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I have not returned to At Swim-Two-Birds since my brother was killed

Family Fortunes: I was reading Flann O’Brien’s masterpiece when the doorbell rang

Frank Taaffe (far right) on his First Communion day in 1948, with his mother, his brother Tony at the back and his brother Seamus in front wearing Frank’s Communion badge

Frank Taaffe
Thu Nov 10 2016 - 06:00

It was 51 years ago that I put aside Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds. As a young county council official, on a year's sabbatical while attending the School of Public Administration in Dublin, I was enjoying the university-type lifestyle that had been denied to me when I completed my Leaving Certificate.

Flann’s literary masterpiece was compulsory reading for a student with literary pretensions, but the ringing of the doorbell soon after midnight caused me to put the book to one side.

It is a book I have not returned to, for it reminds me of the night my younger brother, Seamus, was killed in a road traffic accident.

The callers were two school friends, who travelled from Athy to find me, which they did with great difficulty, as the address of my newly acquired digs was not generally known.

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I travelled back to Athy that night, passing on the way the accident scene with the crashed car still on the roadside.

I would later learn that my 21-year-old brother, travelling with friends to meet his girlfriend in Dublin, was killed as they journeyed just a few miles out of Athy.

The local gardaí were alerted and, led by their sergeant, attended at the accident scene. There they arranged for the injured to be brought to hospital before attempting to identify the lone figure who lay covered by a sheet on the roadside.

As the covering was removed, the local garda sergeant, my father, was shocked to see it was his own son, the youngest of the family, who lay dead on the roadside.

The traumatic events of November 17th, 1965, were always associated in my mind with At Swim-Two-Birds, the book I put aside that fateful night.

Three years later I married. Carol, my fourth child and second daughter, unlike her parents, attended university and passed from Trinity to York and back to Trinity, progressing from primary degree to master’s to doctorate.

Memories of that day in 1965 flooded back when I learned that her PhD thesis was a study of Flann O'Brien. The thesis was later published under the title Ireland Through the Looking-Glass: Flann O'Brien, Myles na gCopaleen and Irish Cultural Debate.

She was not then, nor I believe is she now, aware of my association of Flann O’Brien with my brother’s death.

We would love to receive your family memories, anecdotes, mishaps and triumphs. We are also seeking submissions with a focus on winter and Christmas. Email 400 words and a relevant photograph to familyfortunes@irishtimes.com. A fee will be paid