Brendan Behan

Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (Breandán Ó Beacháin)
9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964

Brendan Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. Behan was born in Dublin into a staunchly republican family. His uncle, Peadar Kearney, wrote the Irish National Anthem, and his mother was a close friend of Michael Collins.

At the age of 16, Behan joined the IRA, which led to his serving time in a borstal youth prison in the United Kingdom and imprisonment in Ireland.

During this time, he took it upon himself to study and became a fluent speaker of the Irish language. Released from prison in 1946, Behan moved between homes in Dublin, Kerry and Connemara and resided in Paris for a while.

In 1954, Behan's first play, The Quare Fellow, was produced in Dublin and received high acclaim.  The Hostage, Behan's English-language adaptation of his play in the Irish language, An Giall, met with great success internationally. 

Behan's autobiographical novel Borstal Boy was published the same year and became a worldwide best-seller. By the early 1960s, Behan reached the peak of his fame. He spent increasing amounts of time in New York City with various prominent people, such as Harpo Marx and Arthur Miller, and was followed by a young Bob Dylan.

Behan found fame difficult. He was a long-term heavy drinker (describing himself, on one occasion, as "a drinker with a writing problem"). He died in Dublin in March 1964, aged 41. At his funeral, he was given a full IRA guard of honour, which escorted his coffin. Several newspapers described it as the biggest Irish funeral of all time after those of Michael Collins and Charles Stewart Parnell.

Sources - Brendan Behan: A Life, Michael O'Sullivan.

Scríbhneoirí Gaeilge | Irish Writers

For such a small island, Ireland has produced some of the finest writers in the world. Playwrights, poets, short story writers and four Nobel Prize winners, to name but a few, it is an extraordinary heritage. This series is designed to deepen your connection to Ireland, the country's heart and soul, and its people's rich literary heritage. As Yeats pointed out, we need to know the writers, the poets and the playwrights of that landscape and country to come to know Ireland in our own body and soul.