Dead as Doornails

Dead as Doornails is Anthony Cronin’s memoir of the writers, pubs, lodgings and precarious careers that shaped literary Dublin after the Second World War. First published in 1976, it centres on Cronin’s friendships with Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan and Brian O’Nolan, also known as Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen. Its portraits are affectionate but unsentimental, recording talent alongside poverty, alcoholism, rivalry and wasted opportunity.

The book reconstructs a small cultural world in which conversation, journalism, theatre and pub life often mattered as much as publication. It is Anthony Cronin’s work, not a Joseph O’Connor book; the 2026 Lilliput Press edition includes an introduction by O’Connor. That contributor role explains its presence in this export, but the memoir’s authorship and original 1976 publication belong to Cronin.