Letters of Brendan Behan 9780773563247

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T

Also by E. H. Mikhail

THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL SETTING OF THE 1890s JOHN GALSWORTHY THE DRAMATIST COMEDY AND TRAGEDY SEAN O'CASEY: A Bibliography of Criticism A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MODERN IRISH DRAMA 1899-1970 DISSERTATIONS ON ANGLO-IRISH DRAMA THE STING AND THE TWINKLE: Conversations with Sean O'Casey (co-editor with John O'Riordari) ]. M. SYNGE: A Bibliography of Criticism CONTEMPORARY BRITISH DRAMA 1950-1976 J. M. SYNGE: Interviews and Recollections (editor) W. B. YEATS: Interviews and Recollections (two volumes) (editor) ENGLISH DRAMA 1900-1950 LADY GREGORY: Interviews and Recollections (editor) OSCAR WILDE: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism OSCAR WILDE: Interviews and Recollections (two volumes) (editor) A RESEARCH GUIDE TO MODERN IRISH DRAMATISTS THE ART OF BRENDAN BEHAN BRENDAN BEHAN: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MODERN ANGLOIRISH DRAMA LADY GREGORY: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism BRENDAN BEHAN: Interviews and Recollections (two volumes) (editor)

SEAN O'CASEY AND HIS CRITICS THE ABBEY THEATRE: Interviews and Recollections (editor) JAMES JOYCE: Interviews and Recollections (editor) SHERIDAN: Interviews and Recollections (editor)

The Letters of Brendan Behan Edited y E.H. Mi ail

McGill—Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • Buffalo

Brendan Behan's letters © Mrs Beatrice Behan 1992 Selection and editorial matter © E. H. Mikhail 1992 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. First published in Canada by McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0-7735-0888-0 Legal deposit first quarter 1992 Bibliotheque national du Quebec First published in Britain in 1992 by Macmillan Academic and Professional Ltd Printed in Hong Kong

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Behan, Brendan The letters of Brendan Behan Includes index. ISBN 0-7735-0888-0 I. Behan, Brendan—Correspondence. 2. Authors, Irish-20th century—Correspondence. I. Mikhail, E. H. (Edward Halim), 1926- II. Title. PR6003.E417Z48 1992 822'.914 C91-090349-2

Contents vi vii ix xiii

List of Plates Acknowledgements Introduction Biographical Chronology THE LETTERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1932-1939: Youth 3 1942-1948: In and Out of Prison 11 1951-1956: Freelance Journalist 39 1957: A Busy Year for Correspondence 85 1958: International Travel — Spain, Sweden 141 1959: Berlin, Paris; First Breakdown 167 1960: Dublin, London, New York; Second Breakdown 173 1961: 11000 miles across USA, Canada and Mexico 1962: New York, Dublin, London, France 211 1963: The Last Two Letters 227

Appendix A: Index of Recipients Appendix B: Select Bibliography of Behan's Works Subject Index

v

233 235 236

List of Plates 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Brendan Behan in Sean O'Sullivan's studio, St Stephen's Green, Dublin Brendan Behan, working in Dublin Brendan Behan, with the original cast of The Quare Fellow Brendan Behan, 1958, in Sweden at the invitation of Dr Olof Lagerlof In Tijuana, Mexico: Brendan Behan, friend Peter Arthurs and Beatrice Behan Brendan Behan, working in New York Brendan Behan in New York Brendan Behan at the Algonquin Hotel, New York

vi

Acknowledgements I am grateful to all my benefactors who have given rne much help and kindness in the preparation of this work. My first thanks are due to Mrs Beatrice Behan, the widow of Brendan Behan and owner of the copyright in his letters. Mrs Behan has throughout generously helped me with encouragement, information and forbearance. Mrs Rae Jeffs (now Mrs Peter A. Sebley) had the foresight to save Brendan's correspondence in Hutchinson's files and she willingly made it available to me. Mr Seamus de Burca, Brendan's cousin, provided much-needed personal reminiscences and family histories. Mr Rory Furlong, Brendan's stepbrother, volunteered contacts that have led to the discovery of some correspondence. Mr Ulick O'Connor, Brendan's biographer, graciously gave me the benefit of his experience and answered my many queries. Mr Nick Hern combed through the files of Eyre Methuen. Mr Cathal Goulding has always been more than willing to assist me. Both Mr Iain Hamilton and Sir Robert Lusty have kindly given me permission to quote from their correspondence with Brendan. All these helpers have laboured far beyond the call of friendship, duty or scholarship; and I am profoundly in their debt. The book benefited greatly from the translations of Gaelic texts into English by Dr Richard Wall and Mr Micheal 6 hAodha; from the comments and suggestions made by Mr John Ryan, Dr Richard Wall and Dr Brian Tyson; from the preparation of the final typescript by Miss Bea Ramtej; and from the patience and encouragement of my wife Isabelle. Thanks are also due to the University of Lethbridge for granting me a sabbatical leave to complete this work; and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for awarding me a Research Grant as well as a Leave Fellowship without which this volume could not have come into existence. It is also a pleasant duty to record my appreciation to the staff of the University of Lethbridge Library; the Fales Library of New York University; the Morris Library of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; the National Library of Ireland; the Royal Irish Academy; the British Library, London; and the Newspaper Library, Colindale. Some editorial material has been derived from previously published works, particularly the books by Mr Ulick O'Connor, Mrs Rae Jeffs, Mrs Beatrice Behan, and Mr Seamus de Burca. vii

viii

Acknowledgements

My gratitude is also due to the following for support, encouragement, assistance, information, editorial material, or notification of the whereabouts of certain letters: Dr Les Allen; Professor William A. Armstrong; Mr Tony Aspler; the Honourable David Astor; Mr G. H. M. B. Baird; Mr Francis Balle of the Institut Francais de Presse et des Sciences d'Information; Mr Brian Behan; Mrs Kathleen Behan; Mr Bob Bradshaw; Professor Bernard Benstock; Dr Cheryl Calver; Mrs Aline Chapman; Mr Philip Connolly; Ms Hilary Cummings of the Morris Library at Southern Illinois University; Mr Kenneth W. Duckett; Ms Ellen S. Dunlap of the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas; Mr Thomas Doran; Professor Ruth Dudley Edwards; Mr John Feeney; Dr Monk Gibbon; Miss Ann Louise Gilligan; Mrs Imelda Gilligan; Ms Katherine F. Gould of the Library of Congress; Dr Theodore Greider; Ms Gillian Greenwood, Assistant Editor of Books and Bookmen; Miss Rosemary Howard; Miss Joanne Hurst of the New Statesman; Mr Valentin Iremonger; Mr Sean Kavanagh; Mr Fred Keefe of the New Yorker; Mr Benedict Kiely; Professor David Krause; Dr Olof Lagerlof; Mr Tony Lennon; Fr Uegene McCarthy; Mr Riobard Mac Gorain; Mr Desmond MacNamara; Miss Deirdre McQuillan; Mr Eamonn Martin; Mr Claude Marks; Mr Paul Myers, Curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library; Ms Kathleen R. Nathan of Hutchinson Publishing Group Limited; Miss Ide niThuama of the Royal Irish Academy; Mrs David O'Connell; Mr Sean O'Faolain; Mr Micheal 6 hAodha; Miss Mary O'Neill; Mr and Mrs John O'Riordan; Mr Corey Phelps; Professor Mark Roberts; Mr Bernard Rogan; Mr John Ryan; Miss Celia Salkeld; Mr Jim Savage; Mr Lee Savage; the late Alan Simpson; Ms Carolyn Swift; Mr Herbert Tarr; Mr Mickey Traynor; Mr Sindbad Vail; Dr Richard Wall; Mr Joe Walsh, and Mr John Gillard Watson. Although the task of locating, collecting, and editing this correspondence has been mine, all those mentioned in these acknowledgements have been the guiding genius behind this book. If the names of any helpers have been inadvertently omitted, I beg their forgiveness and should like to thank them collectively.

E. H. MIKHAIL

Introduction Brendan Behan - unlike W. B. Yeats, Sean O'Casey, and Bernard Shaw was not a diligent letter-writer. Almost everyone connected with him testified to this fact. According to his widow, Beatrice, he was 'not much given to letter writing'.1 His cousin, Seamus de Burca, quoted him as saying: 'Whoever writes my biography will get no help from my letters. I never write any.'2 Rae Jeffs, the editor of his tape-recorded works, noticed that 'he was now using the telephone instead, possibly because he found it a less troublesome, if more expensive, way of communicating'.3 This was confirmed by Micheal O hAodha, the drama director, who wrote that 'Behan's letters are fairly scarce as he usually 'phoned';4 by Riobard MacGorain, of the Irish language organisation, Gael-Linn, who said that Brendan 'wasn't normally a letter-writer. The phone was his prime medium of communication in dealing with individuals';5 and by Sindbad Vail, the former editor of the Paris periodical Points, who asked 'I wonder how many he wrote and how many are available?' Brendan himself seemed to agree when he wrote to his halfbrother, Rory: 'One of the reasons I never write letters is that I can get more than a dollar a word for writing.' This claim of not being among the most prolific of letter-writers had also been made by Oscar Wilde. 'I never answer or write letters', as Coulson Kernan quoted him as saying.8 Both Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan, however, turned out not to be bad correspondents after all, considering their meteoric careers and their deaths at a relatively early age. Wilde, for example, corresponded with some eleven different periodicals; Behan with seventeen. This compares very favourably with Yeats, who corresponded with nineteen periodicals, although he lived much longer than either Wilde and Behan. As in the case of Wilde, the search for Behan's letters has been hampered by their dispersal; they have been widely scattered and keep turning up in unexpected places. Moreover, some correspondents have not preserved their letters. Yet those letters that have been saved and included in this collection are certainly worth the trouble of uncovering. Those who have never had the chance to meet Brendan will not recapture the art of his talking from his writings; the nearest approach to this is perhaps by way of his letters, particularly those written without thought of publication. Since Brendan put into spoken spontaneous drama a thousand times more ix

x

Introduction

energy than he put into his more enduring writing, the search for his meanings and motives in what he left is limited. Brendan led the most public of private lives, so public — in fact almost monstrously so towards the end - that the world at large took its attention from what he wrote and focused it on him. Although Behan's dramatic output was limited, he made a deep impression on the British theatre. The Hostage opened in London to rave reviews from the critics. Kenneth Tynan went out on a limb and declared that Brendan Behan stood a good chance of filling the place vacated by Sean O'Casey.9 The Quare Fellow had already succeeded beyond the wildest expectation. No other recent Irish playwright had, in the 1950s, scored a success with West End audiences comparable with that of Brendan Behan. Despite the global fame of W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge and Sean O'Casey, they had largely failed to engage the attention or support of the London entertainment-seekers. The Hostage and The Quare Fellow alone, together with the autobiographical Borstal Boy, constitute an ceuvre — enough to justify Behan's existence as a writer. *

*

*

The majority of the letters printed here have been transcribed from the originals or from photostats. Where the originals have eluded my search, some letters have been taken from copies, or from drafts found among Behan's papers. Letters to the Press are reprinted from the files of the newspapers in which they appeared, from carbon copies preserved by Mrs Beatrice Behan, or from clippings in my own scrapbook. Whenever possible, the present location or ownership of the letters is indicated at the end of each headnote. Where applicable details of any previous publication are given. Any variance between the present text and that of a previously published one is also pointed out. Brendan Behan obviously wrote most of these letters with no idea that they would ever appear in print. However, I have retained his original spelling as it would contribute to the sense of his character coming through his letters. Corrections or additions editorially supplied are enclosed within square brackets. A certain amount of annotation of the letters seemed to be necessary to explain or to elaborate references which might otherwise be obscure. I have tried to make the notes as brief as possible, and have not given many cross-references, trusting that the index will give sufficient help when necessary. All dates editorially supplied are enclosed within square brackets. In the case of the letters to newspapers, whenever the date of

Introduction

xi

writing was not available I cited the date of publication, also in square brackets. Foreign words have been italicised. Brendan, like J. M. Synge, was always careful about the dates of his letters. By contrast, Oscar Wilde seldom dated his letters; and W. B. Yeats rarely mentioned the year in which he wrote, sometimes merely giving the month or the day of the week, sometimes no date whatever. Brendan, however, did not stick to one form of date; his letters carried such different forms as: 25-11-42; 15-6-43; December 4, '43; 18 May, '46; 6-IV-46; 26th February, 1956; July 8th, 1957; 12th of August, 1957; 1 October 1957; 9th November 1957; or 24.6.1958. Nor was Brendan consistent in signing his letters. Whereas Yeats almost invariably signed his name in full, 'W. B. Yeats' — even in letters to his father, his sisters, or his most intimate friends - Brendan's various forms of signature included 'Brendan', 'B.F.B.', 'B.B.', 'Breandan O Beachain', 'Brendan Behan', 'Breandan', 'F. Scott Behan', 'Yubil', and Tig'. Brendan's spelling, like Wilde's, was usually correct, though Wilde often misspelled proper names, even places like Babbacombe and Berneval, where he stayed for several months. Yeats, on the other hand, was an uncertain and erratic speller, as he was always ready to admit. In his earlier letters spelling mistakes, are on the whole, infrequent; but as he grew older, his spelling deteriorated. Again, Brendan's punctuation, on the whole, was correct. At least, it was neither like Wilde's, which consisted mainly of short dashes representing every kind of stop, nor like that of Yeats, which was often chaotic. Yeats wrote to Robert Bridges in 1915: 'I do not understand stops. I write my work so completely for the ear that I feel helpless when I have to measure pauses by stops and commas.'10 On at least one occasion he invoked Ezra Pound's help in the punctuation of a book of his verse. Brendan, likewise, always sought the help of his editors.11 Other peculiarities of Brendan's writing include his use of capital R and B rather than their lower-case equivalents — even in the middle of a word. This recalls Wilde's erratic use of capital letters T and H. To perpetuate this whim, however, would only irritate the reader, and I have followed the standard usage wherever the capital clearly has no significance. Nor could Brendan distinguish between the possessive 'its' and the contractive 'it's'. Another grammatical mistake he frequently made was the common one of using the double negative. I have reparagraphed a few of Brendan's letters as he sometimes either wrote very short paragraphs, or used wrong paragraph beginnings. Most of Brendan's letters were typed, unless a typewriter was not available. This is the first letter I ever wrote to you in long hand (which I am not good at)', he wrote to Iain Hamilton in September 1957.

xii

Introduction

The list of correspondents is indeed various; for in addition to letters to the editors, the recipients included relations, friends, IRA colleagues, civil servants, theatrical directors, publicans and complete strangers. There are two letters to schoolchildren written when Brendan was at the top of his fame. Four unpublished poems by him appear here for the first time. Some letters contain extracts from his early writings, such as The Landlady, which has not yet been published. Others reveal his competence in both the Irish and the French languages. Most of them, however, throw light on his views on various matters such as nationalism and religion; or on his outlook on life in general. There are some letters to the editors — also published here for the first time — which were refused publication because of their outspokenness. Others, previously cut or censored, now appear in their original form. It is hoped that these letters will explode the myth of the boisterous performer in order to restore the reality of the artist and the man.

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) p. 63. Seamus de Burca, Brendan Behan; A Memoir (Newark, Delaware: Proscenium Press, 1971) p. 14. Rae Jeffs, Brendan Behan: Man and Showman (London: Hutchinson, 1966) p. 103. In a letter to the present editor dated 24 August 1979. In a letter to the present editor dated 21 September 1979. In a letter to the present editor dated 3 September 1979. In a letter to Rory Furlong dated 19 May 1961. Coulson Kernan, In Good Company: Some Personal Recollections (London: John Lane, 1917) p. 193. Kenneth Tynan, 'New Amalgam', The Observer (London) 19 October 1958, p. 19. The letters of W. B. Yeats, edited by Allan Wade (London: Rupert HartDavis, 1954), p. 598. Cf. 'I asked just how much rewriting was done on his books and articles and plays. "Ah, an ocean of new words," he said, "but despite what you read, I do it myself, naturally with the help of editors and directors. And what's wrong with that?"' Walter Hackett, The Behan', Washington Post, 22 March 1964, Show Supplement, p. 61.

