FOUNDERS' WELCOME TO THE
INTERNATIONAL FLANN O'BRIEN SOCIETY
"How well the crowd in this town would never think of forming a M. na gC. Society! It'd be such a . . . a . . . . fine tribute to an old man! And with a statue in College Green my back turned to Trinity! (I still may have the figure to wear a stone beard and stone frock coat)"
- Cruiskeen Lawn, December 1944.
Dear friends, colleagues, fellow Flanneurs & Mylesians,
It was an honour and a genuine pleasure to meet you in Vienna. Now that the dust has settled, and we are all back to our exciting routine it is time to follow through on a few ideas that were floated during the conference on how to keep the community moving forward.
We wish to take this opportunity to announce the re-opening of our 100 Myles site with a new section called "100 Myles...and counting"!  We hope that the site will serve as a meeting point for Brian O'Nolan scholars and as a home address of the nascent International Flann O'Brien Society (IFOBS). Which means that this is also a performative gesture: we are henceforth, quite officially, and to the full satisfaction of the law, a society.
For the moment the aims of the society are quite modest: We want to provide O'Nolan scholars with the means of keeping in touch, and staying up to date with the latest Flann & Myles-related research worldwide. Of course this is intended to be a community-based initiative and is very much an idea in progress, so all suggestions for improvements and volunteers for projects will be gratefully received.
Website
For now, you will find a news section with all the latest news from the O'Brien world below this letter, and if you go to our IFOBS Bibliography page you will see our first attempt at a comprehensive Flann bibliography. We intend this to be a live and continually updated bibliography of all works on Flann, so please take a moment to peruse it and let us know if any articles, theses, translations, or adaptation by yourself or others missing, and we will update it as we receive them.
Conference & The Parish Review E-Journal
We also hope to create a framework that will promote/encourage the organization of future events dedicated to the work of our man. To this end we have announced the II International Flann O'Brien Conference, to take place in Rome, June 19-21 2013 (see below for the Call For Papers). Our hope is that this will lead the way to a regular a biennial conference. To get to the front of the queue on this, make sure to sign up for our bi-annual newsletter The Parish Review (see below for details)!
Other planned initiatives include two yearly prizes to be known as The Father Kurt Fahrt, S.J. Memorial Prize: one for the 'best book-length publication on a Brian O'Nolan theme' (the Big Fahrt) and one for the 'best essay-length publication on a Brian O'Nolan theme' (the Small Fahrt); a database of members' addresses; a bi-annual journaldedicated to the work of Flann (to get your copy of the first issue of The Parish Review, released July 2012, just sign up for membership at viennacis.anglistik@univie.ac.at); a giant volcano with a false retractable top; & cetera.
Contact

Our  addresses:
The International Flann O'Brien Society
 c/o Paul Fagan
 Vienna Centre for Irish Studies
 Department of English
 University of Vienna
 Spitalgasse 2-4, Hof 8
 A-1090 Vienna
 Austria
viennacis.anglistik@univie.ac.at
(Vienna Centre for Irish Studies)

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Thank you for all your help and support, we look forward to building the International Flann O'Brien Society together with you,

with fond regards,
Paul Fagan & Ruben Borg