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 Irish
author noted for his powerful political views and earthy satire.
While not in jail or in pubs, Behan worked in odd jobs and wrote
plays and stories that colourfully depicted the life of the ordinary
working men. Several of his books were banned in Ireland. Behan
spent most of the years from 1939 to 1946 in English and Irish penal
institutions on political charges.
"... it was not really the length of sentence that worried
me - for I had always believed that if a fellow went into the
I.R.A. at all he should be prepared to throw the handle after
the hatchet, die dog or shite the licence - but that I'd sooner
be with Charlie and Ginger and Browny in Borstal than with my
own comrades and countrymen any place else. It seemed a bit disloyal
to me, that I should prefer to be with boys from English cities
than with my own countrymen and comrades from Ireland's hills
and glens."
(from Borstal Boy, 1958)
Brendan Behan was born in Dublin and lived his childhood in the
slums of the city. In spite of the surroundings, he did not become
an unlettered slum lad, but had an alert and incisive mind. His
family on both sides was traditionally anti-British. At Behan's
birth, his father was in a British compound because of involvement
in the Irish uprising of 1916-1922. Behan attended Catholic schools.
He also owed much of his education to his family which was well
read, and of strong Republican sympathies. Behan left school at
the age of 14 and worked as a house painter. From the age of nine
he had served in a youth organization connected with the IRA, and
in the late 1930s he was IRA's messenger boy.
In 1939 Behan was arrested on a sabotage mission in England and
sentenced to three years in Borstal in a reform school for attempting
to blow up a battleship in Liverpool harbour.
After release Behan returned to Ireland, but in 1942 he was sentenced
to 14 years for the attempted murder of two detectives. He served
at Mountjoy Prison and at the Curragh Military Camp. In 1946 he
was released under a general amnesty. He was in prison again in
Manchester in 1947, serving a short term for allegedly helping an
IRA prisoner to escape. During his years in prison, Behan started
to write, mainly short stories in an inventive stylization of Dublin
vernacular. In 1952 he was deported to France. Later he lived in
Paris and Dublin, writing for Radio Telefis and for the Irish
Press.
 Behan
also sailed intermittently on ships - he had become a certified
seaman in 1949. Behan's first play, THE QUARE FELLOW, was based
on his prison experiences. It was presented at an avant-garde club
in 1956 and gained critical success. The events were set during
the twenty-four hours preceding an execution. Behan attacked capital
punishment, but also false piety behind public attitudes toward
such matters as sex, politics, and religion. His other plays include
THE BIG HOUSE (1957) and THE HOSTAGE (1958), written in Gaelic and
set in a disreputable Dublin lodging house, owned by a former IRA
commander. The play was acclaimed in London, Paris, and New York.
In his dramas Behan used song, dance, and direct addresses to the
audience. These methods were typical of the style of Joan Littlewood's
Theatre Workshop, which staged several of his works. Behan's best-known
novel, BORSTAL BOY (1958), drew its material from his experiences
in the Liverpool jail and Borstal school. The young narrator moves
from rebellious bravado to fear and shame, and finally to greater
understanding of himself, and human nature in general.
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it's done,
they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves."
Notoriety and critical attention came to Behan in the mid-1950s
and contributed to his downfall and death. His irresolute discipline
collapsed into prolonged drinking bouts. Although Behan's best works
were lively and filled with insight, his personal problems prevented
him from realizing his full potential. A lifelong battle with alcoholism
ended his career on March 20th 1964, at the age of 41.
"When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence
and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot
me in my absence."
(From The Hostage)
Behan's family: his uncle Peader Kearney was the author
of the Irish national anthem, 'Soldier's Song'. Another uncle,
P.J. Bourke, managed the Queens Theatre in Dublin, and one of
Bourke's sons was the dramatist Seamus de Burca, whose English
name is James Bourke. In 1955 Behan married Beatrice French-Salked,
a painter and the daughter of a noted Dublin artist.
See other writers born in Dublin: William Butler Yeats,
James Joyce, Samuel Beckett - NOTE: St Brendan (484-577), abbot
and traveller, founded monasteries in Ireland and Scotland. The
Latin Navigation of St Brendan (c.1050) depicts his legendary
voyage to the Hebrides and the Northern Isles, or even Iceland.
For further reading: Beckett and Behan by A. Simpson (1962);
My Brother Behan by D. Behan (1964); Brendan Behan by R. Jeffs
(1965); Brendan Behan by T.E. Boyle (1969); Brendan by U. O'Connor
(1970); The Major Works of Breandan Behan by P. Gerdes (1973);
Brendan Behan by R. Porter (1973); My life with Brendan by Beatrice
Brendan (1974); The Writings of Brendan Behan by C. Kearney (1977);
With Brendan Behan by P. Arthurs (1981); McGraw-Hill Encyclopaedia
of World Drama, ed. by Stanley Hochman (1984); Sayings of Brendan
Behan (1997, paperback); Encyclopaedia of World Literature in
the 20th Century, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol. 1); Brendan
Behan: A Life by Michael O¨Sullivan (1999)
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