Biographical Chronology Life 1923

9 February

1928-34 1931 1934-37 1937

1939

November

1940

February

1941

November

1942

April

Brendan Behan born in Dublin, the first child of Stephen and Kathleen (Kearney) Behan. Mrs Behan had been married before to Jack Furlong, who died leaving her with two young sons, Rory and Sean. Attends School of the French Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, North William Street, Dublin. Joins Fianna Eireann (the Republican scout organisation founded by Countess Markievicz). Attends Irish Christian Brothers' School at St Canice's, North Circular Road, Dublin. Attends Day Apprentice School to learn the trade of house-painting. Dublin Corporation relocates the Behans in a housing estate in Crumlin. Joins the Irish Republican Army (IRA), transferring from Fianna Eireann. Volunteers to fight in Spain on the Republican side. First article published in An Phoblact (The Republic). Arrested in Liverpool for illegal IRA bombplanting activity and remanded in Walton Jail. Tried and sentenced to three years Borstal (i.e. reform) treatment in Hollesley Bay Borstal Institution, Suffolk, England. Released and deported to Ireland under an Expulsion Order. Involved in shooting incident at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on the day of the annual Easter Sunday commemoration of the Rising of 1916; sentenced to fourteen years for shooting at a policeman; begins sentence in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. xiii

xiv 1942

Biographical Chronology June

1 become a Borstal Boy', his first story, published in The Bell 1943 July Transferred to Arbour Hill Military Prison, Dublin. 1944 June Transferred to the Curragh Internment Camp, County Kildare. 1946 November Released from prison in the General Amnesty. 1946—51 Becomes severally housepainter, seaman, and sometime smuggler. 1947 January Goes to the Blasket Islands, County Kerry, and lays the basis for Brendan Behan's Island. March Arrested in Manchester for attempting to free an IRA prisoner from an English jail. July Released from Strangeways Jail (the same prison that had held his Grannie Furlong and Aunt Emily, who had been jailed for running a safe house for the IRA bomb campaign in 1939). 1948 May Sentenced to one month with hard labour in Mount]oy Prison for assaulting a policeman. August Goes to live in Paris. 1951—6 Works as a freelance journalist. 1952 October Arrested at Newhaven, Sussex, for evading a deportation order. November Released from Lewes Prison, Sussex; visits Samuel Beckett in Paris. 1953 October— The Scarperer, by 'Emmet Street', published November serially in The Irish Times. 1954 April Begins weekly column in The Irish Press. November The Quare Fellow, directed by Alan Simpson, opens at the Pike Theatre, Dublin. 1955 February Marries Beatrice ffrench-Salkeld, daughter of the Irish artist Cecil Salkeld, at the Sacred Heart Church, Donnybrook. 1956 May The Quare Fellow, directed by Joan Littlewood, opens at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London. September- Borstal Boy published serially in the Irish edition October of the Sunday Dispatch. November The Quare Fellow published. 1957 January Draft of Borstal Boy accepted for publication by Hutchinson.

Biographical Chronology 1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

March January April

xv

Begins An Giall (The Hostage) in Irish. Goes to Ibiza, Spain. Goes to Paris to discuss the production of The Quare Fellow. June An Giall opens at Damer Hall, Dublin. August Goes to Sweden. Starts translation of An Giall. October The Hostage, directed by Joan Littlewood, opens at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London. Borstal Boy published. November The Quare Fellow, directed by Jose Quintero, opens off-Broadway, New York. December The Hostage published. March Goes to Berlin for the opening of The Quare Fellow. April Goes to Paris. The Hostage selected to represent Great Britain at the Theatre des Nations Festival. July The Hostage moves to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End of London. Suffers first serious breakdown. January Tapes Brendan Behan's Island in Dublin. March Begins Richard's Cork Leg. Goes to London. Second breakdown. September Goes to New York for the opening of The Hostage at the Cort Theatre. December Returns to Dublin. January Translates Richard's Cork Leg into Irish. A Fine Day in the Graveyard, a one-act play in Irish, rejected by Gael Linn. March Travels 11 000 miles across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. Spends two periods in hospital. July Returns to Dublin. September- The Big House published in the Evergreen Review. October Film version of The Quare Fellow opens in London. February Returns to New York for the off-Broadway production of The Hostage. March Returns to Dublin. July The Hostage selected in France as the best play of the season. September Goes to London. Enters home for alcoholics.

xvi

Biographical Chronology October November

1963

1964

February April July September November December January 20 March

Brendan Behan's Island published. Goes to France to recuperate. Returns to Dublin after failure of cure. Takes final trip to USA. Tapes Confessions of an Irish Rebel in New York. Returns to Dublin and to hospital. Hold Your Hour and Have Another published. Tapes Brendan Behan's New York in Dublin. Blanaid Behan born. Enters hospital. Hospitalised intermittently. Dies in Meath Hospital, Dublin.

Posthumous Events 1964 1965 1967 1972 1973

June September September March

The Scarperer published. Brendan Behan's New York published. Confessions of an Irish Rebel published. Moving Out and A Garden Party, edited by Robert Hogan, published. Richard's Cork Leg, directed by Alan Simpson, opens at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin. Richard's Cork Leg published.

The Letters

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1 1932-1939: Youth

4

The Letters of Brendan Behan

1

To TERESA BYRNE

By the time Brendan Behan was 9, he was writing letters in verse to his friends. On day, as a result of a joke he played on his little girl friend, Teresa Byrne, he got her into trouble with the nuns of her school, and wrote her a poem of apology. He had written an essay in Gaelic for her and had included derogatory references to the morals of the nuns in the middle of it, which she had not noticed, not being very good at the language in which she was writing the essay. (First published in Lllick O'Connor, Brendan Behan, 1970. In the possession of Teresa Byrne.)

1932-7939; Youth

5

[c. 1932] Teresa I am sorry If I got you bashed in school. It was a stupid thing to do And I feel an awful fool. I was really raging When I heard you went to the pics With, of all the eejits,1 Snotty-nosed Paddy Fitz. I think you were awfully decent Not to give my name. Not even to your Da or Ma, But shouldered all the blame. Oh, what can I do now, love, To restore our happiness? Will I go across to Gill's Pub2 And to your Ma confess? Actually, Teresa, I've just got two and six3 So will you stop sulking in the parlour And go with me to the flicks?4 I'll take you to the Drummer To the ninepenny cushion seats, And that will leave me with a bob5 To get you oranges and sweets. To give this its proper ending I'll wind up with yours for ever, Brendan.

6

The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

Dublin pronunciation of 'idiots'. On Russell Street, where Brendan grew up. Teresa Byrne remembers Brendan going out regularly to get pints for her aunt in a can, drinking half of it before he returned, and filling the can up with water to cover the deficiency. When her aunt used to remark that Mr Gill was giving a very poor pint, 'the cheeky bugger would go back and make Mr Gill fill up the can again'. Cf. 'When they hadn't any money, they would stand on the corner beside Jemmy Gill's pub, waiting to see what the day's luck would bring', Kathleen Behan, Mother of All the Behans: The Autobiography of Kathleen Behan As Told to Brian Behan (London: Hutchinson, 1984) p. 61. Two shillings and sixpence (now 12% new pence). Colloquial for cinema. Colloquial for shilling.

1932-193 9: Youth

7

2

To the Editor of THE IRISH DEMOCRAT

'A Kick in the Neck for Answering Yes', The Irish Democrat (Dublin) I, no. 32 (6 November 1937) p. 3.

[6 November 1937] A Chomhraid Delis1 — In a note on an excellent article by a lad of sixteen from Belfast, you ask for contributions from young readers of your virile paper. After fourteen years of it, I've come to the conclusion that it's a mad world, and one of the maddest things the inhabitants of this mad universe stand for is the rotten educational system imposed upon us, as your brainy contributor, R. G., of Belfast, says.2 I didn't know anything about the system in his part of our mutilated country, but I know of my own experience in a Southern Christian Brothers school.3 Now don't get me wrong. It's not the fault of the Christian Brothers. I'm all for them. One of them taught me the bit of Irish I know. It's the fault of the system. My teacher, for catechism instruction, used to read a chapter of Hogan's Could Ireland Become Communist?* For giving a very definite answer in the affirmative, I got a kick in the neck. Not from him, but from the lay teacher. As the Northerner said at the football final-: 'Up Down!'5 - B.F.B.,6 Baile Atha Cliath.7

8

The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7.

Dear Comrade. R. G., 'A Youth's View of Education', The Irish Democrat (Dublin), I, no. 29 (16 October 1937) p. 3. Brendan attended the Irish Christian Brothers' School at St Canice's, North Circular Road, Dublin, from 1934 to 1937. From 1928 to 1934 he had been attending the School of the French Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, North William Street, Dublin. James Hogan, Could Ireland Become Communist? The Facts of the Case (Dublin: Cahill, 1935). Hogan was Professor of History at University College, Cork. Down is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. Brendan Francis Behan. Dublin.

9

1932-1939: Youth

3 To BRIAN BEHAN

In 1939, Brendan's brother Brian, who was 12, was sentenced to four years in detention in an approved school in the village of Artane, 'He mitched from school, and in the end off he went.' Brendan wrote to him from Liverpool when he was in Borstal. The following fragment of this letter is quoted by Kathleen Behan in Mother of All the Behans: The Autobiography of Kathleen Behan As Told to Brian Behan (London: Hutchinson, 1984), p. 103.

[1939] Keep your heart up. The darkest hour is before the dawn.

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2 1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

12

The Letters of Brendan Behan

4

To SEAMUS G. O'KELLY

On Good Friday, 3 April 1942, Brendan called on his IRA friend Seamus G. O'Kelly, told him that he was on the run, and asked him to keep a parcel for him for the night. 'Within seconds he was opening a parcel on the living-room table. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw the contents. There were several coils of wire, about 100 detonators, and a .45 \Mebley revolver,'1 The next day Brendan sent the following message, by hand.

[4 April 1942] Please give bearer my equipment.

B.B.

Note 1.

See Seamus G. O'Kelly, 'Brendan as I Knew Him: The Day He Fired 10 Shots in the Cemetery', Evening Herald (Dublin), 1 April 1964, p. 4.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

13

5 To JIM SAVAGE

In April 1942, Brendan was sentenced to fourteen years for shooting at a policeman at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on the day of the annual Easter Sunday commemoration of the Rising of 1916. He began his sentence in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, where he met Jim Savage, also an IRA prisoner, to whom he wrote this note. Jim Savage now lives in Cork and contributes to such periodicals as The Advocate (New York), the United Irishman (Dublin), the Theoiric (Dublin), and the Irish Socialist (Dublin). (This letter is in the possession of Jim Savage.)

[15 April 1942] Red Front!1 Brendan Behan 3501 H. M Prison Liverpool 1939-41.2 Rearrested Mountjoy Prison. Attempted murder (amongst other things) of Broy Harriers 5th April '42.3 "The great only appear so because we are on our knees. Let us rise." J. Connolly.4 Breandan O Beachain Dublin

14

The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2.

3.

4.

Term used by left-wing people during the period 1936-40. Brendan did not spend all this period in Liverpool. In November 1939 he was arrested in Liverpool for illegal IRA bomb-planting activity and was remanded in Walton Jail. In February 1940 he was tried and sentenced to three years Borstal (i.e. reform) treatment in Hollesley Bay Borstal Institution, Suffolk, England. He was released in November 1941. The Broy Harriers was the nickname of the Special Branch set up by Eamon De Valera (1882-1975) when he dismissed General Eoin O'Duffy (1892-1944) as Police Commissioner in 1933 and listed Colonel Eamonn Broy (1887-1972) to try to crush the 'Blue-Shirts' and the IRA. There is a play on the name of The Bray Harriers', a cross-country running club. (Bray is a small town near Dublin.) Behan introduced the 'Broy Harrier' into An Giall See Poems and a Play in Irish (Dublin: Gallery Press, 1981) p. 73. James Connolly (1868—1916) Irish labour leader, socialist theoretician, and nationalist. His prolific writing practically always had an immediate propagandist function, and much of it has a fiery, if traditional, vigour.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

15

6 To PEARSE KEARNEY

In November 1942, Brendan's uncle Peadar Kearney died. Still in Mountjoy Prison, Brendan applied to the Governor for permission to attend the funeral The Minister, Gerry Boland, replied 'I wouldn't let Brendan Behan out on a chain.' On this occasion Brendan wrote this letter to his uncle's elder son, Pearse. (First published in Seamus de Burca, Brendan Behan: A Memoir, 19 71. In thd possession of de Burca.)

Brendan Behan Republican Prisoner Mount] oy Jail1 Dublin 25-11-42

A Piarais, a Cara Dilis2 Yesterday morning the Governor told me the news that at six o'clock that morning my Uncle Peadar died — needless to say it came as a very great shock to me — and a great blow.3 I know that it has been a terrible sorrow to yourself, Aunt Eva4 and Con.5 I would be pleased if you would besides accepting this token of my most sincere sympathy yourself, convey to Aunt Eva & Con my condolences. It would be presumption on my part were I to compare the deep sorrow Uncle Peadar's death caused me to the devastating blow that it was to Aunt Eva, & to you & Con, who had lost your father. But I know you will understand that I have lost a very dear friend — merely being my uncle would not have caused the deep affection in which I held him — after all you choose your friends but you can't help your relations — But my Uncle Peadar was the one, outside my own parents, who excited the admiration and love that is friendship. I tell you this so that you may understand this is not merely the usual and conventional expressions of sympathy from a relative. True I was proud that the same blood ran in our veins — the proudest moment of

16

The Letters of Brendan Behan

my varied existence was on Christmas Night 1939 when in the stillness of an English prison,6 and after a fight in which the Christian doctrine of Peace & Goodwill was battered into Irish heads with truncheons, an Irish voice rang out its defiance — 'You may laugh in your castles and hovels' — It was a soldier of the Royal Engineers reciting Peadar Kearney's To England'.7 I was with my Uncle Peadar a few times since I returned from England8 — the last time was in York House9 — one afternoon a short while before the Finglas Rd. affair10 took place — and he gave me what must have been one of his latest compositions — a parody on 'Drake's Drum' which is at home & which is one of my proudest possessions. I have written a rather poor tribute11 to one who will forever rank as a National Poet and I thought you might like a look at it so I enclose a copy. I have applied to the Government for parole to attend the funeral — so far I have received no reply — if I am not allowed to attend it please tell my mother that I will write next week. You needn't acknowledge this till some day when you have time but you can tell my mother that you got it. Please, I repeat, offer to Aunt Eva and Con my most sincere sympathy. Your cousin Brendan Behan. P.S. Give Jimmy Bourke12 my best regards if you see him. B. The O/C Republican Prisoners, Mount]oy, on behalf of himself and the Unit offers you his condolences.

Notes 1.

2. 3.

Mountj oy, the principal prison in Dublin, housed criminals of all sorts as well as political prisoners. It was to have one advantage at least for Brendan in later life. Mingling with the 'lags' there, he was able to get material which he used in his first successful play, The Quare Fellow. Pearse, dear friend. Peadar Kearney (1883—1942) Irish poet, songster, and patriot; brother of Kathleen Behan, Brendan's mother. Cf. 'Peadar Kearney, a brother of my mother's, author of the National Anthem and member of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood', Brendan Behan's Island (London: Hutchinson, 1962)

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. LO. LI. [2.

17

p. 87. See Seamus de Burca, The Soldier's Song: The Story of Peadar Kearney (Dublin: P.J. Bourke, 1957). Peadar Kearney's wife. See Peadar Kearney, My Dear Eva: Letters from Ballykinlar Internment Camp 1921, edited by Seamus de Burca (Dublin: P.J. Bourke, 1976). Colbert Kearney, Peadar Kearney's younger son. Walton Jail. A poem written by Peadar Kearney on the death of Thomas Ashe, who died in Mountjoy Prison from forcible feeding in 1917. Brendan was released from Hollesley Bay Borstal Institution in November 1941 and was deported to Ireland under an Expulsion Order. A working-men's club in Dublin. Brendan's shooting at a policeman at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on the day of the annual Easter Sunday commemoration of the Rising of 1916. This poem, published here for the first time, appears after these notes. Seamus de Burca, Brendan's cousin. For a note on him see p. 20.

18

The Letters of Brendan Behan

7 Peadar O'Cearnaigh

1. The voice that spoke so clear for you is silenced His praising song is stilled, your squire of words Has fled the sweet yoke of your service, Muted his harp and scabbarded his sword. 2. The blood that ran red-hot in Easter's gladness In the fiery veins of blazing youth is chilled No more that loving heart beats for you, His eyes, their tender glance is dimmed. 3. In the company of your lovers long departed, Sweet patterns of your praising are being woven With Donncad Ruad, Mangan, Rooney, Davis,1 He's singing still the graces of his love.

Brendan Behan

Note 1. An echo of W. B. Yeats's litany of names in To Ireland in the Coming Times' can be detected here. Yeats places himself in 'company' (1.2) 'With Davis, Mangan, Ferguson' (1.18). Donncad Ruad (MacConmara), 1715-1810, is an important eighteenthcentury Irish poet. James Clarence Mangan (1803-49) and Thomas Davis (1814—45) are prominent early nineteenth-century nationalist poets. William Rooney (1873-1901) is a minor late nineteenthcentury nationalist poet.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

19

8

To THOMAS DORAN

Thomas Doran, who now lives in Dublin, went to school with Brendan and was a pal of his till his death. This note was inscribed in Mountjoy Prison, where Doran was also an IRA prisoner. (In the possession of Thomas Doran.)

