Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. His father had been active in the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and his mother was politically active throughout her life. Behan left school at the age of 13 and became a member of Fianna Éireann, a youth branch of the IRA (Irish Republican Army). When he turned 16, Behan became a fully-fledged member of the IRA and embarked on an assignment to set off a bomb at the Liverpool docks. He was arrested before he could complete his mission and spent three years at Borstal, a youth detention centre. He returned to Ireland in 1941 and remained active in the IRA until 1947.

Behan began writing while in prison due to his activity with the IRA. In the early 1950s, he moved to Paris where he managed to earn a living as a writer. Behan had his major breakthrough with the 1954 play The Quare Fellow, which chronicled prison life in Ireland. It ran at the Pike Theatre in Dublin for six months, before it was picked up by Joan Littlewood and produced at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. The play subsequently transferred to the West End and Broadway, making Behan a public figure. Joan Littlewood remained a supporter of his work for the remainder of Behan’s life. Behan went on to write An Giall (1957), an Irish-language play that was translated into English as The Hostage, along with several one-act plays commissioned for the radio. His autobiography, Borstal Boy, was published in 1958.

Behan was a heavy drinker from an early age and became famous for his drunken television appearances. Despite developing diabetes and suffering from regular seizures, he refused to stop drinking. Behan was good friends with the American actor and musician, Jackie Gleason, after they appeared on television together. He married Beatrice Salkeld in 1955 and their daughter was born in 1963, less than a year before Behan collapsed and died in Dublin, aged 41. He received a full IRA guard of honor at his funeral.