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Was Flann O'Brien at his best when writing about drink? (Answers on a damp stressed envelope, please)

The Short Fiction of Flann O'Brien is, not surprisingly, full of beerswillers and liquorslobbers

1 February 2014

9:00 AM

1 February 2014

9:00 AM

The Short Fiction of Flann O’Brien Neil Murphy and Keith Hopper (eds)

Dalkey Archive, pp.435, £9.50, ISBN: 9781564788894

On his deathbed in Dublin in the spring of 1966, Flann O’Brien must have been squiffy from tots of Paddy. A bottle of the amber distillate was smuggled in to the hospital on April Fool’s Day by a couple of well-wishers. O’Brien rang the bell to summon a nurse. ‘Sister,’ he told her solemnly, ‘I have two friends who are constipated and need a dose.

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