15 April 1943 Beidh Id eile ag an bPaorach.1 Nil riogte na deactoin uainn ach ar dtir fern!2 Brendan Behan 1939 H.MPrison Liverpool. 1940 H.M.Prisons Wood Scrubs,3 Strangways & Fethams. 1940-1 H.M.B.I.4 Hollsley Bay Suffolks. 1942-3 H.M. "Gaelic" Prison The Joy5 (not a bad ould kip either).6 Someone else better start handing on the torch — me hands are burnt. When you're browned off think of Brian Boru.7

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Power will have another day. This is an Irish proverb which means 'Anyone gets another chance'. What we need is not kings or dictators but our country for ourselves! Wormwood. His Majesty's Borstal Institution. Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. Anglo-Irish term for brothel or hovel; from the Danish 'horekippe'. Brian Boru (926—1014), King of Ireland who was slain while defeating the Danes at the battle of Clontarf, near Dublin.

20

The Letters of Brendan Behan

9 To SEAMUS DE BURCA

In Brendan Behan; A Memoir (Newark, Delaware: Proscenium Press, 1971) Seamus de Burca stated that he had never received a letter from Brendan. He was influenced in this erroneous assumption by quoting Brendan as saying to him towards the end: 'Whoever writes my biography will get no help from the letters I have written . . . I never write letters.' Just after the Memoir was published, de Burca discovered this letter, which he published as an appendix to his Down to the Sea in a Tanker, 1972. Seamus de Burca [Jimmy Bourke] (1912— ) is an Irish playwright and director of theatrical costumiers in Dublin. He is Brendan's cousin and son of actor-playwright Patrick J. Bourke (1883-1932). (In the possession of de Burca.)

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison See you in church Brendan P.S. Letter for Sean1 Enclosed

21

BRENDAN BEHAN Republican Prisoner Mount]oy Jail2 15-6-43

A Seamuis a cam dil:3 I meant to write before but just didn't have a chance — listen. There was a bloke here, another mariner! and I lent him your article about the voyage on the Chesapeake4 — he evidently wanted to hold on to it so I gave it to him, which I'll admit I'd neither leave nor licence to do. But he was an ould mate of mine and I couldn't very well refuse him. But if you want it I can always write down & get it back from him. I hope you don't mind. I noticed O'F's note with it — just what exactly does he mean by literary form? I thoroughly enjoyed it especially the bit about Jim Patton (such I surmise is the real identity of "Batton") showing you how to work some machine or other with the example of a milk separator also you earnest dodging of the Chief Officer. The play I like to[o] but I don't know a good deal about plays. It went around a good few of the lads (again I hope you don't mind) and they all said they got a good laugh out of it - some of the dialogue between the ould fella and the girl were I think a little fruity of this holy island - But maybe that's only my bad mind. The bloke who went off with your article ( a feller that was at sea about 7 years) told me to tell you he enjoyed the Chesapeake yarn very much. I didn't get a word in edgeways with you on the visit — don't say this for God's sake to anyone - But what the hell did you want coming up with Fred6 and Sheila7 - I was looking forward to a real ould family gosther8 the next time you come up (we're getting a better sort of visit now, no cage)9 come up with one of the clan — Sean or my mother for instance. Of course I know you wouldn't say anything to Fred or Sheila about this. How's Peadar's Biography goin?10 — you promised to give us a look at some of it. My love to Aunt Maggie1 and the family especially Peadar12 and Patsy13. Patsy is a hard root — tell her, Dick was had up for the Stephens Green Loan Fund hold-up and only escaped a 10 year stretch by swearing blind he was at a Retreat when it took place. I was talking to him when he was on remand and he asked to be remembered to her. Regards to Chrissie15 and the kids. Brendan

22

The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15.

Sean Furlong, Brendan's half-brother. Brendan had three brothers Brian, Dominic, and Seamus; two half-brothers - Sean and Rory; and one sister, Carmel. Although the Censor's Regulations required prisoners to 'write on one side of the paper only', Brendan, ever a law unto himself, not only wrote this letter on both sides of the paper, but started it on the wrong side. James, dear friend. This narrative, first written in 1939, was not published until 1972, when it appeared as an appendix to Seamus de Burca's Down to the Sea in a Tanker (Dublin: P.J. Bourke, 1972). Sean O'Faolain (1900- ), Irish short-story writer. In a letter to the present editor dated 22 August 1983 Mr O'Faolain writes: 'But this phrase "literary form" (or "artistic form") has long been part of my credo that a writer (or any artist) can convey "meaning" by shapes and forms. The Ballet is an obvious example. Music is another. As for Poetry it has been said more than once that it is not (or not alone) what is said that speaks but how it is said. A shapeless work of art is thus to me inconceivable . . .' Freddy May, Brendan's friend who later became Musical Director of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Sheila May, Freddy's sister. Gossipy talk (Irish gasrdri). The normal prison visit meant that the visitor was in one cage and the prisoner in another, with a narrow corridor intervening. The condition of the prisoners had been improved to the extent that this indignity had been removed. de Burca's biography of Peadar Kearney, which was eventually published in 1957. Margaret Bourke, Kathleen Behan's sister. Peadar Bourke, Brendan's cousin. Patsy Bourke, Brendan's cousin. Dick Timmons, an IRA friend of Brendan's. In March 1947, an IRA friend asked Brendan if he would help to organise the escape of an IRA man from Wakefield Jail, and Brendan agreed. The prisoner was Dick Timmons. Christine, Seamus de Burca's wife.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

23

10

To SEAMUS DE BURCA

This three-page letter was discovered by de Burca's wife, Christine, in February 1976, (First published in Irish Press, 11 March 1976, p. 8. In the possession of Seamus de Burca.)

Arbour Hill Military Detention Barracks 16-8-43 Dear Jimmy, Please excuse the long delay in answering your letter. But there were a number of reasons why I couldn't write till now. Anyway I got both your letters dealing with The Landlady.1 O.K. — First of all let me say how grateful I am for your careful and indeed, able criticism of it — you are completely candid — which is a virtue to be prized above pearls. Secondly let me tell you that I didn't accept all of what you said. Thirdly the whole thing was a very great help to me. I have rewritten the Thing — I've got thru the first two acts of it at least and (this is one of your criticisms I did accept) changed the Third and Fourth acts completely — also, introduced two new characters — a drunken old proselytiser and a man that's done a Watling Street (life sentence to you) for murder. Your remarks re "dung" I did accept. You said that that entrance of Jems wouldn't do — I changed it. Your remarks about Kaffirs — well you said it was an insult to any white man. Personally I think the boot is on the other foot if anything — when I was knocking around I'd a mate who was a full-blooded Kaffir (albeit a second generation one from Tiger Bay — you know. Barry Dock, Cardiff, and a very nice lad too).

24

The Letters of Brendan Behan

I believe Synge at one time wanted to do Deirdre in the Dublin dialect — there's an odd flush of Synge (at least I think so, modest little bloke ain't I?) There's one bit which I like that much I learnt it off by heart — as it's a week or two before you'll see the new draft of it I'll tell it you now - and you can tell me what you think of it (it's spoken by Mac M.). "There y'are now (handing him glass of stout) get that down ye — We read all about ye an it's a great thing, an the height of wisdom to have yer likes in this house. For what misfortunate gas-meter robber'd come here to chance thryin conclusions with a devil'sbastard that threw his own wife outa pony an trap and let on to be that dhrunk that he couldn't hear the cries in her and she tangled with harness an to drown the cries a the people callin on him to stop the trap did sing when the Cock Cock Robin comes hop hop hoppin along to the chune in her head Batin the time in it on the Circular Road. "An talkin iv gas-meters — can't we fry egg an rashers for ould davarsion? For a darin demon is the divil's darlin, an it's the Brave glimmer man'd trust himself to yer likes." What do you reckon on that bit. Will you see Sean for me - and tell him the visit is due next Thursday (I think). But tell him to ring up to make sure, for they'd turn him away if it wasn't due — tell him he's to bring up my Grand-Uncle Leonard and whoever else of the Leonards cares to come — also to ask them to bring up the photo if they can. Oh I nearly forgot - listen Jimmy - you wouldn't have any of those leather studs - would you — you know the sort of things do be on gloves - buttons, like. You see some of the lads make leather handbags here and these buttons can't be bought outside - Press buttons they're called — I thought maybe you'd have some. Ask Sean as well, to ask Fred if he has the Maupassant3 in the French because I'm learning it now (not doing much good at it tho! Peadar O'Flaherty who teaches it, says I'm the laziest bleeder God ever put life into! — also tell Sean to ask my Mother if she can manage me a pair of runners - those rubber things - as I'm in a basketball team an' the boots are too slippy and heavy. I must have you up sometime. By the way tell Patsy the Dick in question was the chap who was with me in Gaeltacht Park on Easter Sunday. See you in Church, Brendan.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

25

P.S. - How's your book on Uncle Peadar making out? Piarais Beaslai's talk on him from Radio Eireann was very good — I got the typescript of it. Also tell Sean to drop Jack Lynch a line.

Notes 1.

2.

3.

Cf. 'I was also writing bits of poems and articles and a second play, The Landlady . . . The play I wrote in longhand, and my cousin, Seamus de Burca typed it for me, but it was never published', Brendan Behan, Confessions of an Irish Rebel (London: Hutchinson, 1965) p. 199. Brendan later rewrote this play, translated it into Gaelic, and sent it to the Abbey Theatre. The 'glimmer man' was the nickname of the wartime gas inspector, the 'glimmer' being the term for the low flame resulting from reduced pressure in the gas system outside meal hours. Some people would try to make tea, etc. 'on the glimmer', which was against wartime conservation measures. Guy de Maupassant (1850-93), French writer who is admired for his stylistic mastery, in particular of the short story.

26

The Letters of Brendan Behan

11

To BOB BRADSHAW

Bradshaw was Brendan's old IRA friend and now lives in Dublin. See his recollections of Brendan, 'Early Behan', The Irish Times (Dublin), 9 July 1970, p. 12. (First published, with some omissions, in Ulick O'Connor, Brendan Behan, 1970. In the possession of New "York University Library.)

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

27

Arbour Hill Jail, Dublin. Saturday, December 4, '43 Dear Bob, You are of the elect of God. In that you are the first person I ever wrote to by return of post. Of course this won't be posted till Wednesday, but still, considering that there are people who wrote to me twelve months ago and I haven't had time to answer them yet, you should be 'ighly honoured. Well, I thoroly enjoyed your letter for a start and indeed was in general agreement with your sentiments expressed regarding the landlady. You note the lack of inverted commas. The L'lady is, or was, a very genuine person to me (I'm getting literary and so am attempting to be legible).1 She was to every one that knew her, in just the same way as you are to your fellow-inhabitants of Bray or Enniskerry or whatever outlandish place you've pitched your tent,2 or I am to the bloke in the next cell to me (that's not a very good comparison. Tom Boyle, ex-Civil Servant chap lives next door and tho' we sometimes earnestly discuss religion, he seeks my salvation, we know very little of each other.) Because the landlady, like you guessed when you gave me that much pull over Synge, really lived. Ask our Sean,3 he knew her well and all the rest of the tribe, too. I don't mean to say that any of them are exactly and in every detail as I described them (and I painted them, didn't photograph them). But I do claim to have taken nine real Dublin slummies and stuck them on paper. I even go so far as to claim that they are as genuine as any of O'Casey's battalion — maybe more so, because O'Casey was born a Protestant and that means a big lot.4 Therefore, three cheers and many huzzas for your statement that them that says they're not true-to-life, are illiterate. They definitely are, and I hope you'll tell them so. You might also add that they have their excrement — in bucketfuls. No, I don't think the faults of the piece lie there. I've got a good idea of them and the principal one is that altho' one section of my family were then and are, immersed in the theatre,5 I myself never went to a play except to be entertained and sometimes even left the theatre then before the third act had got under way in the pursuit of drink. Therefore I know little of the art of stagecraft and, until I had the idea of writing plays, cared less.6 And I can safely say that the plays of which I've seen two thirds left me with the idea that any literate person could do that sort of

28

The Letters of Brendan Behan

thing, which is, I discovered, a bad way to approach anything. Then of course since I was 16 (all but a few months) I've been in jails and Borstal institutions. I don't regret my time in England. (I.R.A. prisoners in Ireland I've discovered are an uninteresting and boring lot.) It provided me with material for a book on Borstal which I'll get fixed up after the war and with material for numberless short stories,7 one of which 'Borstal Day' you may borrow from Sean, you know the address, don't you?8 70 Kildare Road.9 You can see an improvement in the caligraphy, can't you? The first lot was written at great speed as we, in here, were in the throes of an election. By the way, tell Sean that Jim Griffith took 'Borstal Day' with him after the visit. I had some other stuff I'd like you to have seen. Some short stories about the '39 campaign10 and the beginning of a long novel I'm doing on it, title The Green Invader.11 Traynor, Adams,12 etc., have apparently accepted me as a sort of official historian of it and it's with their assistance I'm doing it. (I mean in the line of verifying facts, etc. - the impressions noted and conclusions drawn will of course be mine.) Mickey himself has taken to short stories and I'm damned sure they'd be publishable if he were outside.13 He has the rather rugged style that seems to be expectable (Joyce couldn't do better!) from the North. Anything he writes is well worth reading. His stories are rather sparse and economical, but this I consider a great advantage more than anything else. Of course, you are a rather sparse and economical people up there, except yourself Bob, who was born a naturalised Dubliner. Excuse the incoherency of this and the Ogham style handwriting. I'll write you a decent letter when I've time. Get the story from Sean. I believe your friend Sheehy has read the play.14 Ask him if he would give me an idea of it, I'm sure it would be helpful.15 Please post the enclosed to Miss Maureen Mooney, Bolton Parade, Dublin. See you in Church, Brendan. P.S. I think the Nazis are finished and if I'm to be shot for the admission I can't say I'm sorry. P.P.S. If you can get me the loan of books of any sort or degree I'll make novenas for you. P.P.P.S. You and I'd better curb our Social Consciences. I'm very sorry that you are out of Solus Teo.16 I thought you'd a good berth there. Stand up to your conscience like a man. Don't let it ride you altogether. I intend to put a curb on my own when I get out.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

29

Notes 1.

2. 3. 4. 5.

6.

7.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

The Landlady was based on Brendan's memories of his grandmother (Granny English) and her cronies and the atmosphere surrounding Russell Street, where Brendan was reared. After Stephen Behan's father had died, his mother married Patrick English. Bray and Enniskerry are resorts near Dublin. Sean Furlong. Sean O'Casey (1880-1964), Irish dramatist. Patrick J. Bourke (1883-1932) the Irish impresario, actor, and playwright in the Boucicault tradition; and father of playwright Seamus de Burca, was married to Brendan's maternal aunt, Margaret Bourke (Kathleen Behan's sister), and he made the Behans welcome at his shows at the Queen's Theatre, Dublin. See Seamus de Burca, The Queen's Royal Theatre Dublin, 1829-1969 (Dublin: Seamus de Burca, 1983). Cf. 'Joan Littlewood, I found, suited my requirements exactly. She has the same views on the theatre that I have, which is that the music hall is the thing to aim at for to amuse people and any time they get bored, divert them with a song or a dance', Brendan Behan's Island (London: Hutchinson, 1962) p. 17. See 'I Become a Borstal Boy', The Bell (Dublin) vol. 4 (June 1942) pp. 165-70; 'Christmas Day in Walton Jail', Irish Writing (Cork) no. 35 (1956) pp. 80-8; and 'Bridewell Revisited', New Statesman (London) vol. 52 (8 December 1956) p. 740. Brendan did not publish any short story under this title. In 1937, the Dublin Corporation relocated the Behans in a housing estate in Crumlin and they left 14 Russell Street to live at 70 Kildare Road. In 1939, there was a wave of IRA bombings in England. Later to become Borstal Boy. Mickey Traynor and Dominic Adams, IRA friends of Brendan. Mickey Traynor. Edward Sheehy. Brendan seems to have decided at this time to adopt a literary rather than a revolutionary career. Solus Teo is an Irish electrical manufacturing company.

30

The Letters of Brendan Behan

12 To ERNEST BLYTHE

In July 1943, the political prisoners in Mount] oy jail were moved to Arbour Hill Jail, and in June 1944 they were transferred to the Curragh, an internment and prisoner-of-war camp in County Kildare, about thirty miles south-west of Dublin. Brendan always kept his memories of the Curragh as pleasant ones since he had time to read and write, and was among native Gaelic speakers. At the Curragh, he translated his first play The Landlady into Gaelic and sent it by instalment to Ernest Blythe (1889—1975) the Managing Director of the Abbey Theatre. See Ernest Blythe's recollections in Sean McCann (ed.) The World of Brendan Behan (London: The New English Library, 1965) pp. 182—5; and his tribute to Brendan in The Irish Times (Dublin) 21 March 1964, p. 1. (First published in Ulick O'Connor, Brendan Behan, 1970.)

