Brendan Behan

This months hell raiser was written by the smart fella’s writing for the excellent blog Londoncelticpunks, who gave us kind permission to reproduce the article here

REMEMBERING BRENDAN BEHAN 1923-1964

‘Streams Of Whiskey’ – The Pogues

“Last night as I slept
I dreamt I met with Behan
Shook him by the hand and we passed the time of day
When questioned on his views
On the crux of life’s philosophies
He had but these few clear and simple words to say

I am going, I am going
Any which way the wind may be blowing
I am going, I am going
Where streams of whiskey are flowing

I have cursed, bled and sworn
Jumped bail and landed up in jail
Life has often tried to stretch me
But the rope always was slack
And now that I’ve a pile
I’ll go down to the Chelsea
I’ll walk in on my feet
But I’ll leave there on my back

Oh the words that he spoke
Seemed the wisest of philosophies
There’s nothing ever gained
By a wet thing called a tear
When the world is too dark
And I need the light inside of me
I’ll go into a bar and drink
Fifteen pints of beer”

written by Shane MacGowan

Video of song here>http://youtu.be/hkGMH-mIc4k

The “rough” look

If there was ever a writer who could symbolise celtic-punk it would be Brendan Francis Behan. The man who, along with Luke Kelly, our very own Shane MacGowan seems to taken most inspiration from. Today is the 91st anniversary of his birth so we thought we’d enlighten those of you who do not know him or his works.

Most famous for his earthy satire and political opinions. While he was not in jail, or the pub, Behan worked odd jobs and wrote plays and stories that depicted the life of the working classes. Several of his books were banned in Ireland and he spent most of the years from 1939 to 1946 in English and Irish penal institutions on political charges. However, his writings are lively, full of humour, and, somewhat surprisingly, do not show signs of anger or bitterness toward the world at large.

“… 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.”

Early Life and Family Background

Born into inner-city Dublin he lived his childhood in the slums of the city. In spite of the surroundings, he did not end up becoming an unlettered slum lad. Much of his education was owed to his family, well-read, and of strong Republican sympathies. Behan’s family on both sides was traditionally anti-British. His uncle Peader Kearney was the author of the Irish national anthem, ‘The 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. Brendan’s brother Dominic became a dramatist, too, and gained also success and a balladeer and singer.

At Behan’s birth, his father, a housepainter and Republican activist, was being held in a British compound due to his involvement in the Irish uprising of 1916-1922. Behan’s mother had previously been married to another Republican, who had died during the influenza epidemic of 1918. Brendan attended Catholic schools until age 14, after which he left his studies and worked as a house painter. From the age of nine, he served in the Fianna, a youth organization tied to the IRA, and by the late 1930s, he was working as an IRA messenger boy.

Arrests and Imprisonment

In 1939, Behan was arrested in Liverpool on a sabotage mission following a deadly explosion in Coventry. He was sentenced to three years in a Borstal reform school for attempting to blow up a battleship in Liverpool harbor. After his release, he returned to Ireland, but in 1942, he was sentenced to 14 years for the attempted murder of two detectives. Behan served time at Mountjoy Prison and the Curragh Military Camp, until his release in 1946 under a general amnesty. He resumed house painting and joined Dublin’s literary underground, which included Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, J.P. Donleavy, and Sean O’Sullivan.

In 1947, Behan was imprisoned again in Manchester, serving a short term for allegedly helping an IRA prisoner escape. Reflecting on the nature of political violence, Behan ironically noted that “the man with a big bomb is a statesman, while the man with a small bomb is a terrorist.

Stages of madness

During his years in prison, Behan started to write, mainly short stories in an inventive stylization of Dublin dialect. The Landlady was written at the Curragh. Gretna Green, about the execution of two Irishmen, was produced at the Queen’s Theatre as a part of a Republican commemorative concert. In 1955 Behan married Beatrice ffrench-Salkeld, a painter and the daughter of noted Dublin artist, Cecil Salkeld. The marriage did not stop him from continuing his self-destructive life-style, even after he was diagnosed as diabetic.

Behan’s best-known novel, Borstal Boy (1958), drew its material from his experiences in a Liverpool jail and Borstal. The young narrator progresses from a rebellious adolescent to greater understanding of himself and the world:

“There were few Catholics in this part of the world and the priest had a forlorn sort of a job but Walton had cured me of any idea that religion of any description had anything to do with mercy or pity or love.”

