Magic Roadshow

Did you ever wish you’d asked one more question of somebody you once knew, who is no longer around to chat with?

The great unasked question most on my mind in recent times is this: was prolific American man of numbers and letters Martin Gardner (1914-2010, of Mathematics, Magic and Mystery fame) familiar with any of the works of the Irish novelist and satirist who variously went by Myles na gCopaleen, Flann O’Brien, George Knowall, Brother Barnabas and other monikers, real name Brian O’Nolan (1911-1966)?

Martin died five years ago today, and I’m still kicking myself for never asking him about Myles. If that comes across as a ludicrous “out of nowhere” musing, please read what follows before passing judgement.

I’ll readily admit that these men, seemingly from different planets, are among my literary heroes. Coincidentally, I discovered them totally independently of each other in Dublin bookshops in the 1970s. Yet, in the intervening decades, these disparate talents have stimulated and sustained increasingly convergent parts of my brain. My timely stumbling on a used copy of Myles Away from Dublin – a collection of half-century old George Knowall columns – at the War On Want shop in Belfast last week, only cements this tenuous association. Read more..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/colm-mulcahy/myles-from-mathematics-ma_b_7383794.html