Keynote Speakers




Anthony Cronin
Now a
senior and highly esteemed figure,
Anthony Cronin was an integral
part of the post-war Dublin literary scene of Brian O'Nolan, Patrick
Kavanagh, and Brendan Behan -- a scene which he brilliantly chronicled
in Dead
As Doornails (1976).
Author of comic novels (The
Life of Riley and Identity Papers),
modernist, acerbic and reflective collections
of poetry (The End of the
Modern World, Relationships,
The Minotaur, and most
recently The
Fall, published in 2010),
literary criticism (A
Question of Modernity, Heritage Now),
biography (of Brian O'Nolan in No
Laughing Matter, and
Samuel Beckett in The
Last Modernist) and columns
for the Irish Times, Anthony
Cronin has been elected a Saoi of Aosdána,
an honour reserved for exceptional artistic achievement. (pic. Anthony Cronin, by
Edward
McGuire (1977))





Keith Hopper
Keith
Hopper teaches Literature and Film
Studies for Oxford
University’s Department for Continuing Education and St Clare’s
College, Oxford. He is the author of Flann O’Brien: A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-modernist (revised
edition
2009), and general editor of the Ireland into Film series (2001–7).
Keith is currently co-editing (with Neil Murphy) a special Flann
O’Brien centenary issue of the Review of Contemporary Fiction (Dalkey
Archive Press, Autumn 2011). He is a regular contributor to the Times
Literary Supplement, and is currently completing a book on the writer
and filmmaker Neil Jordan.





Frank McNally
Frank McNally is a columnist
and journalist for the Irish Times, where his popular "An Irishman's
Diary" column - Cruiskeen
Lawn's
learned and literary heir - is published daily. He is the author of The Xenophobe's
Guide to the
Irish,
and
has written and spoken widely on Brian O'Nolan and his works, including
an
article
in the Irish Times' recent 'City of Words - Dublin and its writers'
special publication and a contribution to the upcoming collection 'Is
it about a bicycle?' Flann O'Brien in the twenty-first century, edited by Jennika
Baines.
Check out Frank McNally's
column "An
Irishman's Diary" on the Irish
Times website.
Kurt Palm
Kurt
Palm is a Vienna-based Austrian author and director for theatre and
film. He has adapted Brian O'Nolan twice for the stage, in the first
German language performances of In
Schwimmen-zwei-Vögel (At
Swim-Two-Birds) in the
Sargfabrik, Vienna (1991), and of Hugh Leonard's stage adaptation of The Dalkey Archive, "When
the Saints Go Cycling" in at the
Alte Reithalle, also in
Vienna. After his first film - an adaptation of In
Schwimmen-zwei-Vögel for
the screen (1997) - he
went on to direct a number of acclaimed movies such as Der Schnitt durch die Kehle,
Der
Wadenmesser and
the documentary Hermes
Phettberg, Elender.
He is also the author of critical works on Bertolt
Brecht,
Mozart, and James
Joyce. Palm's
most recent novel is the political crime grotesque Bad
Fucking
(2010).
(pic. Michaela Mandel, used with permission)
(pic. Michaela Mandel, used with permission)
See more at http://www.palmfiction.net/





Harry Rowohlt
Harry
Rowohlt is a Hamburg-based German writer, translator, and
columnist
known for his insightful and humorous cult column “Pooh’s Corner” in
Die
Zeit,
as well as for his acclaimed German translations of Philip Ardagh,
Leonard Cohen, Robert Crumb, Frank McCourt, A.A. Milne, Kurt Vonegut
and Tom Wolfe. Rowohlt has translated all of Brian O'Nolan's major
works into German, many of which he has performed as recorded live
readings. Rowohlt is also an acclaimed actor, and played the role of
Finn Mac Cool in Kurt Palm's film adaptation of At
Swim-Two-Birds.







Gerry Smyth has published
widely on Irish cultural history - especially Irish popular music
-
including The Novel and the Nation
(1997), Space and the Irish Cultural
Imagination (2001), and Music
and Irish Cultural History
(2008).
As Gerry McGowan he has recorded four albums of progressive folk
music, and is currently working on 'Atlantic Sounds', a project of
Liverpool sea songs and shanties featuring local professional and
amateur artists.
Gerry's acting roles include Cesare (The
Cabinet of Dr Caligari) & Eddy (Stags and Hens) at the Liverpool
Polytechnic under David Llewellyn's direction.