Behan also sailed intermittently on ships, as he had become a certified seaman in 1949. However, at the beginning of his career, Behan faced difficulties in getting his plays performed in Ireland. The Quare Fellow, based on his prison experiences, was initially turned down by both the Abbey Theatre and the Gate. Nevertheless, it eventually found success at the Pike Theatre Club in 1954, gaining critical acclaim. As a result, reviewers began to compare him to a new Sean O’Casey, and the play was transferred to London’s West End for a six-month run. The events of the play are set during the twenty-four hours preceding an execution, which is thought to have contributed to the eventual abolition of capital punishment in Britain. Additionally, Behan often attacked the false piety behind public attitudes toward issues such as sex, politics, and religion..

Behan found fame difficult. He had long been a heavy drinker describing himself on one occasion as

“a drinker with a writing problem”

and claiming

“I only drink on two occasions—when I’m thirsty and when I’m not”

and developed diabetes in the early 1960s. As his fame grew, so too did his alcohol consumption. This combination resulted in a series of famously drunken public appearances, on both stage and television.

In free flow

Among Behan’s other dramas are The Big House (1957), a radio play written for the BBC, and The Hostage (1958), written in Gaelic under the title An Giall and set in a disreputable Dublin lodging house, brothel!,owned by a former IRA commander. This play, perhaps Behan’s most enduring work, was first produced in Irish at the Damer Hall in Dublin and then in London, Paris, and New York. It depicts events that surround the execution of an eighteen-year-old IRA member in a Belfast jail. The audience never sees him. He has been accused of killing an Ulster policeman and sentenced to be hanged. A young British soldier, Leslie Williams, is held hostage in the brothel. After the IRA prisoner has been executed, Leslie is eventually killed in a gunfight, when the police attack the place. Before it a love story develops between Leslie and Teresa, a young girl, who promises never to forget him. In the finale Leslie’s corpse rises and sings:

The bells of hell
Go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me.
Oh death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling
Or grave thy victory?

In his dramas Behan used song, dance, and direct addresses to the audience. Occasionally the author himself would appear in the audience and criticize the actors and shout instructions to the director. Several of Behan’s works were staged at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, which left deep impact on modern theatrical style. Littlewood viewed the theatre as a collective and revised much of his script for The Hostage-the author himself approved all changes.

Notoriety and critical attention came to Behan in the mid-1950s and contributed to his downfall, fuelled by his prolonged drinking bouts and belligerent behaviour.

“An Anglo-Irishman only works at riding horses, drinking whisky and reading double-meaning books in Irish at Trinity College”

Brendan Behan wrote The Hostage, his last major drama, while his final books consisted mainly of anecdotes transcribed from recordings. Like Dylan Thomas, Americans lionized Behan to the point of exhaustion. Unfortunately, his lifelong battle with alcoholism cut his career short, and he died in a Dublin hospital on March 20, 1964, at the young age of 41. The IRA gave Behan an honorary guard, and several newspapers described his funeral as the largest since those of Michael Collins and Charles Stewart Parnell. . According to the United States Library of Congress, Behan remains one of the most important Irish literary figures of the 20th century. Although he left behind a lasting legacy, one can’t help but wonder what more he might have achieved if he had managed to lay off the bottle.

On the banks of the Royal Canal

‘BRENDAN BEHAN’S DUBLIN’: RTE documentary from 1966.

SELECTED WORKS:

The Quare Fellow,1954 – Film adaptation in 1962, dir. Arthur Dreifuss, starring Patrick McGoohan.
Borstal Boy, 1958
Brendan Behan’s Island – An Irish Sketchbook, 1962
Hold Your Hour and Have Another, 1963
The Scarperer, 1964
Brendan Behan’s New York, 1964
Confessions of an Irish Rebel, 1965
After The Wake, 1981
The Letters of Brendan Behan, 1991
The King of Ireland’s Son, 1997

The Auld Triangle…

Video here>http://youtu.be/aa7birRBmNM

A hungry feeling, came o’er me stealing

And the mice they were squealing in my prison cell

And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle