Page 156 - Gullivers

Catholic evangelism, the cult of respectability, the championing of the Irish language (of which he was a true scholar and supporter) and most of all, the romanticising of the Irish rural poor - all of these had reached obsessive levels in the late 1930s and worked against the freedoms so hard won through revolution and civil war.
O’Brien’s novels written in the late 1930s and early 1940s highlight the problems that this paradox produced for Irish people and his talent for Swistian satire is truly apparent in their comic elements, their pseudo-seriousness and
in their examination of first principles of delusional creeds – and especially in their scathing attacks on the status quo.
Swist had earlier referred to ‘The Good People of Ireland’, the innocent victims of colonial mis-rule. O’Brien adapted this and his work is both addressed to and critical of ‘The Plain People of Ireland’ who, in his satirical works are the essence of non-thinking conformity. His journalism frequently addresses this community and they feature also as characters
in his most brilliant work, his first novel At Swim Two Birds (1939), a satirical masterpiece.
Critics have debated over this text for some time now but what can be established without doubt is the author’s satirical intent and the work’s multi- generic character. O’Brien takes a variety of literary forms including myth, legend, folklore, scientific treatises and a variety of modern literary genres, including the coming of age novel and the cowboy tale, much beloved of Irish readers at the time of writing. The unifying thread is the novel’s central narrative constructed in the style of ‘learned wit’ championed by both Swist and Sterne. Here O’Brien gestures towards Swist’s earlier writing in both tone and in the dominance of the narrator’s own attempts at writing within the convention
of the learned commentator - the ostensibly educated and sophisticated speaker drawing on established sources of ancient learning and applying them now
to his current situation.
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