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

31

18 May, '46 Dear Sir, I enclose the first Act of my play — The Landlady — you might, perhaps, also be interested in the bilingual sketch '!' o Loin. If I don't get word from you that it is not worth continuing with, I will go on with rewriting the other two Acts, and I will send them to you next week. As regards The Landlady — I had two Acts written of a play in English and one of a play in Irish - they both had a fault - the characters of the two plays should be in one play, for they came from the same period of my life and from the same house — I decided to bring them together — that's what I did in The Landlady. I have written one Act of another play. The Twisting of Another Rope1 I call it, because everything is shown in the black cell in some prison. Two men are condemned to death and waiting for the Rope — I would send it with this but better not scare the Department of Justice before we have anything done. There is nothing political in it, of course. I'll send it to you, if you like. Every thanks to yourself, Ernest Blythe, for your kindness to, Brendan Behan P.S. You know I have no chance of typing the M.S.

Note 1.

The original title of The Quare Fellow. This was a pun on the title of a one-act play by Dr Douglas Hyde called Casadh an tSugdin (The Twisting of the Rope}, which was the first Gaelic drama to appear on the Irish stage. It was presented by the Irish Literary Theatre on 26 October 1901 at the Gaiety Theatre, and it paved the way for Irish peasant drama as interpreted by the Fay brothers.

32

The Letters of Brendan Behan

13

To ERNEST BLYTHE

(First published in Ulick O'Connor, Brendan Behan, 1970.)

Cell 8, The Glass House, The Curragh of the Liffey Plain. Friday, 6-VI-46. Dear Ernest Blythe, I hope you will excuse me writing this letter to you personally, instead of sending it to the Manager under the official title, but I should like, first of all, to thank you for your kindness to me. There is another reason. I should like to enter the competition which the Oireachtas has for a novel.1 Could you give me permission to go in for the competition? I have no novel written, but for a hundred pounds, I could translate Finnegans Wake into Irish. Here is the third Act of The Landlady,2 and again, I thank you sincerely. Brendan Behan

Notes 1. The Parliamentary Legislature. 2. It is not certain that Brendan sent the whole play, for only one act survives in the Abbey Theatre Archives. Part of the manuscript, however, was found later. See P. H. S., 'Behan's First Play', The Times (London) 15 July 1970, p. 8; and Colbert Kearney, The Writings of Brendan Behan (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1977) pp. 62-5. Two acts of this play in longhand are now in the possession of Mrs Beatrice Behan, Brendan's widow.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

33

14

To SEAMUS DE BURCA

Brendan wrote this postcard to his cousin in Gaelic. (In the possession of Seamus de Burca.)

[Postmarked 1 July 1946] Seamus, friend, I received the play Boolavogue1 — Thank you. I'm in dire need of PAPER — I do not have a page. Send me a parcel of paper quickly and blessing on you from Brendan

Note 1.

By Peadar Kearney, Brendan's uncle. For a note on him see p. 16.

34

The Letters of Brendan Behan

15 To C.A.JOYCE

In November 1939, Brendan was arrested in Liverpool for illegal IRA activity and was sentenced to three years' Borstal (i.e. reform) treatment. C. A. Joyce was Governor of Hollesley Bay Borstal Institution, Suffolk, England, when Brendan came under his care at the age of 16; and Joyce made him promise not to resort to violence again. In 1942, however, Brendan was involved in a shooting incident at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on the day of the annual Easter Sunday commemoration of the 1916 Rising. The following fragment of a letter is quoted by Joyce in his recollections of Brendan, 'The Behan I Knew Was So Gentle', The Sunday Press (Dublin) 5 April 1964, p. 12.

[c. 1946] I didn't break my promise. I snatched the gun from a fellow who was going to use it on the detectives and when I was arrested it was, of course, found in my possession.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

35

16

ToDRF.S. BOURKE

This document, 'Written for me by Brendan Behan at my request', is now in the F. S. Bourke Collection at the National Library of Ireland, Dublin. The Collection consists of statements and autograph letters by various writers collected by Dr F. 5. Bourke, a noted Irish bibliographer, as materials to illustrate the history of the movement for national independence, the Civil War, and Republican activities in Ireland.

36

The Letters of Brendan Behan

[February 1948] Brendan Behan, born 9th February 1923 of Kathleen Kearney (sister of Peadar, author of the National Anthem) and Stephen Behan (at that time interned at Gormanstown Camp). Joined na Fianna Eireannm 1931. Transferred to the I.R.A. in 1937, having been since 1936 courier to the 2nd Batt. staff, and the youngest recruit ever accepted by the Dublin Brigade. Selected and trained for special service in England 1939 — carried messages to and from the big English cities till outbreak of war Sept. 1939. Returned to England November 1939, and arrested at Liverpool on day of arrival. Sentenced at Liverpool Assizes to 3 years Borstal Detention — released 1941 and deported. In Belfast from New Year till April 1942 - in pitched battle with police at Glasnevin Cemetery Easter Sunday 1942 and later sentenced to 14 years penal servitude on two charges of attempted murder. Amnestied by Free State Government Dec. 1946.1 Arrested at Manchester April 1947 and sentenced to 4 months H.L.2 for breach of expulsion order, while engaged in certain work.3 Released July 1947. Beo go fdill induaidh gach anro.4

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

Brendan was released from prison in the General Amnesty in November, not December, 1946. Hard labour. For attempting to free an IRA prisoner from an English jail. Still alive after every adversity.

1942-1948: In and Out of Prison

37

17

To ANON

Brendan wrote this poem in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, where he was serving a one-month term for assaulting a policeman. The poem is a call for action: resist the impact of English in Ireland by using the Irish language. A loose translation of the poem follows the Gaelic version. (In the possession of Rory Furlong.)

[1948] Tha mor shruth na beurla a bogradh gu cruaidh Ar canain's ar dutheas a shlugadh a suas Ach seasaibh gu dileas ei canain ar gaoil 'S cha'n faigh i am bas su ruis deireadh an t-saoghal Suas leis a Chaidhlig!1

The great flood of English Is severely seducing The ways of our land. But stand firm, Sing of our love To the end of life. Up with Irish!1

Note 1.

This line is a slogan of the language revival movement.

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3 1951-1956: Freelance Journalist

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

18

To MICHEAL 6 hAODHA

In 1951, Michedl O hAodha encouraged Brendan to write short plays like Moving Out and The Garden Party. O hAodha directed the LP recording o The Quare Fellow which was issued under the Spoken Word label in the USA. He is now Controller of Radio Programmes RTE (Irish Radio and Television) and a director of the Abbey Theatre. (In the possession of Michedl 6 hAodha.)

[1951] Dear Micheal, I am writing this letter in Irish as I have no other typewriter available at present.1 Delia Murphy is very taken with the programme and I would like to do it if possible.2'3 Could you arrange a recording as early as possible as I plan to be out of town shortly. Delia's phone number is on this letter and you could arrange an appointment with her to discuss the matter. The reason for all the "h"s in this is that I have not enough practice at the — and the — yet, but you will understand that all beginnings are weak. Goodbye Brendan Behan

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Notes 1. The English translation is by Micheal O hAodha. 2. Delia Murphy was well-known ballad singer who had a great reputation in Ireland and abroad. She was the wife of Dr T. J. Kiernan (1897-1967), Irish diplomat and former Director of Irish Broadcasting. 3. The programme concerned was The Balladmakers' Saturday Night', which O hAodha produced, and to which Brendan contributed as singer and songwriter. 4. Certain Gaelic signs.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

A Gaelic Letter

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19

To SINDBAD VAIL

In August 1948, after a jail sentence for being drunk and disorderly and for assaulting a policeman, Brendan wanted to clear out of Dublin and to make a clean break and start again. He went to Paris, where most of the time he was very poor, and where he met Sindbad Vail, the editor of an avant-garde magazine called Points, to which Brendan made some contributions. Mr Vail, who still lives in Paris, is the son of Peggy Guggenheim, the art patroness. See Peggy Guggenheim's memoirs, Out of This Century (London: Andre Deutsch, 1980). (This letter was first published in Points, no. 15.)

Dublin, May 1951 Some months ago, I wrote you that I had started a book. I am calling it Borstal Boy. Here is a bit of it.1 I might see you in the summer if you are still there. I was in Dieppe last month but only on a jump with an Irish boat. Got drunk on the North Wall and — off with them.2 Had no papers and so could not go up to Paris . . . and came home, armed with bottles of Pernod, 200 fr. ex-bond, which was what I principally came for.3

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Notes 1.

The extract which appeared in the Winter 1951 issue of Points, was entitled 'Bridewell Revisited'. It is almost identical to the final version as incorporated in the first chapters of his bestseller, Borstal Boy, seven years later. 2. The Dieppe reference is to an incident when Brendan and a friend, Anthony Cronin, literally fell onto an Irish cargo vessel, the Menapia, in the Dublin docks, dead drunk, and found themselves next morning on the way to Dieppe. See Anthony Cronin, Dead As Doornails: A Memoir (Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1976). 3. About this time Brendan was supplementing his income with occasional voyages to France on smuggling trips on the Sir James. His adventures gave him material for a novel which he turned into a serial for The Irish Times. The Scarperer, as the series was called, appeared in 1954 and was published under the pseudonym 'Emmet Street'.

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20 To SINDBAD VAIL

(First published in Points, no. 15.)

Dublin, June 1951 You must excuse the terrible typing. It was not my fault. I had to do it myself. No typist in Dublin would look at it. A woman that used to do a bit for me I fell out with. I have no copy of that mss. I wonder would it be a terrible big thing to ask you to do whatever excising you would think necessary? For the ... and so forth, could you manage an initial and a dash? It is an extract from a novel. Why shouldn't it read like that? Poems of mine in Gaelic are being broadcast from Radio Eireann, but apart from not understanding Irish, Radio Eireann is but barely audible in the pub next door. Sometime I will explain to you the feeling of isolation one suffers writing in a Corporation housing scheme. The literary pubs are not much good to me. I prefer to drink over the north side where the people are not so strange to me.1 Cultural activity in present day Dublin is largely agricultural. They write mostly about their hungry bogs and the great scarcity of crumpet.2 I am a city rat. Joyce is dead and O'Casey is in Devon. The people writing here now have as much interest for me as an epic poet in Finnish or a Lapland novelist.

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Notes 1.

2.

Brendan was brought up at 14 Russell Street, off North Circular Road, Dublin. Russell Street was on the perimeter of the Georgian slum area in Dublin. Cf. 'Our street was a tough street, and the last outpost of toughness you'd meet as you left North Dublin for the red brick respectability of Jones's Road, Fitzroy Avenue, Clonliffe Road, and Drumcondra generally', Brendan Behan, Hold Your Hour and Have Another (London: Hutchinson, 1963) p. 149. In 1937, the Dublin Corporation relocated the Behans in a housing estate in Crumlin. Cf. 'Brendan was about fourteen when he went there, and he said he missed the warmth of Russell Street. He thought the empty drab streets of the housing estate were cold comfort after the Street. He missed all the hallways', Kathleen Behan, Mother of all the Behans: The Autobiography of Kathleen Behan as Told to Brian Behan (London: Hutchinson, 1984) p. 93. Slang for sex.

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21 To the Editor of the DUBLIN EVENING MAIL

'Mr Ede and the Release of IRA 22 November 1951, p. 4.

Prisoners', Dublin Evening Mail,

[22 November 1951] Sir — In Tuesday's Mail there is a letter from Joe Collins, who under the nom-de-guerre 'Conor MacNessa',1 served a sentence of twenty years for I.R.A. activity in England. It appears from his letter that an English politician named Ede claims to have received undertakings regarding their future mode of conduct from Irish Republican prisoners as he released them. I was released in December 1941, and again, in July or August, 1947, from, respectively, a Borstal Institution and from Strangeways Prison. On both occasions I was deported as a person likely to be concerned, "in the preparation or instigation of acts of violence in Great Britain designed to influence Government policy or public opinion in respect of Irish affairs". On neither occasion did I give an undertaking to this man Ede, or to anyone else, about my behaviour or about anything.5 Brendan Behan, 70 Kildare Rd., Crumlin, Dublin *

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Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6.

Conor MacNessa [Joe Collins], 'Mr Ede and the Release of IRA Prisoners', Dublin Evening Mail, 20 November 1951, p. 4. Chuter Ede, who was then Home Secretary. Brendan was released in November, not in December as he says. Brendan was arrested in Manchester in March 1947 for attempting to free an IRA prisoner from an English jail. He was released from Strangeways Jail in July. This was supported by Brendan's father, Stephen Behan, in a letter to the Editor, 'Defence of His Son's Republicanism', Evening Herald (Dublin) 29 November 1965, p. 5. See reply by Anthony Butler, 'Brendan Behan', Evening Herald (Dublin) 1 December 1965, p. 6. Another letter to the Editor on the same lines as Brendan's appeared in the following issue of this newspaper: John McCabe, 'Mr Ede and the Release of IRA Prisoners', Dublin Evening Mail, 23 November 1951, p. 4.

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1951-1956: Freelance Journalist

22 To the Editor of KAVANAGHS WEEKLY

Kavanagh's Weekly, I, no. 6, 17 May 1952, 5.

[17 May 1952]

Sir - In "The Old Foolishness" column of your magazine of 10th May,1 I find my name in a list of Gaelic writers taken from The Sunday Press. May I be permitted to say that I don't know the half of these geezers and am in no way responsible for having my name stuck in among theirs. I think "The Old Foolishness" a good spot for keeping these citizens, and about the only space to which their talent would entitle them. BRENDAN BEHAN

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Notes 1.

The Old Foolishness', Kavanagh's Weekly, I, no. 5, 10 May 1952, p. 7. This column was a collection of 'oddities' culled from contemporary newspapers and periodicals for purely satirical purposes - rather like the feature, This England', in the New Statesman. The title chosen for the column had been used by Paul Vincent Carroll, a Dundalk man and an old acquaintance of Kavanagh's, for a play which Patrick Kavanagh records having seen performed in Dublin in July 1942 (see Peter Kavanagh (ed.) Lapped Furrows (New York: The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, 1971) p. 75, letter dated 29 July 1942). In this instance the item quoted is from an article in the Sunday Press of 4 May 1952 in which Daniel Corkery (one of the perpetuators, in Kavanagh's view, of the myth of Ireland as a spiritual entity) listed a number of writers in Irish whom he considered of importance. It may be significant that Brendan Behan's disclaimer should have been addressed to the Editor of Kavanagh's Weekly — which quoted Corkery's list ironically — rather than to the Editor of the Sunday Press — which published the list seriously and in good faith. One suspects that Brendan may have acted out of an abraded sensitivity towards Kavanagh, whom he regarded as a culchie (a Dubliner's term for an uncouth countryman) and by whom he himself was regarded as a jackeen (the countryman's term for a street-wise metropolitan). 2. Daniel Corkery, The Hidden Force in Irish Revival', The Sunday Press (Dublin) 4 May 1952, p. 2.

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23 To SINDBAD VAIL

For a note on Sindbad Vail see p. 43. (This letter was first published in Points, no 15).

June, 1952 I decided to go to work as a free-lance hack writer to get enough money to finish my novel in peace. That's an easier trade than house painting, that is . . .l I made a packet, and very nearly lost my sanity, in the process: I was drunk night, noon and morning. Now, outside of reform school and Borstal, I have been a steady drinker from the age of fifteen, but this wasn't that sort of drinking. It wasn't even like going in for one into the Mabillon or the Reine Blanche (one bit of Paris I do not miss), and finishing in Les Halles the next morning, or in the Rue Cordellieres (up at Port Royal, at the Salvation Army — a bit more usual for me); it was just:.."Givvez three thousand on . . . , Brendan, will you? Usual rates, . . . guineas a thousand and the shillings for meself" . . . "Do iz an ould proagramme for the Easter Commemoration and I'll see Sean about the other." And I finally said, to hell with it, I'll go down and do my own which is what I'm doing now, and am broke, and it is a matter of some scoff for next week. The mountains are lovely.2 I wish I had a snap, and this is an old hideout of the I.R.A.; there was a man shot dead by the Free State Army at the very window I'm writing this. And for all I run down the I.R.A. in my writing they were the only damn ones, when I had no place to write in peace, to say, "That's all right Brendan, you go down there and use G . . ., it's no good to us now, it's too well known." So here I am and very happy and I'll have the novel finished in its entirety before Christmas, and I'll submit to you a few thousand words . . .

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2.

Brendan, like his father Stephen, was a house painter. Brendan was having difficulty working and living in Dublin, where talk and social intercourse, lubricated by alcohol, took up much of his time. He preferred to write in peace in the West of Ireland.

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24

To SINDBAD VAIL

(First published in Points, no. 15.)

