Jamie O'Neill

Jamie O'Neill (born 1962 in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland) is an Irish author who lived and worked in England for two decades; he now lives in Gortachalla, in County Galway, Ireland. His critically-acclaimed novel, At Swim, Two Boys (2001) earned him the highest advance ever paid for an Irish novel and frequent claims that he was the natural successor to James Joyce, Flann O'Brien and Samuel Beckett. O'Neill was the partner of TV presenter Russell Harty for six years until the Harty's death in 1988. His partner since 1990 is Julien Joly, a former ballet dancer who now works as a masseur. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 534 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (768 × 862 pixel, file size: 68 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Jamie ONeill, novelist This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 534 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (768 × 862 pixel, file size: 68 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Jamie ONeill, novelist This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the... Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Doonlairah or, roughly, Dunleary) is a seaside town and a ferry port situated 11 km (7 miles) south of Dublin in the council area of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown in County Dublin. ... At Swim, Two Boys (2001) is a novel by Irish writer Jamie ONeill. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Séamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Flann OBrien (October 5, 1911, Strabane, County Tyrone Ireland – April 1, 1966 Dublin) is a pseudonym of the twentieth century Irish novelist and satirist Brian ONolan (in Irish Brian Ó Nuallain), best known for his novels An Béal Bocht, At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman. ... Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish dramatist, novelist and poet. ... Domestic partner or domestic partnership identifies the personal relationship between individuals who are living together and sharing a common domestic life together but are not joined in any type of legal partnership, marriage or civil union. ... Frederic Russell Harty (b. ...

Background and Education

O'Neill was born in Dún Laoghaire in 1962 and was educated at Presentation College, Glasthule, County Dublin, run by the Presentation Brothers, and (in his words) "the city streets of London, the beaches of Greece." He was raised in a home without books, and first discovered that books "could be fun" when he read Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. O'Neill was unhappy at home; he had a very difficult relationship with his father and ran away from home at age 17. The Institute of Presentation Brothers is a Catholic lay order founded in 1802 by Edmund Ignatius Rice. ...

O'Neill lists as his favourite books: Ulysses, by James Joyce, The Last of the Wine, by Mary Renault, Hadrian VII, by Fr. Rolfe (Frederick Baron Corvo), The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrell, One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien, The Swimming-Pool Library, by Alan Hollinghurst, and The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt. The name Ulysses can mean: The Roman equivalent of Odysseus A 1922 novel by James Joyce: Ulysses (novel) A 1967 movie based on the novel, Ulysses (movie) A solar probe: Ulysses (spacecraft) A poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson A anime television program produced by DiC Entertainment: Ulysses 31 An indie... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Séamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Mary Renault (1905–1983) was an English novelist whose works are still popular with devotees of the historical novel. ... Fr. ... // The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a major literary achievement of the 18th century published in six volumes, was written by the celebrated English historian Edward Gibbon. ... Edward Gibbon (1737–1794). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (born Palermo, December 23, 1896, died Rome, July 23, 1957), was Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa. ... James Gordon Farrell (23 January 1935—12 August maybe? 11 August 1979) was an irish and british writer of historical novels. ... One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez that was first published in Spanish in 1967 (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana), with an English translation by Gregory Rabassa released in 1970 (New York: Harper and Row). ... Gabriel Garcia Marquez Gabriel García Márquez (born March 6, 1928) is a Colombian novelist, journalist, publisher, and political activist. ... The Third Policeman is Flann OBriens second novel, written in 1939 and 1940 but not published until 1967, after the authors death. ... Flann OBrien (October 5, 1911, Strabane, County Tyrone Ireland – April 1, 1966 Dublin) is a pseudonym of the twentieth century Irish novelist and satirist Brian ONolan (in Irish Brian Ó Nuallain), best known for his novels An Béal Bocht, At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman. ... Alan Hollinghurst is a British novelist. ... Cover to The Lost Language of Cranes The Lost Language of Cranes is a novel by David Leavitt, published in 1986. ... David Leavitt is a writer. ...

O'Neill at Swim

O’Neill met Russell Harty in 1982, during a two-week holiday in London. They became a couple and lived together in London and at Rose Cottage, Harty's home in Giggleswick, Yorkshire. Harty encouraged O'Neill's writing and read his manuscripts; he even mailed manuscripts of early novels to publishers without O'Neill's consent or knowledge, and a book deal was agreed with Weidenfeld. Soon after that, in 1988, Russell Harty died of AIDS-related Hepatitis B. Hounded by the tabloid press, O'Neill's nude photograph was splashed across the front of the Sunday Mirror; the picture was taken shortly after his arrival in London when he earned some money as a model. He turned down offers of up to £50,000 for interviews about his private life with Russell Harty. Giggleswick is a village in the English county of North Yorkshire near to the town of Settle. ... Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the syndrome. ... Hepatitis B is a disease of the liver and is caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV), a member of the Hepadnavirus family[1] and one of several unrelated viral species which cause viral hepatitis. ...

This newspaper coverage was O'Neill's parents in Ireland discovered that their son was gay. This event would have been traumatising enough; his distress was deepened when members of the Harty family him out of the cottage, burned his clothes and left him homeless. They did, however, allow him to take the couple's pet dog, Paddy.

After Russell Harty's death, O'Neill went into sought therapeutic help. The following year, O'Neill's first novel, Disturbance, was published; Kilbrack followed in 1990. Both novels had been mostly finished while Harty was alive. But then, grieving for Harty and alone in London, O'Neill struggled to write, parted company with both his agent and publisher, and took the job as a night porter at the Cassell Hospital, a psychiatric institution in Surrey from 1990 up to 2000. A psychiatric hospital (also called at various places and times, mental hospital, mental ward, sanitarium or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ... Not to be confused with Surry. ...

Two years after Russell Harty's death, Paddy was to accidentally introduce O'Neill to his future partner. O'Neill was in a London pub when he noticed the dog was missing. Paddy had been found by a ballet dancer named Julien Joly. They began a relationship and Joly was instrumental in helping O'Neill put his life back together. During the ten years that followed, O'Neill wrote At Swim, Two Boys, which was published in 2001. It's official launch at Somerset House in London was abandoned on the day -- it was September 11, 2001. Painting of ballet dancers by Edgar Degas, 1872. ... At Swim, Two Boys (2001) is a novel by Irish writer Jamie ONeill. ... The central courtyard of Somerset House in London. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ...

Novels

• Disturbance (1989)
• Kilbrack (1990)
• At Swim, Two Boys (2001)

1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... At Swim, Two Boys (2001) is a novel by Irish writer Jamie ONeill. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Awards and Honours

• Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction (for At Swim, Two Boys)
• Lambda Literary Award in Gay Men's Fiction (for At Swim, Two Boys)

At Swim, Two Boys (2001) is a novel by Irish writer Jamie ONeill. ... At Swim, Two Boys (2001) is a novel by Irish writer Jamie ONeill. ...

External links

• Jamie O'Neill personal website