mark o’connell

Published: A Century of Flann, Irish Times, October 1 2011

Humour down to a science

IN 1927, an Irishman named JW Dunne published an eccentric philosophical tome entitled An Experiment With Time. The author was an engineer, best remembered today (if at all) as a pioneer of British military aviation. But in his book he expounded theories that went far beyond matters aeronautical.

Dunne described “precognitive dreams” he had experienced, in which he claimed to have foreseen major world events. This led him (with somewhat reckless abandon) to conclude that time is not linear, and that human beings are capable of existing simultaneously in the past, present and future.

“The kindest that could be said about Dunne’s ideas is that they were a little off the wall,” says Dr Mark O’Connell, a postdoctoral fellow in the school of English at Trinity College. “A harsher verdict might be that they were completely insane.” Read the rest of this entry »

CLICKING ALONG THE LEDGE

#5 Compliments From The Chef (April 6th)
Acrimonious tête-à-tête with misanthropic celebrity chef Marco Pierre White for the Irish Times. The guy has the biggest ego of anyone I’ve ever met. On the other hand, I’d never even heard of him until about an hour before the interview (and kind of think cooking is for girls.) We were possibly never destined to be best mates then. And no, neither myself nor my “lady wife” ever took him up on that offer. Read the rest of this entry »

STEVE APPLETON: EMBLEMATICALLY, TRANSCENDENTALLY SHIT?

Last week I wrote about acoustic/funk/pop/light-hearted drum n’ base/yeah? wunderkind Steve Appleton, and noted the very real possibility that – if his debut single (released May 3rd) is a hit – the 19-year-old will become the most colossal knobjockey to crash the charts, if not since records began, then at least since Vanilla Ice in 1990.

Here my friend Mark offers this exclusive analysis of the Trilby-wearing troubadour, whom he denounces as “emblematically and transcendentally shit”. Read the rest of this entry »