An Béal Bocht

The book is a kindly 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 so were 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" (Irish: an béal bocht a chur ort) is mildly pejorative and refers to the practice, often associated with peasant farmers, of exaggerating the direness of one's situation, particularly financially, 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)[2] (in Irish, béal and saol are near-rhymes). The title is, perhaps, more likely to be a parody on 'An Béal Beo' (The Living Tongue) by Tomas Ó Máille, published by An Gúm 1936.

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.[3]

All of O'Nolan's other novels were published under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien; it is the only one for which he used the "Myles na gCopaleen" pseudonym that he was then using for his celebrated Irish Times column Cruiskeen Lawn. (Subsequently O'Nolan altered the newspaper byline slightly to the more anglicised "Myles na Gopaleen".) Neither is a real Irish surname, however. Both derive from a character named Myles-na-Coppaleen in Dion Boucicault's 1860 play The Colleen Bawn, which, in turn, comes 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".[4]

An Béal Bocht is set in Corca Dhorcha, (Corkadoragha, 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". It is a memoir of one Bónapárt Ó Cúnasa (Bonaparte O'Coonassa), a resident of this region, beginning at his very birth. 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, "safe in jail and free from the miseries of life",[5] has the chance to write this most affecting memoir of our times.

An adaptation of An Béal Bocht by Sean A O'Briain was performed for the first time in the Damer Hall, Dublin on 31 January 1967 by An Cumann Gaelach from University College Dublin.[6] It was also part of The University Drama Festival in Galway in February 1967. On Wednesday, 26 July 1967 the play opened in The Peacock Theatre, Dublin and was the very first production in the theatre.[7] It ran for only three days and closed abruptly. Due to a disagreement between Brian O'Nualain's widow and the book publishers The Abbey Theatre decided to pull the play.

The book was adapted for stage by Paul Lee and first presented in the pub An Béal Bocht, Charlemont Street, Dublin, for the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1989, directed by Ronan Smith.[8]

Irish filmmaker Tom Collins adapted and directed an animated version of An Béal Bocht, which was first shown (outside of festivals) on TG4 on Christmas Day 2017 and features the voices of Owen McDonnell and Donncha Crowley. The artwork was done by John McCloskey, whose graphic novel version based on Collins' screenplay was published in 2012 by Cló Mhaigh Eo.[9]

• na gCopaleen, Myles, An Béal Bocht, Third Edition, Dolmen Press, Dublin, 1964.
• na gCopaleen, Myles (1992), An Béal Bocht, Cork: Mercier Press .
• O'Brien, Flann, Power, Patrick C. (trans.), Steadman, Ralph (illus.), The Poor Mouth, Viking, New York, 1974.
• O'Brien, Flann; Power, Patrick C. (trans.) (1988), The Poor Mouth, London: Paladin, ISBN 0-586-08748-6 .
• O'Brien, Flann; Power, Patrick C. (trans.) (1996), The Poor Mouth, London: Dalkey Archive Press, ISBN 978-1-56478-091-1 .

• Gaelically Gaelic, essay featuring excerpts