This chapter situates Brian O’Nolan’s Cruiskeen Lawn within the literary, cultural, and political history of mid-twentieth-century Ireland and outlines the central aims and methodology of the book. It challenges the long-standing critical tendency to marginalize the column as minor, journalistic, or artistically distracting work, arguing instead for its centrality within O’Nolan’s oeuvre and its value as a sustained political commentary. After reviewing the divided critical reception of Cruiskeen Lawn, the chapter frames the column as a fragmentary yet coherent satirical project rooted in historical particularity. The introduction defines “politics” in a functional sense, focusing on party politics, state institutions, and political culture, and proposes a historicist reading aligned with Irish political developments from 1940 to 1966. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of the organic intellectual, the chapter interprets Myles na gCopaleen as a public-facing satirical persona engaged in shaping political consciousness rather than merely providing comic diversion. It also addresses questions of authorship, persona, ambiguity, and conservatism, stressing the need for caution when inferring O’Nolan’s personal ideology. Finally, the chapter outlines the book’s chronological structure and methodological approach through an emphasis on close textual analysis in dialogue with specific political events to demonstrate the significance of Cruiskeen Lawn as a literary record of post-independence Ireland.