Brendan Behan - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I was born on February 9, 1923 in the Holles Street Hospital in Dublin. I had the great fortune of being born into a strong Republican family. My uncle, for example, Peadar Kearney, penned the Irish National Anthem, "Amhran na bhFiann". When I was born, my father was in a British prison for his involvement in the Irish uprising of 1916-1922. I was in a youth organization connected with the IRA at the ripe age of nine, was an IRA messenger boy in the late '30s, and was sentenced to three years in Borstal for attempting to blow up a battleship in Liverpool harbour when I was 17. I returned to Ireland upon my release from Borstal, but was quickly sentenced to 14 years at Mountjoy Prison and the Curragh Military Camp for the attempted murder of two detectives. I finished that stint early, thanks to a general amnesty for IRA prisoners, but found myself in the flowery dell again, less than a year later, for helping an IRA prisoner escape. On each prison experience, it was not really the length of the sentence that worried me - for I had always believed that if a fellow went into the IRA at all he should be able to throw the handle after the hatchet, die dog or shite the licence. All those high walls gave me plenty of time to collect my thoughts, however, and I began to write. That's enough for now. If you want any more, you should buy my books! I started out with plays, and moved into prose when it felt right. ..

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My Interests

One drink is too many for me and a thousand not enough.

I'd like to meet:

A 32-county Ireland and a fresh jar.

Music:

Here's a song I wrote for my play, The Quare Fellow, based on my prison experiences:THE OLD TRIANGLEA hungry feeling came o'er me stealing And the mice were squealing In my prison cellAnd the old triangle Went jingle jangle All along the banks Of the Royal CanalTo begin the morning The warder's bawling "Get out of bed And clean up your cell"And the old triangle Went jingle jangle All along the banks Of the Royal CanalOn a fine spring evening The lag lay dreaming The seagulls wheeling High above the wallAnd the old triangle Went jingle jangle All along the banks Of the Royal CanalThe screw was peeping The lag was sleeping While he lay weeping For his girl SalAnd the old triangle Went jingle jangle All along the banks Of the Royal CanalThe wind was rising And the day declining As I lay pining In my prison cellAnd the old triangle Went jingle jangle All along the banks Of the Royal CanalIn the female prison There are seventy women I wish it was with them That I did dwellThen the old triangle Could go jingle jangle All along the banks Of the Royal CanalThe day was dying And the wind was sighing As I lay crying In my prison cellAnd the old triangle Went jingle jangle All along the banks Of the Royal Canal All along the banks Of the Royal Canal

Movies:

They recently turned my masterpiece, Borstal Boy, into a film.

Television:

I've been kicked off of my share of television interviews. It's not my fault, it's all that drink in the Green Rooms!

Books:

Borstal Boy, Confessions of an Irish Rebel, Brendan Behan's Island, Brendan Behan's New York, Hold Your Hour and Have Another, The Scarperer, The King of Ireland's Son

Heroes:

Theobald Wolfe Tone, Michael Collins, Padraig (Patrick Henry) Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Sean MacDermott, Joseph Plunkett, Eamonn Ceannt, Arthur Guinness, Saint Brendan the Navigator, my wife Beatrice