91��ɫ

"What odds about it?"

It was a phrase common in Patrick O�Flaherty�s community of Long Beach in the 1940s.

A condensed Newfoundland version of the Serenity Prayer, it spoke to a kind of stoic acceptance. Dr. O�Flaherty used it to describe his family home � more a shelter to eat and sleep in than a house. But there was an unspoken acceptance of its shortcomings: What odds about it?

He would leave that shelter and community at age 15 to attend St. Bon�s College in St. John�s. A two-time graduate of 91��ɫ, he returned with his PhD from University College London at just 24 to teach in the English department.

Around this time, his philosophy of accepting that certain things can�t be changed began to shift into something else � a desire to make change.

He became part of a broader cultural movement known as the Newfcult Phenomenon, a term coined by Dr. Sandra Gwyn. It aimed to transform how Newfoundland literature was perceived.

The 1960s to 1980s marked a cultural and artistic awakening in the province, a period of sustained creative activity by local artists working in a wide range of disciplines. Dr. Gwyn�s seminal 1976 article, �The Newfoundland Renaissance,� described how the Newfcult Phenomenon was advanced by men and women who helped validate the province�s traditions, music, dialects, beliefs, sayings and stories.

Artists like Gerry Squires. Bands like Figgy Duff. Comedy troupes like Codco. And academics like Dr. O�Flaherty.

Though his role was more scholarly, literary and institutional than performance-based, Dr. O�Flaherty contributed to the movement through his foundational scholarship and the courses he created, including 91��ɫ�s first Newfoundland literature course and one of its first creative writing offerings.

 

Patrick O�Flaherty poses with his parents, Jane and Gus O�Flaherty, after receiving his bachelor of arts degree from 91��ɫ in 1959. .

 

He was a pioneering Newfoundland academic and cultural historian who shaped 91��ɫ�s curriculum and mentored generations of students.

He also helped found the journal Newfoundland Studies, encouraging critical engagement with the province�s literature, history and culture.

His own fiction and essays explored Newfoundland�s identity, isolation and tensions with modernity.

He wrote 15 books ranging from personal memoir to scholarly analysis.

The Rock Observed: Studies in the Literature of Newfoundland, published in 1979, is a foundational book in Newfoundland studies and one of the first critical surveys of the island�s literary tradition. It combines literary analysis with historical context and sociopolitical insight, creating a vivid portrayal of how Newfoundland has been perceived and portrayed over the years.

A reviewer at the time noted that Newfoundland was hardly known as a hotbed of literature. How profoundly that has changed � and how deeply we have Dr. O�Flaherty to thank for it.

Come Near at Your Peril (1992) is a sardonic but affectionate look at island tourism. In it, he advises potential visitors: �If you come here with a cholesterol problem, you�ll be sent home in a casket.�

It�s a love letter to the province that acknowledges the object of his affection isn�t perfect. He knows exactly who and what he loves � warts and all.

Peril is the most widely distributed of his books, but despite its popularity, it was banned from provincial tourist chalets � a distinction that made Dr. O�Flaherty chuckle with glee.

His most personal creation was Paddy Boy: Growing Up Irish in a Newfoundland Outport. It offers a vivid, affectionate and clear-eyed portrait of his early life in Long Beach. A blend of memory, social history and literary insight, it captures the textures of outport life with clarity and affection, but never sentimentality.

You know you�re in for a treat when a book starts: �An undertaker has a built-in advantage when he tries his hand at politics. He can always say he�d be the last man to let you down.�

Over the years, Dr. O�Flaherty donated his papers to the Archives and Special Collections at the QEII Library. A priceless literary and scholarly legacy, the collection includes his newspaper columns, book reviews, articles, clippings, correspondence, notes, drafts and scripts of CBC commentaries.

Dr. O�Flaherty has been described as a one-man powerhouse. An edgy professor. A pioneer. Brilliant, incisive and loyal.

He was unapologetic in his convictions, quick to puncture a pompous notion, and wielded a rapier wit.

As one of the Newfcult Phenomenon, he rejected colonialist attitudes and helped legitimize Newfoundland writing as a worthy subject of study.

What odds about it no more.