If Brendan Behan’s interest in literature came from his
father, then his political beliefs were injected by his mother. She
remained politically active all her life, and was a personal friend of
the famed Irish republican Michael Collins, hero of Ireland’s 1919-1921 war of independence against Britain,who was assassinated. Brendan Behan wrote the following wonderful lament
to Collins:
at the age of thirteen.
The laughing boy - Brendan Behan
T'was on an August morning, all in the dawning hours,
I went to take the warming air, all in the Mouth of Flowers,
And there I saw a maiden, and mournful was her cry,
'Ah what will mend my broken heart, I've lost my Laughing Boy.
So strong, so wild, and brave he was, I'll mourn his loss too sore,
When thinking that I'll hear the laugh or springing step no more.
Ah, curse the times and sad the loss my heart to crucify,
That an Irish son with a rebel gun shot down my Laughing Boy.
Oh had he died by Pearse's side or in the GPO,
Killed by an English bullet from the rifle of the foe,
Or forcibly fed with Ashe lay dead in the dungeons of Mountjoy,
I'd have cried with pride for the way he died, my own dear Laughing Boy.
My princely love, can ageless love do more than tell to you,
Go raibh mile maith agat for all you tried to do,
For all you did, and would have done, my enemies to destroy,
I'll mourn your name and praise your fame, forever, my Laughing Boy.'
Behan's uncle Peadar Kearney wrote the Irish national anthem
A Soldier’s Song. His brother, Dominic Behan, was also a renowned songwriter most famous for the song
The Patriot Game,
while another sibling, Brian Behan, was a prominent radical political
activist and public speaker, actor, author and playwright. ’.
In
1937, the family moved to a new local authority housing scheme in
Crumlin, Dublin. Here he became a member of Fianna Eireann, the youth
wing of the IRA at the age of 14 and published his first poems and prose in the
organization's magazine Fianna: the Voice of Young Ireland.He eventually joined the IRA at sixteen
In 1939 he
was arrested in Liverpool with a suitcase full of explosives after an unauthorised mission to blow up the docks. He was sentenced to three years in Borstal
Prison (Kent) and did not return to Ireland until 1941. In 1942, he was
tried for the attempted murder of two gardai while at a commemoration ceremony for Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish
Republicanism and sentenced to
fourteen years in prison. He was sent to Mountjoy Prison and later to the Curragh
Internment Camp. He was released in 1946 as part of a general amnesty
of republican prisoners. His
prison experiences were central to his future writing career. He wrote about these years in his autobiographical novel
'Borstal Boy'. and
“Confessions of an Irish Rebel.” Aside from a short prison sentence that he
received in 1947 for his part in trying to break a fellow republican out
from a Manchester jail, he effectively left the IRA, though he remained
great friends with the future Chief-Of-Staff Cathal Goulding.
While in
Mountjoy Prison he wrote his first play, The Landlady, and also began to
write short stories and other prose. Some of this work was published in
The Bell, the leading Irish literary magazine of the time. He also
learned Irish in prison and, after his release in 1946, he spent some
time in the Gaeltacht areas of Galway and Kerry, where he started
writing poetry in Irish. By the early 1950s he was earning a living as a
writer for radio and newspapers and had gained a reputation as
something of a character on the streets and in literary circles in
Dublin known for his sharp wit and his gift as a raconteur.
His major breakthrough came in 1954 when his play
The Quare
Fellow, which was based on his experiences in jail,
Set in an Irish prison in the 1950s on the day before and the morning of an execution, The Quare Fellow uses music, wit and a keen observation of human behaviour to explore the question of capital punishment. the play ran for six months in the Pike Theatre, Dublin. This was
followed by a run at the Theatre Royal, Stafford East, in a production by Joan Littlewood, before moving to the West End, before a trumph on Broadway bought international fame to the author. In 1957, his
Irish language play,
An Giall (The Hostage) opened in the Damer Theatre
and his autobiographical novel,
The Borstal Boy, was published. He was
now established as one of the leading Irish writers of his generation.
He
found fame difficult to deal with however. He had long been a heavy drinker
(describing himself, on one occasion, as "
a drinker with a writing
problem",) and became known for his drinking as much as for his undoubted literary talents ,this combination
resulted in a series of notoriously drunken public appearances, both on
stage and television. Behan got notorious publicity after appearing drunk on Malcolm
Muggeridge’s Panorama programme on the BBC in 1956. Most of what he said
was incoherent, other than a crude remarking about needing “
to take a
leak”
.Behan was obviously drunk too when he went on Edward R Morrow’s television
show Small World on November 8, 1959. He was yanked off the show at the
halfway point. He tended to attract attention anywhere he went. On arriving in Spain,
he was asked what he would most like to see in the country. “
Franco’s
funeral,” he replied. Making a spectacle added to his notoriety, because it was what people
had come to expect. “
One drink is too many for me,” Behan once lamented, “
and a thousand not enough.” and "
I only drink on two occasions-when I’m thirsty and when I’m not “
. He was diagnosed with diabetes in the 1960's and his favourite drink of
sherry and champagne certainly did not aid him, his health consequently suffered terribly, with diabetic comas and seizures occurring
with frightening regularity aggravated by his alcoholism. He found it difficult to write. When the
Guinness company commissioned him to write a slogan for them, he sat
around for months, drank all the free beer they sent him, and came up
with the slogan 'Guinness makes you drunk'.While his faculties may have dimmed a little, and towards the end became the caricature
of the drunken Irishman, publicans flinging him out of their premises, his intellect,wit and passion always managed to shine through.and he remained an Irish Republican and a socialist.
He died in the Meath Hospital, Dublin 1964 aged only 41, his last words were ' Thank you Sister, and may all your sons be bishops'. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery where he received a Republican
funeral.The IRA, which Behan had once invited to 'shoot him in absentia',
accorded him an honour guard, although they waited until the officials
from the State funeral had left before firing the traditional farewell
salute over his grave. En route to the graveyard, thousands lined the streets.
His wife the painter Beatrice french-Salkeld, his most stabilising influence gave birth to their only child, a
daughter, later the same year. His gravestone features the inscription 'Breándan Ó Beacháin File Fiáin Fearúil Feadánach' which roughly translates as 'Brendan Behan, wild, manly poet and piper'.
His legacy remains
one of tolerance and respect for the humanity in others, and of caring
and concern for the plight of those who are victims of history, not its
makers. As he once said, 'I have a total irreverence for anything
connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer
stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the
winter and happier in the summer' and 'They took away our land, our language and our religion, but they could never harness our tongues.'