Dublin, October 1952 A piece of verse in Gaelic I had in the Irish Times Saturday Bookpage, with accompanying translation by Donagh Mac Donagh, was about the death of Wilde in the Hotel d'Alsace. It was much praised by the local mandarins or mandarineens,2 and then the next issue, Monday, had a most vicious letter attacking it as "brutal and ugly" . . . Jesus help my wit, didn't [I] think I was a great man altogether, when complete strangers would go to the trouble of abusing me thus (for, as you know, it's better to be adversely criticised than ignored), till I discovered that the — that wrote the letter was some — that disliked me on grounds purely racial and social, and thought it a disgrace that me likes should be allowed into print at all, unless it would be into the criminal intelligence.3 Grossman will discover a rejection slip lurking between the headlamps of Mary Wyatt.4'5 It's a thing we all do. I had a story rejected by ... here one time and went round the city saying the Editor was long known to the G.H.Q. of the I.R.A. as an agent of the British Government. Things here are much as usual, except that Paddy, the wanker poet and peasant,6 is in London, which is as near home as he can get, not having the fare to Boston or New York. The disciples he left behind him still line the bars and give me an odd pint of porter or glass of malt, if I can listen respectfully enough to the old chat about Angst. A generation or so ago, they were arsing round the bog and a bowl of stirabout and a couple of platefuls of spuds would have cured all the Angst from here back to Norway; but since the change-over in Twenty-two,7 when they got well down to the porridge pot, there's

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no holding them. It started off with top-hats and white-ties, and getting into the gentry, and then to chatting about the servant problem with the Horse-Protestants, and it went from that till late dinner, and now it's Angst, no less. Not that the aforesaid Horse-Protestants were any better. They've been longer at it. They are just as ignorant except that their ill manners are sharpened by time: The myth of the Anglo-Irish (Brinsley Sheridan, a peasant's grandson; Yeats, artist's son; Wilde, a doctor's son; Wolfe Tone, a coach-painter's son; Parnell, the grandson of an American sea-captain; Robert Emmet, a doctor's son; Bernard Shaw, a clerk), and the present attempt to drag Irish writers who happened to be Protestant after the fox-hunt and the Royalist inanity, would have us believe that most rapacious rack-renting in Europe were really lamps of culture in a bog of darkness, doing good by stealth and shoving copies of Horizon under the half-doors of the peasantry after dark and making wedding presents to the cottagers of Ganymed Press reproductions of Gaugin. There is of course no such thing as an Anglo-Irishman, as Shaw pointed out in the preface to John Bull's Other Island: except as a class distinction. All Protestant genius, even, is not nobbled for the stable boys and girls. It must at least wear a collar and tie. Sean O'Casey is not claimed as an Anglo-Irish writer, because he had no land, except what a window-box would hold on the sill of a Northside tenement: The Belfast industrial workers who are the thickest concentration of royalism and pro-Britishism in Ireland are never claimed as AngloIrish, and Lady . . . would feel herself a brood sister to a Shankill Road Orangeman only at such times as the Mick niggers were getting out of hand and he could shoulder a gun for her, like Scarlett O'Hara8 and the poor white. I got a Penguin Plato's Symposium. With difficulty: The Censorship can hardly get after him at this time of day, but as one bookman (saving your presence) said to me, "We saw a slight run on it, and the same sort of people looking for it, so we just took it out of circulation ourselves. After all, we don't have to be made decent minded by Act of the Dail. We have our own way of detecting smut, no matter how ancient." In common with most of my babu countrymen,10 he had the sort of English accent which would make you laugh, sort of Western Brothers from Western Connacht, and pronounced your man's name "Plate-o," rather as if it were something you put in soup. About the novel. I have about fifty thousand words done. I haven't done much to it lately, because I'm writing a play for the

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Abbey and have had to do some jobs for the radio and various journals to live. As it turned out, the strain of meeting the sort of people who have to do with journalism was so great that, for the first time in my life, I drank from pure nervous strain. I have a feeling I told you all this before. (So have you, more than likely, by the time you get this far) . . . I'm Jesuswell starved of any kind of contact at the moment. The worst feature of the angsters is that they have it mixed with foxhunting and meeting horses. I never knew a horse (to speak to, I mean) till I went to the nick in England and they put me ploughing on the farm because I was an Irishman. The end of my tussle with horse was that I ran away, and a warder fired at me; he thought I was trying to escape. So I was, from the bloody horse. I can get over to Paris easily, but I'm getting too old for just landing in a city on my arse, flat broke . . . G. S. I met peculiarly enough, through Points.11 I was talking to some students in a booser at Lincoln Place, and this lad introduced me and said I wrote for Points. I was delighted at this, of course it being a bit of a change to being introduced as a man that writes funny bits for Radio Eireann or has his life story running in . . ., and asked him did he read Points. Another fellow said "Does he read it? Certainly he reads it, and what's better, writes for it." So G. and I had a good piss-up together, as happy with one another as if we were both natives of East Jesus, Kansas, newly met in the Rue Scribe . . . He was nothing of an angster, or like a sensible chap kept it for his writing; and his fancy-woman, a homely tub of girl from the country, fried rashers and eggs to soak up the porter . . . Good luck. .. Slan agus beannacht.12 Brendan.

Notes 1.

'Oscar Wilde', The Irish Times (Dublin) 20 September 1952, p. 6. It is reprinted in both its English and Gaelic versions in Brendan Behan's Island (London: Hutchinson, 1962) pp. 180-1. The translator of the book version, however, is Valentin Iremonger. See also Poems and a Play in Irish (Dublin: Gallery Press, 1981) p. 20.

56 2. 3.

The Letters of Brendan Behan The suffix, -een, in Irish indicates smallness. Cf. 'boreen'= little road; 'colleen' = young girl. In Anglo-Irish speech, '-een' is usually a pejorative suffix. This letter appeared in the Irish Times, 24 September 1952, p. 5: Sir, When Oscar Wilde was dying in Paris — 'beyond my means/ as he characteristically remarked - he disliked the hideous wallpaper of his room, and said: 'One of us had to go.' He would have disliked another sort of paper with a brutally ugly verse about him in it today, and this time, if one of them has to go, it will not be Oscar Wilde, Yours, etc., 'SALOME' County Dublin September 20th, 1952.

4. 5.

D. Jon Grossman, one of the contributors to Points. Brendan refers to the following letter published in Points, no 14 (Summer 1952) p. 62: Dear Sir, Now that you have generally improved the appearance and typography of the magazine I suggest you really get to work on doing the same for the material you publish. How about a rest from your "genius" Grossman? Yours, Mary WYATT, Paris.

6.

The 'wanker poet and peasant' referred to here is Patrick Kavanagh (1906-67). The derogatory reference to Kavanagh as a 'wanker' (i.e. 'masturbator') is obviously inspired by Kavanagh's account in The Great Hunger' (in Collected Poems, London: Martin Brian and O'Keeffe, 1973, p. 41) of Patrick Maguire's addiction to the habit of self-abuse. Kavanagh, on the other hand, regarded Brendan as 'incarnate evil'. See Sean Cronin, 'Baggot Street Bard', Commonweal (New York) 12 January 1968, pp. 447-8 [Patrick Kavanagh 'made a steadfast stand against what he called "Behanism"'.] On the relationship between Brendan and Kavanagh see also Anthony Cronin, Dead as Doornails; A Chronicle of Life (Dublin: Dolmen Press; and London: Calder & Boyars, 1976) passim.

1951-1956: freelance Journalist 7. 8.

57

In 1922, the Irish Free State was established. The beautiful, fiery-tempered heroine of Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. 9. The Irish Parliament. 10. Baboo (Hindi) Babu. Originally a Hindoo title of respect, answering to 'Mr' or 'Esquire'; hence, a native Hindoo gentleman; also (in Anglo-Indian use), a native clerk or official who writes English, sometimes applied disparagingly to a Hindoo or, more particularly, a Bengali, with a superficial English education. 11. George Sims, one of the contributors to Points. 12. Health and blessing (goodbye).

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25

To the Editor of the DUBLIN EVENING

MAIL

'The Omagh Raid', Dublin Evening Mail, 3 December 1954, p. 9. In October 1954, the Irish Republican Army conducted an abortive raid on the British Army Barracks at Omagh, County Tyrone. Eight members of the IRA were captured and imprisoned. For details of this raid see J. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army: A History of the IRA 1916-1970 (London: Blond, 1970); and Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA (London: Pall Mall Press, 1970).

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Sir — I should like to point out to some of your correspondents that: (1) The I.R.A. is not a sectarian organisation. (2) The district in which this raid was carried out was obviously not enemy territory as far as the raiders were concerned, for the men accused of it were greeted with such demonstrations of approval by the local populace, and their captors showered with so much abuse, that, according to the newspaper reports, the streets of Omagh are now cleared, before the treason felons-elect or the British military or police come within miles of the court. (3) I don't know whether these men are the ones who raided Omagh barracks, but they have as good a right, whoever did it, to try the old method of physical force in getting rid of England, as the prudent members have to try their more modern (Redmond, Woodenbridge, 1914) method of promising England a hand in her next war for civilisation, which I presume, also means taking a half share in the belt of a hydrogen bomb. (4) It is not fair to the lowest criminal, to cry him down before his case is heard, much less to give the green light to the British Empire to do what she will to these young men. I cannot even claim to be an external associate of theirs, but I am damn sure I am nearer the feelings of the less glib section of the people of all Ireland, viz. the vast majority, who haven't got as much time as you and I to be writing to the papers, when I say in their regard: "We love them yet, we can't forget, The felons of our land."1 Brendan Behan, 70 Kildare Road, Crumlin.

Note 1. From 'The Felons of Our Land', a well-known Fenian ballad by Arthur M. Forrester.

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26

To CELIA SALKELD

Beatrice Behan's sister. She created the part of the country girl Teresa in The Hostage. Before she died in October 1984, she had been a member of the RTE Repertory Company for many years. (First published in Ulick O'Connor, Brendan Behan, 1970.)

18 Waterloo Road,1 Wed. the something of Aug. '55 (Its nots not wed its chew, so chew him) Dear Celia, We are in the jigs2 — gone there for the hollyers3 — my sister[,]4 who my wife says is pretty[,] came here from her prefab in Crawley, Sussex, and tracked us down in Searson's5 where I was having a drink with my wife preparatory to going home and having a bit (of supper). She was o.k. . . . I provided the feast — I hasten to add — on tick from Searson's - but my wife says that Cecil6 says that tick is good for a man's credit - we rang up for your Reg7 but he was not there or if he was Cecil did not see fit to send him down to us and love to you. Yubil8

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Notes 1.

2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

Brendan married Beatrice ffrench-Salkeld, an artist, in February 1955. In the summer after their wedding, 18 Waterloo Road became their first home. Cf. 'Brendan, not much given to letterwriting, delight for a time in typing notes with our address at the top', Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) p. 63. Dublin slang for 'suffering the effects of a hangover'. Also Dublin slang; it means simply 'for the holidays'. As Brendan uses it, in combination with the state of post-inebriate depression, it becomes a witticism, as it alters that state into a place. Brendan's only sister Carmel, who is married to Joe Paton and who resides in England. In Upper Baggot Street. Cf. 'Searson's it had to be because Brendan was barred from the nearby Waterloo House and from Devine's at the corner and Moony's opposite did not cash cheques', quoted by John Murdoch in E. H. Mikhail (ed.) Brendan Behan: Interviews and Recollections (London: Macmillan, 1982) p. 71. Cecil Salkeld, the Irish painter and Beatrice's father. Reg Grey, Celia's boyfriend who was best man at the Behans' wedding. 'Yubil' meant 'Your unruly brother-in-law'.

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27 To BEATRICE BEHAN

Brendan, contrary to popular opinion, rarely wrote letters to his wife Beatrice. 'So many publishers have offered me fabulous sums for Brendan's love letters. They think his letters to me must be passionate and salable. But the true fact is, there aren't any! A poor widow might be forgiven for attempting to write them herself!1 In all their life together, Brendan wrote to Beatrice only three times. Beatrice cannot remember the exact circumstances in which this postcard was written. (In the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

[Postmarked 12 September 1955] Enjoying myself at Balls Balls Balls-bridge.1

Note 1.

Ballsbridge is an exclusive district in Dublin to which Bren n and Beatrice eventually moved into their own house in 1959. When this postcard was written, they were still living in a flat at 18 Waterloo Road.

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28

To the Editor of THE LEADER

'Correspondence', The Leader (Dublin) vol. 55, no 18, 17 September 1955, p. 19. Brendan's and other letters to the Editor were started by an article, "The future of Irish Education, The Leader (Dublin) vol. 55, no 16, 20 August 1955, pp. 5-7.

[17 September 1955] Sir, In a letter in your issue of 3rd September a Mr. J. Monahan draws, as he says,1 the line (no doubt the party line) at Mr. Sean O Faolain's and the I.A.C.L.'s latest "venture into the pink limelight".2 By this he apparently means their stand in relation to the report by the School Children's Protection Organisation on corporal punishment in the schools. Mr. Monahan suggests that the thirty-three "alleged" breaches of the regulations in eleven months, acknowledged by the Department of Education are, statistically speaking, insignificant and of no account. But may not these cases be the visible one-ninth of the iceberg — or what is much more likely in this instance, the visible oneninety-ninth? It is not suggested, I trust, that every breach committed in the past eleven months, or eleven years for that matter, has been reported to the Department and acknowledged by it. Both Mr. Monahan and your own editorial commentator have erred, I feel, in exaggerating the parents' capacity for response to children's tales of ill-treatment in the schoolroom. The mere fact of parenthood does not exempt them from the common human inclination to avoid unpleasantness at all costs, and it is easier to turn a deaf ear to little Willie's whinings than to do something drastic with a view to removing their cause. Furthermore, parents can hardly

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be unaware that if they do take action in a matter like this they may be starting something which they may find it very difficult to finish. Excessive moral courage is not one of the more conspicuous failings of the Irish people. There are very strong forces behind the teacher in the schoolroom and Irish experience suggests that it is not a good thing to get on the wrong side of them, or even to lay oneself under the suspicion of doing so. Blame him who will, the individual parent may think twice before inviting on himself the sort of blackguarding Senator Sheehy-Skeffington and the School Children's Protection Organisation have been receiving. Another correspondent in your September 3 issue makes a passing reference to parents' "recollections of unhappy school-days." My own schooldays, which ended twenty years ago,3 were far from unhappy on the whole; but they have left me with the fervent hope that conditions have changed in some respects since I left school. In the school which I attended — and I have no reason to suppose that it was other than typical of hundreds of its kind - physical punishment played a large and indeed a leading role in the daily conduct of affairs. Punishment was ordinarily inflicted with a leather strap some twelve inches long and a quarter of an inch thick. This instrument was employed as a remedy for all youth's shortcomings — missed lessons, wrong answers, poor homework and natural stupidity, as well as more culpable transgressions such as indolence, indiscipline, disobedience and unpunctuality (not that there was much of these). In the establishment in which it ruled (a large one comprising primary and secondary schools) slaps sounded constantly, like volleys of pistol-shots. "The leather," as it was affectionately known, played a large part in the consciousness of both masters and pupils; and it would certainly have astonished the latter had they been told that its use was subject to Departmental or any limitations. That is one side of the picture - corporal punishment laid on with methodical and mechanical regularity. There is another side which I do not wish to emphasise because it reveals the exception rather than the rule. But you will find ruffians in the teaching profession as you will in any other; and the memory persists of brutal beatings witnessed, in which "the leather" was laid aside for once and fists, and occasionally feet, were used in its stead. I have erred if I have given the impression that the school in question was staffed by blood-relatives of Simon Legree,4 or that its scholastic activities were limited to the inculcation of sadism. On the contrary, it was a very good school — in the teaching sense. The

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point I am making is that corporal punishment was administered frequently and regularly there as a normal part of the routine, and that downright cruelty could go unchecked and largely unremarked. This seemed to surprise no one — pupils, teachers or parents. I wonder how many of these incidents and practices were reported to the Department and acknowledged by it. We will be told that, of course, all that happened more than twenty years ago and everything is different nowadays. I for one am ready to be convinced that this is so; but who will convince me and what evidence will they adduce? It will take a lot to remove from my mind the deep doubts implanted in it by the behaviour of the Minister for Education and others on his side of the present controversy.

B.B.

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

'Correspondence', The Leader (Dublin) vol. 55, no 17, 3 September 1955, pp. 22-3. Irish Association of College Lecturers. Brendan left the Irish Christian Brothers' School at St Canice's, Dublin in 1937. Simon Legree is the alcoholic and superstitious brute who purchased the negro slave Tom and killed him in Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96).

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29

To ALAN SIMPSON

Brendan sent this postcard from London. It was a picture of the band of the Coldstream Guards. Alan Simpson had staged the first production of The Quare Fellow at his Pike Theatre, Dublin, on 19 November 1954. See his Beckett and Behan and a Theatre in Dublin (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962); 'Behan: The Last Laugh', in Des Hickey and Gus Smith, A Paler Shade of Green (London: Leslie Frewin, 1972) pp. 209-19 [Recollections of Behan]; and 'Introduction', Brendan Behan: The Complete Plays (London: Eyre Methuen, 1978) pp. 7—25. (In the possession of Carolyn Swift.)

[c. 1955] I thought you might like this picture of your chinas!1

Brendan

Note 1.

Brendan was, of course, using the cockney rhyming slang: china plates, mates. The reference was a tongue-in-cheek one to the fact that Alan Simpson was at that time also in the army — though, of course, the Irish army - having joined the Defence Forces during the Emergency (as the Second World War is always called in Ireland, which remained neutral). At the time of receiving this card Simpson was a Captain in the 2nd Field Engineers. Cf. 'He became an expert at Cockney rhyming slang and dialects', quoted by Donal Foley in E. H. Mikhail (ed.) Brendan Behan: Interviews and Recollections (London: Macmillan, 1982) vol. 1. p. 140.

