Winners Announced!

Every two years, to coincide with the International Flann O’Brien Society conference, the Society awards official prizes to the best article/book chapter and best single author or edited monograph on the writing, life, and reception of Brian O'Nolan published over a 2-year period.

The Society Awards ceremony took place on Wednesday 25 June at the opening ceremony of ‘An Fód Dúchais: Home, Heritage and Origins’, the 8th International Flann O’Brien Conference.

At the Alley Theater in Strabane, the shortlisted nominees were read out (as voted for by the members of the International Flann O’Brien Society) and then the winners (as decided by two impartial judges, one for each award), as well as the judges’ official remarks:

Best single author/edited monograph 

Brian Ó Conchubhair, Myles na gCopaleen agus Flann O’Brien: An Saol Bocht (Leabhair Breac, 2025)

Judge’s remarks:

By considering the importance of Ó Nualláin’s bilingualism Ó Conchubhair constructs a literary biography of an author who spoke, wrote, and contributed often acerbic criticism of the contemporary Irish state and society in two languages (and sometimes more). As Arlette Farge notes “the history of individuals can shake our received wisdom about the ensemble of behaviours and events that we consider to be collective. Yet at the same time, we can only study individuals through their interaction with social groups” (The Allure of the Archives). The preoccupations and concerns of these social networks are illuminated by Ó Conchubhair. He undertakes rigorous archival research across both languages, and synthesizes these two linguistic strands of social networks, writing, and criticism to present a narrative whole. The use of biography in a hermeneutic mode brings to the fore broader questions about language, society, and cultural identities by incorporating aspects of cultural history. This meticulous work is written in Irish in a manner that should be accessible to anglophone scholars who have a modicum of the language. The biography will be a resource for scholars of literature, history, cultural studies and beyond. As a compendium of the life, influences, and output of Flann O’Brien, it is sure to be a must-have on the desk of any scholar undertaking research on the author and his oeuvre.

Best article/book chapter 

Joseph LaBine, ‘“Information, Please”: Brian O’Nolan and the Radio’, The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 7, no. 2 (2023): 1–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/pr.9171

Judge’s remarks:

LaBine compellingly argues that the largely overlooked medium of radio offers fresh insight into O’Nolan studies and convincingly shows O’Nolan’s two decades of intermittent radio involvement (1930s–1950s) had both private and public dimensions. The use of theoretical frameworks from radio studies—Cohen, Connor, Lakoff—grounds the work in broader modernist discourse. I believe the article’s strength lies in marrying archival research with close reading to reveal the technological unconscious in O’Nolan’s prose. Overall, this is a well-researched, innovative, and persuasive contribution that deserves recognition by the International Flann O’Brien Society.

Congratulations to Brian and Joe!

The next society awards will be held at the 2027 International Flann O’Brien Conference.

Make sure to get your research on Flann O’Brien/Myles na gCopaleen/Brian O'Nolan published to be in with a shout to win - you can submit your articles to the Journal of Flann O'Brien Studies for peer review here.

Awards Book Article Conchubhair LaBine