This guest editorial introduces the topic of this special issue, 'Brian O'Nolan and the Irish Civil Service,' and sets out some key points on why the theme of bureaucracy should be considered more closely in O'Nolan criticism. At the same time, the editorial sketches out aspects of the current political and cultural context in which the issue approaches the bureaucrat as a topic of discussion. Calling to attention certain critical interventions on the question of how writers operate when they

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... e concurrently state functionaries, the note sets the stage for O'Nolan to be re-considered as a 'writer-official.' Introducing the articles which make up the issue, the authors point towards how the contributors have taken on such a task of critical re-orientation. The note concludes with an appendix, which provides a detailed timeline of O'Nolan's career in the Irish Civil Service.