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30 To BEATRICE BEHAN

The following letter, written in the form of a poem, shows Brendan's sensitivity and his awareness of what Beatrice had to endure because of his drinking habits, particularly his repeated failure to keep his promises to drink in moderation and 'stick to stout'. (In the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

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[23 September 1955] To Beatrice When the timid eye looks at you fearful and full of guilt, In hope its woeful look will catch you smile across the quilt. Oh what hopes of reformation promises to stick to stout Beating breasts and condemnation of late stopping out. Curling up and dreamy fondling Going as far as it can yet Paws are moving, surer, loving Further than they should be let. Till the process is completed Grace and absolution said Purring, moves in, snuggles closer, Stretches happily in the bed. Why does any woman double give herself the nuisance that husbands are when with less trouble She could buy and train a cat? 23-IX-55

Brendan Behan

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31

To the Editor of THE IRISH TIMES

This letter was never published. The Editor, Alec Newman, sent to Brendan a letter — printed here after Brendan's letter — explaining why. See Newman's recollections of Brendan in Sean McCann (ed.) The World of Brendan Behan (London: The New English Library, 1965) pp. 193-4. (Carbon copy in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

18 Waterloo Road 26th February, 1956 Dear Sir — I see by the papers that Mr. Patrick Kavanagh,1 who is now employed by the Catholic University of Dublin,2 in a recent lecture at that institution, attacked: (i) The Irish language, (ii) Sean O'Casey, because he is a Protestant, and directs advice to his Catholic countrymen, (iii) The hair styles of Dublin working-class youths. As Mr. Kavanagh does not know any Irish, his opinion on this matter is only as valuable as mine, on the subject of turnip-snagging. Mr. O'Casey is a Protestant, and has presumed to put his prate in arguments concerning Catholics. Well, Sir John Maffey was a Protestant,3 and I've heard said that Mr. Kavanagh boasted of having played on his cricket side. Mr. Kavanagh dedicated a poem to a member of Sir John's staff.4 Of course Sir John is not a writer: at least not that the great world has ever heard of, or that Mr. Kavanagh, our Border Proust, has ever

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revealed of his researches in the chancelleries, and though a Lutheran, is still a "gintleman", and as such most acceptable to the antiRepublican, anti-Socialist, anti-Irish peasant lackey mind. Mr. O'Casey is an Irishman, a Socialist, an Irish speaker, and a writer whose fame can span the width of the world, from Moscow to New York, any side of the cold war. His autobiographies enjoy a great success,5 though the passages therein about frustrated love put years on me. But there's nothing in them to shock Mr. Kavanagh, or even the biggest drummer in the Pope's Brass Band.6 As regards the "gurriers" with the hair styles of "low Hollywood play actors":7 I understand that Mr. Kavanagh, as film critic for a church weekly magazine,8 was the last to interview the late Miss Carol Landis.9 I have not had much contact with film actors. But I know enough about young Dublin workers, to know that anything they get is hard-earned, and honest, whether it[']s a Hollywood hair-style or a suit with a velvet collar. I know they are not sufficiently interested to dictate to the gilded youth of Innishgeen what hair styles they should favour,10 or at what angle they should tip their cap, or how they should tie their hob-nailed boots, when they're on the way to the mission, the Dublin train, or the Liverpool boat. And for the matter of that, I don't think Mr. Kavanagh's hair style is causing any great concern to any respectable Dublin apprentice, or to any little jitterbugging biscuit makeress, either. "Snas ar a folt oir, Max Factor ar a leiceann In a guth ta gair na hoige — Ni mar sin do Bhrid na heitinn — "ll There's a bit of Gaelic verse and all for Mr. Kavanagh. Let him thump the craw out of that, Brendan Behan

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THE IRISH TIMES 31, WESTMORELAND STREET

DUBLIN

TELEPHONE

75871

February 27th, 1956. Dear Brendan, As you will see from the copy, I subbed your letter for publication. But then I got cold feet about it, lest it should be open to a charge of vindictiveness.12 And finally, damn it, I went to compare it with our report of what P.K. had actually said, and discovered to my annoyance that he had not been reported in this newspaper at all. It is an all but inflexible rule of this newspaper and most others, Brendan, that there can be no correspondence on something that has not been reported. So I have to send back your letter. If I have spoiled it by my blue pencil, please bung it back, and I shall send you clean copies without delay.

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Notes 1. 2.

For a note on Patrick Kavanagh see p. 56. University College Dublin. The date of the letter suggests that Behan must here be referring to the first in a series of ten weekly lectures given by Patrick Kavanagh under the auspices of the Board of Extra-Mural Studies in UCD from Tuesday, 21 February to Tuesday, 1 May 1956. The opening lecture was entitled 'Poetry in Ireland'. The press advertisement of the series is reproduced in Peter Kavanagh, Sacred Keeper: A Biography of Patrick Kavanagh (The Curragh: Goldsmith Press, 1979) p. 275. 3. Sir John Maffey, later 1st Baron Rugby, was British Representative in Ireland. See Lapped Furrows, p. 67, where Peter Kavanagh's diary for Monday, 8 June 1942, alleges the suppression of an article written by Patrick Kavanagh for The Bell and entitled 'Meet Sir John Mehaffey [sic]'. 4. John Betjeman (1906—84), the poet, for whose daughter, Candida, Kavanagh wrote the poem 'Candida', on the occasion of her first birthday. The poem is printed in Collected Poems (London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1964) p. 8; and in Peter Kavanagh (ed.) The Complete Poems of Patrick Kavanagh (New York: Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, 1972) pp. 140-1. Betjeman worked as the British press attache in Dublin in 1941—2, and Ireland became another significant locale for his verse. 5. / Knock at the Door (London: Macmillan, 1939); Pictures in the Hallway (London: Macmillan, 1942); Drums Under the Windows (London: Macmillan, 1945); Inishfallen Fare Thee Well (London: Macmillan, 1949); Rose and Crown (London: Macmillan, 1952); and Sunset and Evening Star (London: Macmillan, 1954). Reprinted in two volumes as Mirror in My House: The Autobiographies of Sean O'Casey (New York: Macmillan, 1956); and in two volumes as Autobiographies (London: Macmillan, 1963). 6. Name given to two nineteenth century Irish politicians called John Sadleir and William Keogh, who changed their politics to become unionists. 7. 'Curriers' is a Dublin term for ruffians. 8. The Standard (Dublin). 9. Carol Landis, the actress, had committed suicide. 10. Patrick Kavanagh was born in Inniskeen, County Monaghan, where he lived until he moved to Dublin. Monaghan is one of the humblest of the twenty-six counties of the Irish Republic.

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73

A shine on her golden hair Max Factor on her cheek In her voice there is the laughter of youth Not like this consumptive Bride. Alec Newman's letter, in which he appears apprehensive about the liability of the Irish Times to 'charge of vindictiveness' towards Patrick Kavanagh, may not b nconnected with an occurrence in the previous year. When Patrick Kavanagh entered the Rialto Hospital on 1 March 1955, for an operation for lung cancer, it was confidently expected in some quarters that he would not survive. There had been in the files of the Irish Times a previously prepared obituary notice, innocuous and mildly approving in its tone. Quite suddenly, a second draft appeared, which in the event, of course, was not to be published. It read in part: During the time he edited Kavanagh's Weekly many bitingly bitter things appeared about even those who had befriended him. Messianic to a degree his thaumaturgy led him to bitterly and superficially criticise what he considered social and political fallacies; but neither by age, experience, education or nature was he competent to fill a role which requires deep thought and constant assiduous application, qualities which he did not possess. This is quoted in John Nemo's "Patrick Kavanagh: A Study of His Development as a Poet", unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University College Dublin, 1973, p. 92.

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32 To the Editor of THE IRISH TIMES

The following letter, which was never published, is obviously an indignant response to what Brendan felt to be a sectarian interpretation of Irish republicanism. His view of republicanism expressed here and in many other places is in the liberal tradition of Wolfe Tone and his followers, who felt that republicanism should embrace all of the people of Ireland, regardless of religion. The tricolour was supposed to represent the various traditions in Ireland and to be a symbol of the unity between them. (In the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

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18, Waterloo Rd., 17th March, 1956 Dear Sir, In every generation, to, and including this one, members of my family have fought and suffered for what we thought was the old flag and tradition of the 32-County Irish Republic, the tricolour of Green, White and Orange, and the old cause of a free united people of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, made one before our enemies whose strength in Ireland lay in our sectarian disunity. It was with indignation, therefore, that we listened to excerpts of Republican doctrine and tunes from Radio Eireann, mixed up with pieces of plain chant from a monastery called "Salute to the Flag." We might know more about plain chant than the scriptwriter, but the fact that he might be a Protestant might not be known to [say] a young Northern Ireland listener. Let this gentleman dig up a Protestant monastery for the next of his flag programmes. Us Micks can do all our sunbursterty ourselves.1

Note 1. It is to be noted that this letter was not signed, which makes it difficult to determine whether or not Brendan actually sent it to The Irish Times. The paper's files, however, have no record of the letter. It is also interesting to note that Brendan wrote the following on the back of his typed letter: Dear Typewriter: How did the dusting do you? Me the T/W: It afforded great relief.

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33

To ERNEST BLYTHE

This note was written by Brendan in Gaelic on the envelope containing the script of The Quare Fellow, which he submitted to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 1956. The play had its world premiere at the Pike Theatre, Dublin, on 19 November 1954. It was presented by Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London, on 24 May 1956. The first Abbey Theatre production of the play took place on 8 October 1956. For a note on Ernest Blythe see p. 30. (In the possession of the Abbey Theatre.)

[1956] Dear Ernest, Here is the long version of The Quare Fellow although it is the version that is being published by Methuen.1 Good luck! Brendan (c/o Post Office Carraroe Galway)

Note 1.

The play was published in London in November 1956. The word 'quare' is used in Ireland generally when speaking of a dubious person, or one in doubtful circumstances, whose name it would be imprudent to mention.

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34

To BARBARA RUSSELL

The recipient of this letter had written to Brendan asking him if he had a oneact play that the Imperial College (London) Dramatic Society might perform in a one-act play festival. It is interesting to note that Brendan, in writing Russell's address on the envelope, made the point of identifying Devon as the county in which Sean O'Casey was living (see plate.) (In the possession of Dr Les Allen.)

18, Waterloo Road, Ballsbridge, DUBLIN. 3rd July, 1956. Sweetheart, If I had a one act play there is no one would get it sooner than yourself after your nice letter. But alas! I have no such thing and therefore can't give you what I haven't got. When I do write one you shall have it with a heart and a half, if Senator Mac Carty [sic]1 doesn't get us all in the meantime and love B. Russell from B. Behan & B.2 Behan. Brendan Behan P.S. The weather over here just now is so bad it[']s driving me to drink.

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Address of recipient living in Devon (O'Casey's county).

Notes Joseph Raymond McCarthy (1908-57) a Republican United States senator, was one of the most controversial figures in American politics. He first achieved natiorial prominence when he announced in a speech in 1950 that he had a list of 'card-carrying Communists' in the State Department, and later conducted several public investigations of Communist influence on US foreign policy. His widely scattered charges gave rise to a new word, 'McCarthyism'. 2. Beatrice. 1.

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35 To NUALA HARRIS

Aylmer and Nuala Harris were dose friends of the Behans. They were living in Montreal when this letter was written. (In the possession of Nuala Harris.)

18, Waterloo Rd Friday something [c. November 1956] Dear Nuala, Did you know that Nuala means the fair shouldered one? I suppose Aylmer does — by now — if he didn't before. You thought this was Beatrice becoming a mistress of the double entendre under Brendan's benevolent tuition, did'nt you? Well you're dead wrong. Its the Quare Fellow himself. I need not tell you how delighted we were to get your letter this morning. We walked one day round Poulaphouca and we nearly wept for our exiled Harrises, with whom we had last done this walk to Kilbride before - I mean you and Beatrice had - so Aylmer and I were there by proxy so to speak. The play is in its fifth week at the Abbey1 and we continue to get a hell of a lot of money out of it. I am in the American edition of "Harper's Bazaar" in a month or two -1 don't know when -1 only know they paid me $150 for it - or for the right to reprint it from the English "Vogue" - which I gave to Beatrice for a non-birthday gift, so look out for it — the "Harper's Bazaar" I mean. I don[']t know when we are [going] to New York or if we are going at all — saving your presence I don't give a — whether we do or not except for the sake of seeing you and Aylmer and some

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friends of ours in Toronto, whose address I'll send you when we find it — you two and them two would go down like a dinner together. She has just dug the address out and it[']s: Eamonn & Fionnuala Martin, 66, Pleasant Blvd., (I presume in your benighted country that that means "Boulevard"). I should like you to write to them — and I think you'd get on very well with Fionnuala. In the meantime, dear Nuala, I am forced to think of you by your old china, Beatrice, who continues this letter. I conclude by asking you to give my best regards to Aylmer and I am looking forward to the time he and I will swill Bourbon or Canadian Club together - love to you both - go nuaghidh Dia sibh3 Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2. 3.

The Quare Fellow was presented at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 8 October 1956. See Eamonn Martin's interview with Brendan, 'Brendan Behan's Quare World', Globe Magazine (Toronto), 15 September 1962, pp. 4-6. May God refresh you both.

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36 To the Editor of THE NEW STATESMAN AND

NATION

'The English Out of Ireland', The New Statesman and Nation (London) vol. 52, 8 December 1956, p. 747.

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[8 December 1956] SIR Mr. Marlowe Hone, in a review of a book by Mr. Stephen Rynne,1 implies that we in Ireland have gained nothing by getting the British out of here. We read (and write) the N. S. & N. for no chauvinistic reason of countries right or wrong, but I think I, as a Dublin man of workingclass Connolly and Larkin Socialistic origin,2'3 would be a better Irish guide to you readers than Mr. Rynne — a Downside Catholic Englishman who cannot even spell an Irish place name - or Mr Hone, who for all his splendid first name I do not know a damn thing about — nor even if he is one of the Hones, Nathaniel, Joseph, David or Pogema Hone.4 I assure you, sir, that the northside of Dublin has been changed, in a gigantic programme of house and flat building, out of my own recognition. I saw, with interest, as a former slum dweller and building worker the beautiful flats at Quarry Hill estate in Leeds, and I saw the lovely flats at Westbourne Grove or near it (the only two places in London of whose position I am certain are the Newspaper Workers' Club in Gunpowder Alley at the back of your place and the B.B.C.), but the next time you are in Dublin let me show you the new flats at Hardwicke Street — let me show you any of them, and there are miles of them, far more than in any other city I know — and I view slum clearance with an expert eye. I may say, of course, that I remain an unrepentant Socialist and do not imply approval of any other activity of church or state in Ireland - but credit where it's due - Mr. Hone or Mr. Rynne never lived in the Irish parts of Ireland — I did — they smelt. 18 Waterloo Road, BRENDAN BEHAN5 Dublin.

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Notes 1. Marlowe Hone, The Ways of Liberty', The New Statesman and Nation (London) vol. 52, 17 November 1956, p. 646. Review of Stephen Rynne, All Ireland (London: Batsford, 1956). 2. James Connolly (1868-1916) Irish Nationalist. 3. James Larkin (1876-1947) Irish labour leader. 4. There is an insulting pun here. Togema' in Irish means 'kiss my'; and 'Hone' means 'arse'. 5. Brendan's letter invited the following correspondence: Togema' Hone, The English Out of Ireland', The New Statesman and Nation (London) vol. 52, 22 December 1956, p. 819; and Marlowe Hone, The English Out of Ireland', ibid, 29 December 1956, p. 843.

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37

To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR

This letter was never published. (In the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

15, Herbert Street,1 Dublin, 6th January 1957 Dear Sir, I seek enough representation — after all we pay extra taxation on the Spectator over here — to say, how delighted many people in this city were with the poem "Dialectic in Howth" by Valentin Iremonger. Despite so many ex-IRA (imitation) poets, so many ex-RAF, renewed Catholics, former Reds, so much graceful fluency and cool lightness of touch — so much Oirishness, how apposite the lines: ". . . that the logical accurate words that spang around the room convey the exact sense that they are meant to, in a strictly modern sense."3 Brendan Behan

Notes 1. This is the first letter written from this address. 2. Valentin Iremonger (1918— ), Irish poet and diplomat. On Iremonger see also p. 55. 3. The last line should actually read: 'they are meant to, in a strictly present tense.' The poem is reprinted in Valentin Iremonger, Horan's Field and Other Reservations (Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1972) p. 59.

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38

To ARTHUR GILLIGAN

One day Beatrice Behan telephoned Arthur Gilligan, the owner of the Dawson Lounge, where Brendan often drank, and asked him to bail Brendan out; which Gilligan did. Shortly afterwards, Brendan called at the Dawson Lounge 'with a present wrapped in brown paper' - as Mrs Imelda Gilligan, Arthur Gilligan's widow, remembers. (In the possession of Imelda Gilligan.)

