An Béal Bocht

infobox Book |
name = The Poor Mouth
title_orig = An Béal Bocht
translator = Patrick C. Power
author = Brian O'Nolan
country = Ireland
language = Irish
genre = Parody
publisher = An Preas Náisiúnta
pub_date = 1941
english_pub_date = 1973
media_type = Print ()
pages = 114
isbn = 0853427941
preceded_by = The Third Policeman
followed_by = The Hard Life

An Béal Bocht (Ir.: The Poor Mouth) is a 1941 novel in Irish by Brian O'Nolan, published under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish-language novels of the 20th century, and the 1973 English translation by Patrick Power has been praised for its accuracy and sensitivity.

All of O'Nolan's other novels were published under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien; this is the only one for which he employed the "Myles" pseudonym that he normally reserved for his journalism. In the case of "An Béal Bocht", O'Nolan altered the name slightly; the novel was published under the name "Myles na gCopaleen", whereas his celebrated Irish Times column "Cruiskeen Lawn" was published under the more anglicised byline of "Myles na Gopaleen". The suffix "na Gopaleen" is not a real Irish surname, but derives from a character named Myles-na-Coppaleen in Dion Boucicault's 1860 play The Colleen Bawn; it is ultimately derived from the Irish "na gcapaillín", "of the little horses". As if to confuse matters, the English translation of "An Béal Bocht" is published as the work of "Flann O'Brien". [Harvnb|O'Brien|1988|p=3]

The book is a parody of the genre of Gaeltacht autobiographies, such as Tomás Ó Criomhthain's autobiography "An t-Oileánach" (The Islandman), or Peig Sayers' autobiography "Peig", which recounts her life, especially the latter half, as a series of misfortunes in which much of her family die by disease, drowning or other mishap. Books of this genre were part of the Irish language syllabus in the Irish school system and thus mandatory reading for generations of children from independence in 1921. O'Nolan was in fact a great admirer of "An t-Oileánach", which is widely regarded as being the greatest work of the genre, but critic Declan Kiberd has noted how O'Nolan's admiration for a writer tended to express itself as parody of the writer's work.

The Irish expression "to put on the poor mouth," ("an béal bocht a chur ort" in Irish) is mildly pejorative and refers to the practice, often associated with peasant farmers, of exaggerating the direness of one's situation, particularly financially, in order to evoke sympathy, charity and perhaps the forbearance of creditors and landlords or generosity of customers. The title may also be a parody of that of the Irish language reader "An Saol Mór" (The Great Life) [Mac Síthigh, T., "An Saol Mór: Láimhleabhar Ghnátheolais ar Shaol an Lae Inniu": M.H. Mac an Ghoill agus a Mhac Teo.] (in Irish, "béal" and "saol" are near-rhymes).

One of the recurring figures of speech in the book is the line from Ó Criomhthain's An t-Oileánach, "...mar ná beidh ár leithéidí arís ann", "...for our likes will not be (seen) again"; variations of it appear throughout "An Béal Bocht". [Harvnb|na gCopaleen|1992|p=9 & "passim"]

"An Béal Bocht" is set in Corcadoragha ("Anglicè", Corkadorkey), a remote region of Ireland where it never stops raining and everyone lives in desperate poverty (and always will) while talking in "the learned smooth Gaelic". At one point the area is visited by hordes of Dublin "Gaeilgeoirí" (Irish language lovers), who explain that not only should one always speak Irish, but also every sentence one utters should be about the language question. However, they eventually abandon the area because the poverty is too poor, the authenticity too authentic and the Gaelicism too Gaelic. The narrator, after a series of bloodcurdling adventures, is eventually sent to prison on a false murder charge, and there has the chance to write this most affecting memoir of our times.

Notes

References

*Citation |last=na gCopaleen |first=Myles |authorlink=Brian O'Nolan |title=An Béal Bocht |publisher=Mercier Press |location=Cork |date=1992
*Citation |last=O'Brien |first=Flann |authorlink=Brian O'Nolan |last2=Power |first2=Patrick C. (trans.) |title=The Poor Mouth |publisher=Paladin |location=London |date=1988 |isbn=0586087486

External links

* [http://www.necessaryprose.com/poormouth.htm Gaelically Gaelic] , essay featuring excerpts
* [http://dmtr.nm.ru/kiberd.htm Declan Kiberd, "Flann O'Brien, Myles, and The Poor Mouth"] , from "Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation", London 1996, 497--512.