raised by his paternal grandmother in Lismore, County Waterford after his mother died. He was educated at St. Augustine College, in Dungarvan. In 1962, he moved to Dublin to live with his father and stepmother. He graduated as an electronic engineer from the College of Technology, Kevin Street, Dublin Institute of Technology and worked as an apprentice photographer. He moved to London where he worked as a barman, clerk and encyclopaedia salesman. He continued his education at Ruskin College, Oxford in 1968, then moved to Warwick University in 1970 where he graduated with a BA in English and American Literature in 1973, and earned a PhD in 1980. [1]
O'Brien taught at the University of Birmingham (1974) and at Clare College, Cambridge (1975), then lectured at Warwick University (1976–1980). He crossed the Atlantic where he was visiting assistant professor at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie (1980–1984), and then became associate professor, then professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington (1984–present). [1]
His memoirs include The Village of Longing: An Irish Boyhood in the Fifties (1987); Dancehall Days, or Love in Dublin (1988); and Out of Our Minds (1994). He has written studies of Irish playwright Brian Friel, co-edited The Ireland Anthology with Sean Dunne, and received the Irish Book Awards silver medal, and the John Eddeyrn Hughes Prize for The Village of Longing. O'Brien has also written occasional literary journalism for the Irish Times. [1]
Brian O'Nolan, better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth-century Irish literature. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in modernist and postmodern literature. His English language novels, such as At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman, were written under the O’Brien pen name. His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an Irish-language novel, An Béal Bocht, were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen.
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