16 February 1957 To Arthur d'Art 6 Breanddin a grdt my era/1 from The Quare Fellow2 Brendan

Notes 1. To Arthur from Brendan [with the] love of my heart. 2. The Quare Fellow had just been published - in November 1956.

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39

To ROBERT LUSTY

This letter was written in reply to a letter by Robert [now Sir Robert] Lusty, the Chairman of the Hutchinson Publishing Group, in which he told Brendan 'we are being a little disturbed by one Gerald C. Raffles, who claims that he has your authority to act on his behalf. Lusty's deputy, and Editorial Director of the Hutchinson Group, Iain Hamilton, had commissioned Brendan to write Borstal Boy in January 1957. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley, formerly Rae Jeffs.)

1957: A Busy Year for Correspondence P. S. I enclose formal letter for Raffles's solicitors

89

15 Herbert Street, Dublin 21st February, 1957

Dear Mr. Lusty, I have an agreement with Mr. Gerald C. Raffles of which this is a copy:

31st May 1956 This agreement is between Brendan Behan of 18, Waterloo Road, Ballsbridge, DUBLIN and Gerald C. Raffles of Theatre Royal, Angel Lane, LONDON E. 15., whereby Mr. Brendan Behan gives Mr. Gerald C. Raffles sole and full rights in his play The Quare Fellow with the sole exception of the right to Dramatic Representation in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland on the understanding that Mr. Gerald C. Raffles pays to Mr. Brendan Behan 95% of all monies accruing from the rights of the play. four English three-halfpenny stamps and (signed in handwriting)

Brendan Behan Gerald C. Raffles.

Witnessed: M. Lefebre His company did the play at Stratford E. 15 and subsequently made an arrangement with an organisation calling itself Script Plays to put it on in London. Script Plays was run by Barry Wynne and John Waterhouse. Wynne was an undischarged bankrupt at the time, and Waterhouse has since written me letters asking me for my new play of which this is a sample: H. R. Heller Ltd, Personal Management, 175, Piccadilly, London W. I. Hyde Park, 9740. Brendan Behan Esq., 15, Herbert Street, Dublin, Eire

1st Feb., 1957

My dear Brendan, I received a letter from Michael Fior this morning in which he said that he spent a very hectic day with you on Tuesday — he was still suffering from a hangover up to yesterday.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan I do want to try and assure you that should we do business together, all the cards will be face up on the table, terms will be discussed between us and any agreement mutually acceptable. No cornering! If there are too many sharks in the bath there won't be enough of the fine fellah to go round. (There must never be a repetition of The Quare Fellow travesty where we had all cooks and no broth.) If we do it our way, we've only got ourselves to blame. All I want to do, Brendan is to read your play,1 if I like it, take an option and arrange a production. Kindest regards (signed) JOHN WATERHOUSE

I did not reply to Mr. Waterhouse, because I did not want to have anything to do with him, and I received the following: H. R. Heller (etc.) Brendan Behan (etc)

date: 14th February, 1957

My dear Brendan, I was hoping to have had a letter from you in connection with The Hostages, [sic]. I would welcome a letter from you to know if you are in agreement, at least in principal [sic], that I act on your behalf for this play? Kindest regards Yours sincerely (signed) A new play of mine - B.B. John Waterhouse. I mention Script Plays and quote these letters to show that according to one of the principals in Script Plays, I have no agreement with him. Script Plays were introduced to me by Raffles at Stratford and I was paid 100 pounds less 5% commission to Raffles as an option on The Quare Fellow in the West End. Subsequently Mr. Barry Wynne came to Dublin and I signed a

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contract with Script Plays under which they paid me 10 pounds weekly and had an interest in everything I wrote. Later, Raffles told me that Wynne had come to Dublin unknownst to him and that I should not have signed this contract with Script Plays. Later, Script Plays informed me that because Gerry Raffles claimed to have the first handling of my royalties from the play that they were paying me no more ten pounds weekly (They only paid me once anyway). Script Plays sent me a letter telling me that they were stopping all payments and Raffles asked me to sign a contract dated previous to the one I signed for Script Plays. He sent me a copy of what purported to be a contract which made him my representative in all literary matters, and I, although I knew that it was illegal, signed it. I was at that time anxious to get something for my work. He enclosed with the "contract" the following letter which I have here before me, on the printed stationery of Theatre Workshop. It is upon this "contract" he relies for his present claim on me. (copy)

Stratford Theatre Royal, London E. 15 THEATRE WORKSHOP. Production: Joan Littlewood Management: Gerald C. Raffles MARyland 5973/4 (undated) Dear Brendan, (handwriting) I can't get a 'plane seat to go to Dublin, so we will have to wait to meet again. Meanwhile, if you want to, sign and return the enclosed contract. Don't show it to anyone, and send it back right away, signed or not. If you want to fight this way, next time Wynne or anyone else wants you to agree to anything, refer them to Mr. R. K. George, 16, Soho Square LONDON W.I. (GER rard 2807) who is our solicitor and a friend, and who will look after your interests if you let him.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan I hope to get The Quare Fellow published soon as a book, and also produced in several foreign languages. Best wishes Gerry Love to Beatrice

The purpose of my signing this contract which was dated in May or June, 1956 was to prove that I had a contract signed with Raffles before I signed the one with Script Plays (Wynne). Actually, of course, I received the above letter and the "contract" in the first week of September, 1956. Raffles, I am sure, is not certain that I have this letter still in my possession, and I do not wish to tell him so, till he quotes the "contract" referred to in it. In the meantime, I should tell his solicitors that I have no agreement with him, good, bad or indifferent about anything written by me, except The Quare Fellow, and would ask him upon what does he base any claim to the contrary. If he produces this "contract" I will produce the above letter and the evidence of a witness to testify as to its having been dated nearly four months before the date upon which it was signed. Iain2 and yourself, Mr. Lusty, have been very good and encouraging to me, and I am sorry that you have been troubled in the matter. In the meantime I will get on, with your book and mine. Brendan Behan P.S. Script Plays are no longer in existence, and it also occurs to me that agreement regarding The Quare Fellow is not quite legal because Raffles is not, and certainly was not at the time licenced by the L.C.C.3 as an agent.

Notes 1. 2. 3.

The Hostage. Iain Hamilton, Hutchinson's Editorial Director. London County Council.

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40 To ROBERT LUSTY

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

Robert Lusty, Esq., Managing Directer, The Hutchinson Group, 178-202, Great Portland Street, London, W. I.

15, Herbert Street, Dublin. 24th February, 1957.

Dear Mr. Lusty, I have received from you a copy of a letter from * * *. If this refers to a book which Messrs Hutchinsons have accepted from me for publication,1 and which is the subject of a contract between myself and Messrs Hutchinson, I wish to state that I have no contract with Gerald Charles Raffles, Esq., that includes any right referring to that book. Yours faithfully,

Brendan Behan

Note 1.

Borstal Boy.

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41 To IAIN HAMILTON

This postcard is the first correspondence from Brendan to Iain Hamilton, Hutchinson's Editorial Director. See Hamilton's recollections of Brendan, 'Among the Irish', Encounter, vol. 23, October 1964, pp. 36-7. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

1 March 1957 Iain, a chara,1 I've read your and Mr. Lusty's letter with some assurance. Should I send over original correspondence for your solrs.2 or not? Writing book like an angel. Brendan

Notes 1. Dear Iain (literally: Iain, O friend). 2. Solicitors.

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42

To the Editor of THE NEW STATESMAN AND NATION

'Easter Lily', The New Statesman and Nation (London) vol. 53, 9 March 1957, p. 310.

[9 March 1957] SIR — Sean O'Callaghan's book about the I.R.A.1 is a collection of Picture Post photographs, and some selections from newspaper reports of court proceedings, helped out by "recollections" of executions of informers and policemen. I would not trouble myself with him one way or another were it not for the fact that he appears to give your reviewer2 the impression that the I.R.A. is composed of the sort of "man who hates coloured students who walk out with Irish girls." This is a line of attack that Sean O'Callaghan has picked up in England since he went over there and is to be taken more seriously than the Zane Grey bits of his book,3 because it is the less easy to disprove. I cannot give you dates and figures as to the state of mind of I.R.A. men in regard to coloured students. I can only say that I live in a part of Dublin in which many coloured students live. The flat above me is occupied by coloured students. It is no uncommon sight to see a coloured student and an Irish girl walking together. My wife has lent delph to a coloured student in the same house, and stopped to make tea a I'anglaise in preparation for a visit from his Irish girl friend. I have never heard any verbal abuse of coloured students here or in Belfast. I have never heard of any Irish organisation, the I.R.A., the Orange Order, the "B" Specials, or any other, having any bias one way or another, or having any official opinion about coloured students. I have seen a huge meeting which overflowed the Mansion House, addressed by T. D.s4 and speakers of every sort of political party, protest against British policy in Africa.

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I think the Catholic clergy would be surprised to get a good word from me, but at least, it can be said that the only thing an Irish Catholic priest had to do with the hanging of Dedan Kimathi5 was to stay with him, at his own request, till the rope, of which your reviewer was part proprietor, was put round his neck. No, Mr. Fraser, look over your shoulder. There are laymen and clerics in Ireland who would welcome, and have openly praised the "Fascism in the name of Jesus" described in Kingsley Martin's splendid article,6 and I would scorn their approbation, even in the matter of you and Sean O'Callaghan, but persecution and murdering coloured people is your privilege. BRENDAN BEHAN 15 Herbert Street, Dublin.

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

Sean O'Callaghan, The Easter Lily: The Story of the IRA (London: Wingate, 1957). G.S. Fraser, 'Great Hatred, Little Room', The New Statesman and Nation (London) vol. 53, 2 March 1957, p. 282. Zane Grey (1875—1939), writer of American stories of adventure in the West. Teachta Data (Member of Parliament). The Mau Mau leader who was hanged at Nairobi Prison on 18 February 1957. Cf. 'You've heard of the British prison camp in Kenya where eleven natives . . . death', Brendan Behan in an interview with Don Ross, 'Behan Loves Zestful Talk', New York Herald Tribune, 18 September 1960, Section 4, p. 1. Kingsley Martin, 'Fascism in the Name of Jesus', The New Statesman and Nation (London) vol. 53, 2 March 1957, p. 268. Brendan's letter invited the following correspondence: G. S. Fraser, The Easter Lily', The New Statesman and Nation (London) vol. 53, 16 March 1957, p. 340; and Sean O'Callaghan, The Easter Lily', ibid, 23 March 1957, p. 383.

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43

To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley)

15, Herbert Street DUBLIN, 12th March, 1957 Iain, a chara,

Thanks for the twenty quid. Tell Eileen1 I am sending the tax forms in a day or so. I enclose the questionnaire.2 I am sending the glossy picture as soon as I get it, and going down to the Irish Times now to look for one. But you shall have it in a day or so with the tax things. Gerry Raffles rang up, and acted very hurt, and all to that effect, but the principal thing is that he wrote me a letter of which I shall send on a copy renouncing any right to have anything to do with the book. I am sending you on a copy of this letter. He also says he wants my new play, and will give me some more dough from the other play. Listen, ask your man, Mr. Knopf not to take the spike over this, but I can't write 200 words about this book, as requested on his form. My regards to Mr. Lusty, Go raib mait agat. Brendan

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. Eileen Horrocks, Iain Hamilton's secretary. 2. For the American co-publisher. 3. Alfred A. Knopf, the American co-publisher of Borstal Boy. 4. Thank you.

1957: A Busy Year for Correspondence

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44

To IAIN HAMILTON

Iain Hamilton had sent Brendan a letter on 13 March 1957 telling him: what I'm writing for at the moment is a really first-rate title, descriptive, evocative, and of a punch which will tell equally well on both sides of the Atlantic. Borstal Boy is fair enough, but it's not nearly indicative enough of the width and depth of the book; and in the USA Borstal Boy wouldn't mean a thing. What would you say to lifting a phrase out of a ballad, or a bit of a line from a poem that would give something of the taste of the writing and the experience behind it? And this was Brendan's reply. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

100

The Leiters of Brendan Behan 15, Herbert Street, Dublin. Thursday, 14th March, 1957.

Iain, a chara mo chroidhe,1

I enclose a picture for Mr. Koshland2 and I don't think it[']s a very good one. There are dozens of pictures of me round but I never seem to keep any of them. Incidentally, there is a portrait of me in this year's Royal Hibernian academy and I'll send you a picture of a picture of it. The best picture of me that I know - apart from Scotland Yard, which are hardly available — was taken by an agency called Concanon Artists Services, 19 Chapel Side, London, W. 2. Ask them for the one they supplied the Irish Times. I enclose the enclosed in case you or Mr. Koshland are stuck. About the title, I cannot offhand think of anything. Most of the ballads are, as you know, about hayroes, and I'm nearer to Groucho Marx3 than Robert Emmet.4 I'd say I'm nearer Milk Wood than Wendy Wood.5 The best I can think of at the moment is calling it: "What Matter", a personal account of three years Borstal Detention by Brendan Behan. ("God save Ireland," said they proudly, "God save Ireland", said they all, "Whether on the scaffold high, or the battle-field we die, "O what matter when for Erin dear we fall!") Yeats's poems to political prisoners are about landed ladies riding to hounds in Sligo, so they're not much help. You will have the corrected typescript on or before the 30th April. Put Raffles out of your head for the moment except to tell Mr. Lusty and the solicitors that I am very grateful to them and will write and explain all in a day or two, Please, how about "What Matter". ?????????. Try it out on Eileen. (Neither have I forgotten her tax things.) Love from Beatrice, and uaim fein,6 Brendan

1957.- A Busy Year for Correspondence

101

Notes 1. 2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

Iain, friend of my heart. William Koshland, the executive of the American publishing firm Alfred A. Knopf. The correspondence of this firm pertaining to Brendan Behan is now in the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas, Austin. Groucho Marx (1893-1977) American comedian; one of the four Marx Brothers. Robert Emmet (1778-1803) Irish nationalist leader. An extreme Scottish Nationalist. Myself.

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45

To JOHN CULLEN

Editor at Methuen, the publishers of Brendan's plays. (In the possession of Methuen.)

15, Herbert Street, Dublin, 27th March, 1957. Dear Mr. Cullen, I have been in touch with Mr. Gerald Raffles since last I wrote to you, and wish to inform you, that he is acting for me, again, about The Quare Fellow,2 and that money may be paid to him on my behalf, whenever its['] available. Yours faithfully,

Brendan Behan. John Cullen, Esq., Methuen, (Publishers) 36 Essex Street, Strand, London, W. C. 2.

Notes 1. 2.

For a note on Gerald Raffles see p. 89. The Quare Fellow was published by Methuen in November 1956.

1957; A Busy Year for Correspondence

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46 To SEAN THOMAS O'KELLY

Sean Thomas O'Kelly (1882-1966), Irish journalist and political leader who was elected the second President of Ireland in 1945. He had been a friend of Brendan's father, Stephen Behan, in the early days of Sinn Fein. Once Brendan was in trouble and the Irish police were after him. Detective Superintendent Gantly of the Special Branch was reported to have said: 'Brendan Behan will be shot before night.' As soon as Stephen Behan heard this alleged statement he got into a taxi and set out for the house of O'Kelly, then Minister for Local Government, who immediately contacted another influential member of the Cabinet and succeeded in having an order issued that Brendan was to be taken alive. (Carbon copy of this letter in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

15, Herbert Street, Dublin, Thursday the 18th April, 1957. A Aire Uasal,1 I was leaving my father-in-law's2 house, 43, Morehampton Road, Dublin, at 1-30 a.m. on the morning of Wednesday the 17th, when I was accosted by two Civic Guards who came from a squad car, and very truculently asked my identity. This I refused to give until they gave me some valid reason for demanding it. They dragged me to Donnybrook Guards barracks, and released me, and on the way down to the station, both of them addressed me by my name, which shows that they knew my identity. I would not have attempted to bring this matter before you, were it not for the fact that I was in the company of my wife. We were going home and she was wheeling a bicycle. I can tell you that my father was in Gormanstown3 with you, and my uncle Michael Slater, of Annadale Avenue, off Philibsburgh Avenue, is an old worker in the cause of your election to the Dail.4 I do not claim that these things give me the right to break the law, but I do claim your consideration in this matter, when I have been illegally dragged along Morehampton Road for no reason whatsoever. Except that the Guards who drove us home, remarked that it was "only a bit of sport." I do not regard it as bit of sport, and if all else fails, and I cannot live in Ireland, without the dangers of this experience being repeated, well I shall make very certain, at the International Drama Festival in a fortnight's time, that publicists outside this country know the way I was treated. My wife can bear witness to the truth of all that I have stated here. is mise,5 Brendan Behan

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Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

5.

Honourable Sir. Cecil Salkeld. Gormanstown Camp, where Stephen Behan was interned when Brendan was born in 1923. Ddil Eireann. The legislature of parliament in Ireland, officially named the Oireachtas, consists of the President and two Houses, 'a House of Representatives to be called Ddil Eireann and a Senate to be called Seanad Eireann.' I am.

