Flann O'Brien's "An Béal Bocht"-- “The Poor Mouth”

This past week I've been reading an amazing book, An Béal Bocht, “The Poor Mouth," by the smarty-pants genius of Irish literature, Brian O'Nolan (aka Flann O'Brien and Myles na Gopaleen, among unknown other pseudonyms!). For now, I'll call this author Flann O'Brien. The book is a comic critique and parody of the Gaelic literature that came out in the 20th Century of the remaining Irish-speaking regions (known as the Gaeltachts) of Ireland. These areas are almost all on the western fringe of the island, from Gweedore and the Rosses in County Donegal, to the Galway Irish-speaking regions near the Aran Islands, down to the Gaeltacht of County Kerry near Dingle (the Corkadhuine Peninsula). This Gaelic literature includes the books "Peg"by Peig Sayers, and "The Islandman" by Tomas O'Crohan. These books are valuable glimpses at a disappearing world, but they often exhibit a woe-is-me attitude that gets old. Flann O'Brien has great fun parodying this Gaelic literature. The danger in writing a book like this is that you are mocking something very fragile. You wouldn't mock the Jews who survived the Holocaust or the half-dead Irish who survived The Great Hunger of the 1840's. So Flann O'Brien was treading on dangerous ground in this book. He hits his target square on, but it takes a mature reader to know how to handle a book like this.

Would I recommend the average person read "The Poor Mouth"? Probably not. But if you are committed to understanding Ireland, its history, the Gaeltachts, and the struggle of the Irish language, this is an important book for you.