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Niall Sheridan (1912–1998) was an Irish poet, fiction-writer, and broadcaster, remembered primarily for his friendships with better-known Irish writers Brian O'Nolan (who published under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien) and Donagh MacDonagh.

Academic life and early work[edit]

As a student at University College Dublin he cofounded the journal Blather with O'Nolan and his brother Ciaran O'Nolan.[1] Sheridan was also the editor of the college literary magazine Comhthrom Feinne (Fair Play).[2] Sheridan was one of the founders of the so-called "Cult of Joyce" at UCD, which also included O'Nolan, Denis Devlin, Donagh MacDonagh, and other latterly influential writers.[3]

While a student, Sheridan shared a room with MacDonagh in Rathmines, in a house featuring a Great Dane named Thor and numerous visits from other aspirant writers, artists, and thinkers.[4] The poet and left-wing agitator Charles Donnelly was a particularly frequent guest. Sheridan and MacDonagh published a book titled Twenty Poems (they contributed ten each), which Colm Ó Lochlainn printed in a limited edition of 300 copies in 1934.[4][5]

Relationship with Flann O'Brien[edit]

Sheridan remained close to O'Nolan, and the two conspired on provocations on the letters pages of the Irish Times.[1] At the same time, with other UCD friends at Grogan's Pub in Dublin, they were making plans for a literary revolution in the form of a collaboratively written political novel (never completed) to be titled Children of Destiny.[6] As the literary stature of some of his friends grew, and these early plans gave way to major accomplishments, Sheridan's formative role was remembered. He is represented closely by the character of Brinsley in O'Nolan's At Swim-Two-Birds, a highly literate fellow student of the narrator described as "an intellectual Meath-man; given to close-knit epigrammatic talk."[7][8] Many details of Sheridan's life and work were incorporated into O'Nolan's novel, including his early translations of Catullus (featured in Twenty Poems).[9] Following the book's publication, Sheridan brought it to James Joyce in Paris, though Joyce told him he had already read it.[10]

In 1949, Sheridan and O'Nolan published, anonymously, an interview with John Stanislaus Joyce, James Joyce's father.[11] The authenticity of this interview was later doubted, and it was chalked up as one of O'Nolan's many literary pranks.[12] Nevertheless, Sheridan insisted to Joyce's biographer Richard Ellmann that the interview had happened, and the question remains unsettled.[11]

Later life and broadcasting[edit]

In 1939, Sheridan married Monica Treanor, a chef. Like Monica, Sheridan became a broadcaster, working on the show Information Please for Radio Éireann.[13] As his employer, now Raidió Teilifís Éireann, expanded into television, Sheridan contributed such works as a teleplay titled "A Dog's Life" and several productions about O'Nolan/O'Brien.[14][15][16] Sheridan continued to be active in the literary world, often on behalf of the friends of his youth; in 1950, for example, he published an introduction to Devlin's "The Heavenly Foreigner" in Poetry Ireland, noting that "on careful reading, superficial obscurities vanish."[17] Following MacDonagh's death in 1968, Sheridan wrote a preface for his poetry collection A Warning to Conquerors.[18] He worked occasionally on his own pieces as well, and his play Seven Men and a Dog was performed by the Abbey Theatre in 1958.[19]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Jernigan, Daniel Keith (2016). ""Simulat Ergo Est": Brian O'Nolan's Metaperformative Simulations". New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua. 20 (1): 87–104. ISSN 1092-3977. JSTOR 44807168.
  2. ^ Donnelly, Joseph (1987), Charlie Donnelly The Life and Pomes, The Dedalus Press, Dublin, pg. 25, ISBN 0 948268 31 X
  3. ^ Costello, Peter (2004). "James Joyce and the Remaking of Modern Ireland". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 93 (370): 121–132. ISSN 0039-3495. JSTOR 30095943.
  4. ^ a b MacDonagh, Donagh (1960). "Club Sans Club". University Review. 2 (3/4): 91–95. ISSN 0566-2478. JSTOR 25510064.
  5. ^ MacDonagh, Donagh; Sheridan, Niall (1934). Twenty Poems. Dublin: Privately printed. OCLC 13119339
  6. ^ Ó Cuilleanáin, Cormac (1984). "Irish Publishers: A Nation Once Too Often". The Crane Bag. 8 (2): 115–123. ISSN 0332-060X. JSTOR 30023290.
  7. ^ Cohen, David (1993). "An Atomy of the Novel: Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds". Twentieth Century Literature. 39 (2): 208–229. doi:10.2307/441839. ISSN 0041-462X. JSTOR 441839.
  8. ^ Gallagher, Monique (1992). "Reflecting Mirrors in Flann O'Brien's "At Swim-Two-Birds"". The Journal of Narrative Technique. 22 (2): 128–135. ISSN 0022-2925. JSTOR 30225357.
  9. ^ Taaffe, Carol (2004). "'Tell Me This, Do You Ever Open a Book at All?': Portraits of the Reader in Brian O'Nolan's "At Swim-Two-Birds"". Irish University Review. 34 (2): 247–260. ISSN 0021-1427. JSTOR 25504977.
  10. ^ Dotterer, Ronald L. (2004). "Flann O'Brien, James Joyce, and "The Dalkey Archive"". New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua. 8 (2): 54–63. ISSN 1092-3977. JSTOR 20557925.
  11. ^ a b Killeen, Terence. "An alleged hoax". The Irish Times.
  12. ^ Heckard, Margaret; Joyce, John Stanislaus (1976). "The Literary Reverberations of a Fake Interview with John Stanislaus Joyce". James Joyce Quarterly. pp. 468–471. JSTOR 25487294.
  13. ^ "Death of veteran broadcaster". The Irish Times.
  14. ^ Archives, RTÉ (5 July 2012). "RTÉ Archives". stillslibrary.rte.ie. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  15. ^ "The Wonderful Worlds Of Flann O'Brien". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  16. ^ "Flann O'Brien At Swim Two Birds". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  17. ^ Hogan, Robert, ed. (1980). MacMillan Dictionary of Irish Literature. London: MacMillan. p. 205. ISBN 9781349077977.
  18. ^ MacDonagh, Donagh (1968). A Warning to Conquerors. Dublin: Dolmen Press. OCLC 1038086156
  19. ^ "Seven Men And A Dog | Abbey Archives | Abbey Theatre – Amharclann na Mainistreach". Abbey Theatre. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Sheridan

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