106

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47 To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A, Sebley.)

15, Herbert Street Dublin, 20th May, 1957. Iain, a chara dilis.1 I am going over to do a B.B.C. job next week & I will report to you in London on the 30th or 31st May, and will bring the uncompleted mss. - about 300 foolscap pages. I will also kneel and explain why the lot is not finished when I said it would be - and after that I will go home & finish it do chara,2 Brendan

Notes 1 2.

Iain, faithful friend. Gaelic, like Arabic, is more demonstrative and flowery than English in its modes of address. Your friend.

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48

To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

[23 May 1957] Iain, a chara

Here's Eileen's thing . . . see you next week. gradh mo chroidhe dhibh.2 Brendan

Notes 1. 2.

The income tax form, which Brendan was supposed to complete and return to Eileen Horrocks, Iain Hamilton's secretary. The love of my heart to both of you.

108

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49

To the Editor of the EVENING HERALD

'Mr Behan and the Olympia, Evening Press (Dublin), 28 May 1957, p. 6. The same letter was published as 'Disclaimer by Mr Behan, Evening Herald (Dublin), 1 June 1957, p. 3.

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[28 May 1957]

I was mentioned by name in your report of a court case last week,1 and would like to state, in this connection, that at no time have I offered, or caused to be offered a play of mine for production by Mr. Stanley Illsley nor would I consider doing so. Most of the productions at the Olympia in the last few years have been those of West End successes touring the provinces. In the event of my play2 in its West End production3 coming here the matter would be one for discussion in London between my agent and Mr. Illsley's principals. But the matter would not arise because I am sole agent for my work in the thirty-two counties of Ireland, and did, in fact, negotiate productions of my play in Belfast and Dublin, but on no occasion have I discussed a production in the Olympia Theatre or with Mr. Illsley or anyone purporting to represent him. Of these West End plays at the Olympia, one I saw recently as a customer. This was Look Back in Anger, by John Osborne and a very fine play it is. Another I saw in my professional capacity as a critic for Radio Eireann. It was Hippo Dancing4 with Robert Morley, and I enjoyed myself, not at the play, but at the microphone, telling the public what I thought of it. I am sure Mr. Robert Morley can afford not to hold it against me, but then Mr. Morley likes English audiences and they certainly like him, and he has the indifference to criticism that comes of success. Of Mr. Illsley's own productions I saw one, Land Without Stars,5 which lasted four hours the first night and ran for three nights after. No matter how genteel the audience, I could not afford that kind of production. Do chara,6 Brendan Behan 15 Herbert Street, DiiMin

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

See 'Producer Says Olympia Rejected 'Quare Fella", Evening Press (Dublin), 21 May 1957, p. 1. The Quare Fellow. The play was transferred from Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, to the Comedy Theatre, West End, London, on 24 July 1956. Adapted by the English actor-playwright, Robert Morley, from the French by Andre Roussin. By Father Leo McCann. Your friend.

7957; A Busy Year for Correspondence

III

50

To the Editor of the PICTURE POST

'The Quare Fellow', Picture Post (London), 1 June 1957, p. 39. This weekly, which was very popular, started publication in October 1938. In May 1957, however, it announced that it would close down. Brendan, always an admirer of this periodical, sent this letter to the editor when he heard the news of its closure.

[1 June 1957] Well do I remember, as a painter's apprentice, in those grim times of the late thirties, buying your paper and seeing for the first time my own sort of people portrayed and described as they really are. You were consistently fair to Ireland and always tried to show the non-U people of England in their natural strength, humour and dignity. Maybe you will be back. BRENDAN BEHAN, DUBLIN.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

51 To RAE JEFFS

Rae Jeffs was publicity manager at Hutchinson, publisher of Borstal Boy and Brendan's other non-dramatic works. She later resigned to edit Brendan's taperecorded books Brendan Behan's Island (1962), Brendan Behan's New York (1964), and Confessions of an Irish Rebel (1965). She also wrote a book, Brendan Behan: Man and Showman (1966); and forewords to Brendan's The Scarperer (1964) and Confessions of an Irish Rebel (1965). See interview with her by Robert Pitman, 'The Genteel Muse Who Keeps Mr Behan Writing, The Sunday Express (London), 5 January 1964, p. 6. As soon as Borstal Boy was accepted for publication by Hutchinson, Rae Jeffs sent Brendan a set of publicity information sheets to fill out. Within fortyeight hours, Brendan returned the completed forms with this letter. Parts of these forms are reproduced here after the letter. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley. Some of the correspondence pertaining to Hutchinson previously appeared in Rae Jeffs, Brendan Behan:Man and Shownman BehanMa :nBrenda an d.Showman nThe present texts Th e are transcribed from the originals.)

1. Brendan Behan in Sean O'Sullivan's studio, St Stephen's Green, Dublin

2. Brendan Behan, working in Dublin

3. Brendan Behan, with the original cast of The Quare Fellow

4. Brendan Behan, 1958, in Sweden at the invitation of Dr Olaf Lagerlof

5. In Tijuana, Mexico: Brendan Behan (left), friend Peter Arthurs (middle) and Beatrice Behan (right)

6. Brendan Behan, working in New York

7. Brendan Behan in New York

8. Brendan Behan at the Algonquin Hotel, New York

1957: A Busy Year for Correspondence

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Thursday, the 6th June, 1957 Dear Rae, Me lovely Sussex1 chickadee — I was going to write poule - and show off me French but that has a double meaning. Beatrice2 tied me hand and foot to this bastarding machine till I filled in this form. Love to Eileen3 and Margaret,4 Paudrig O Caoimh5 and Bob Lusty6 and the Highland Chief himself, Iain the Slasher,7 in haste to ketch the post, Brendan.

Writing Career: My own writing habit is that I write when absolutely sober. I started writing for Irish Republican and Irish Left Wing papers and was published first in a magazine called Fianna, the organ of Fiann Eireann, the Republican Scout Organisation founded by Countess Markievicz, and of which I was a member from the age of seven to the age of fourteen, when I was transferred to the I.R.A. as a courier or messenger boy. I was published first at the age of twelve but the first article I was ever paid for appeared in the June, 1942 issue of the Bell. I have written for love (political writing) and for money, radio, newspaper work, in English and Irish, and poetry. pecial interest or pursuit other than professional:: i I swim a great deal in the summer (in water I mean) and am very fond of race meetings — particularly a point-to-point. I spend most of my spare time with non-literary fellows that I have known from youth — mostly fellows that are mixed up in the greyhound business. I myself like the company and am of course always very well informed as to the form of dogs at any track in England or Ireland, but don't like racing myself, because the track racing is too dull, and the coursing is too cruel. I go coursing sometimes because the screams of the hares give me an excuse to stop in the tent drinking whiskey. I like city people, in Dublin or from the East End.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

In a general summary on Borstal Boy, Brendan wrote the following: It's the story of an Irish boy of sixteen arrested and sentenced in England for I.R.A. activities, of his fears, hopes and relationships with the other boys in an English reformatory. (The only thing about which I am not garrulous is my own work.) I have tried not to be heroic or any more abject than people sometimes are. I have attempted also to reproduce the conversations of adolescent prisoners about sex and religion and sometimes about politics and sometimes about crime and sport. It is a book of 'innocence and experience'. Some people may say that my book shouldn't be read, then I say that adolescence should not be lived. I was excommunicated from the Catholic Church when I was arrested and refused to disavow the Irish Republican Army in prison, and I think the book tells of my loneliness in exile from the only church I had ever known, or taken seriously, the church of my people, of my ancestors hunted in the mountains, and of my bitterness about this. But I must admit that I find more Marlowe than Mauriac in the book and when the sun shone and we worked together in the fields or ran down the beach naked for an illegal swim, the Church or poor old Ireland were well forgotten. And finally, under the heading Review Copies, Brendan supplied the names of one or two people whom he felt were entitled to free copies of his book. Thomas Barbour, Hudson Review? America (He praised me once.) William Maas, some University, America. If you don't know him then he's not much good to either of us. Jean Shepperd, a radio commentator. (I was invited to have dinner with him but didn't but he's my only contact with U.S. radio.) The forms were completed by the following statement: 'I wrote for many expatriate magazines in Paris — Points, Paris Review and Merlin — but do not wish to remind anyone of the fact - hunger makes pornographers of us all.'

1957: A Busy Year for Correspondence

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Notes 1. Rae Jeffs lived, and still does, in Sussex. She is now Mrs Peter A. Sebley. 2. Beatrice Behan. 3. Eileen Horrocks, Iain Hamilton's secretary. 4. Margaret Taylor, assistant in the Publicity Department. 5. Timothy O'Keeffe, Iain Hamilton's editorial assistant; now Managing Director of Martin Brian and O'Keeffe Ltd., a London publishing house. 6. Robert Lusty, Chairman of the Hutchinson Publishing Group. 7. Iain Hamilton.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

52

To IAIN HAMILTON

Brendan had adopted a professional attitude towards the compilation of the publicity forms. Iain Hamilton, however, was not meeting with quite the same professionalism with regard to the submission of the finished manuscript of Borstal Boy, and he was getting anxious. At the end of June 1957, he received this postcard from Brendan from the west coast of Ireland.1 (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

[Postmarked 21 June 1957] Td me,2 leaping from roasted rock and spangling the shivering quivering air with showering rainbow fragments gaily jangling between the Atlantic and the sun's mad glowering.3 Also grafting like a bastard and will send instalment of 100 f/cap pages to you to have on Sat 29th morning. Love to Rae, Eileen, Mr. Lusty and Margaret, Breandan.

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Notes 1. Brendan had a very special place in his heart for the West of Ireland and the Aran Islands. 2. I am. 3. The first sentence of the postcard is a typically Behanesque compliment. Iain Hamilton had published in The Spectator a poem (collected in Embarkation for Cythera. London, 1974; and in The Kerry Kyle. London, 1980) in which occur the following lines: But see Mum's pleasure in those youngsters leaping from bounding board and spangling shimmering quivering air with showering rainbow fragments coldly jangling between the pool and the sun's hot glowering!

118

The Letters of Brendan Behan

53 To IAIN HAMILTON

Several days later, no material had yet arrived from Brendan and lain Hamilton telephoned him to be promised that it would be in the post by return. Then Brendan wrote this letter. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

1957: A Busy Year for Correspondence

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15 Herbert Street Dublin, Monday July 8th, 1957. Iain,a chara, Here's the finished copy to date, and I am truly sorry that I have not sent you more. I got the readies o.k., and thanks a lot and have not very much to do - at least no more than I can do in a fortnight from this date. As I told you in the letter for Mr. Rubenstein, I am changing the names in the proofs, and you will have the whole thing finished, as far as I am concerned, on the 1st August. I will do the article for Mr. Wall with a heart and a half.1 I am drinking tea at this moment and feeling ghastly. There's some Anglo-Indian old one just now on the B.B.C. and she's been taking elocution lessons from the Duke of Edinburgh. Get a load of this . . . 'London in April was just what I'd expected it to be ... I remember asking Granny why she was such a funny colour and wondered why she changed the subject . . . Jesus and me trying to stop off the gargle.' I hope Prater Wall does not get more than he bargains for. The Archbishop of Dublin says I am a communist — Harold Hobson of the Sunday Times said I was an R.C. bigot — but like yourself I most certainly am a Gael. I often thought we should have taken up something else, did you? I sometimes think I am a crypto Englishman, the kind that wears a bowler hat and goes round the streets with a watercock . . . some of my grandfathers looked like that . . . and refers to a glass of beer as a half, although I am bound to say my grandfathers know what a halfone was. Gradh mo chroidhe2 to you, and your ladies and Mr. Lusty and everyone. One consolation for both of us; the next book3 is a smasher — if we're not outlawed over it and have to go back into our ancestral bogs. In the meantime I shall get on with this book. It has cheered me up even writing to you, and you are certainly the first publisher to get a message like that. Brendan Love from Beatrice to Rae and Eileen and yourself and Margaret and Mr. Lusty.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2. 3.

Bernard Wall, for whom Iain Hamilton had asked Brendan to do an article. Love of my heart. the catacombs.

7957: A Busy Year for Correspondence

121

54 To the Editor of the DUBLIN EVENINGG MAILL

'Threatened Lockout of Plasterers', Dublin Evening Mail, 13 July 1957, p. 7. In response to 'Nine Hundred Plasterers Threatened with Dismissal', ibid, 10 July 1957, p. 6.

122

The Letters of Brendan Behan

11 July 1957 Sir — The building employers have threatened a lock-out of a majority of the working plasterers in this State. This is the first time since 1913 that such a savage attack has been made on the living standards of Irish workers, their wives and little children. I am not seeking your assistance for the plasterers in their struggle — they need neither your help nor mine to fight their battles. But I must, as a reader of your paper, protest against your bare-faced, partisan report of the matter, where you state: "The main danger so far as the building trade is concerned, is that other union men might come out in sympathy, thereby causing an even more serious stoppage of work." Of course, the other workers in the building trade will stand by their fellow workers. And it will not be confined to building workers. If I know the workers of Dublin, which I do, as well as your reporter, the building employers will get a deal more than they bargain for, and it might even be advisable for their fellow-bosses to calm the building employers' hysteria before it involves themselves in something greater than they can handle. "The main danger to the building trade . . ." is the phrase of yours that I, as a reader, object to. To what building trade? To the building of houses? The whole Builders' Employers Federation could go on strike for the rest of their lives and the production of houses would not suffer a slate. Most of the builders' employers I knew, and know, couldn't drive a six-inch nail, much less skim a wall. If you mean that the main danger to the Employers' Federation is that the workers of Dublin will stand together to defend themselves, well be honest and say so. After all, it's natural that you, as employers, should say so and it's just as natural that I as a worker, should resent it — Brendan Behan, 15 Herbert Street

1957; A Busy Year for Correspondence

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55

To IAIN HAMILTON

The first of August came, and still there was no sign of the missing material, lain again wrote a gentle reminder, and this was Brendan's reply. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

15, Herbert Street, Dublin, Monday the 12th of August, 1957 Iain, a chara mo chroidhe,1

I really am very sorry that I have not sent you the last of the book mss before this, but matters sometimes get very complicated. What is the good of telling you now, but I have some very fucked up snafoos in my affairs and am only now getting out of them. They were all financial, but I did not like to call on you again, so soon. However, in one fortnight from now, as God is my witness, you shall have the last word of Borstal Boy. Here is fifty pages, and I also enclose the copy for Bernard Wall.2 Ask him, if he does not like it, to send it back straightaway. Would you mind asking the girls to put a stamp on the enclosed envelope, because I can't get an English stamp. Also, if you could get and send me a copy of Esquire's August issue, I would be glad for I have a thing in it and it's banned here.3 I was getting a lot of dough off a French company for the film rights of The Quare Fellow, and ironically, by C.B.S. of America wanting to televise it. They all started wrangling about a thousand or so, when a couple of score would have saved my life last week.4 Things are easier now, I hasten to add, in case you'd think I was putting the arm on you, and I am just going to address myself to some Dubonnet, new peas, steak, Graves de Vayres, Irish tomatoes, brack (a sort of cake from "breac", spotted, you know "barm brack")5 and I'll send you the last word in a fortnight. The only thing is that the proofs will need a lot of names being changed . . . Also tell Mr. Rubinstein I saw his letter in the Sunday Times . . . slan agat anois, a Iain o, Breandan6

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Notes 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

6.

Iain, friend of my heart. Iain Hamilton had written to Brendan on 10 July 1957 saying that he had 'told Bernard Wall that you have agreed to do an article and he is delighted'. See Brendan Behan, 'Dogmen and Bogmen', Twentieth Century (London) November 1957, pp. 419-28. 'The Quare Fellow', Esquire (Chicago) vol. 48, August 1957, pp. 24-69. A score is £20 in Gaelic intellectual circles. Cf. The Gort Barm-brack was a huge cart-wheel of a fruit cake, filled with the richest ingredients, made specially by [Lady Gregory's] own bakers at Gort for the casts of any of her new plays', Maire Nic Shiublaigh,77ie Splendid Years (Dublin: James Duffy, 1955) p. 32. Health to you now, Iain, from Brendan.

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56 To IAIN HAMILTON

At the end of August, he paid a fleeting visit in person to the office, but as Iain was away on holiday, Brendan conceived the idea that I was the next most likely person to tap for more money. At the same time he made it perfectly clear that he had no right to be asking me for it as he gave me a detailed summary of what had taken place beforehand. The sum involved was only £10, so I gave it to him on his assurance that the final part of the manuscript was almost on the point of being sent off. Encouraged by his success and the cooperation of his publishers, Brendan had not been back in Dublin for long before he was asking once more for 'a few bar', but this time Iain was adamant: no typescript, no money. Almost immediately the final pages were dispatched with the accompanying letter. Rae Jeffs,s, Brendananb Behan:ManManan Brendan Beha (London: Hutchinson, 1966) p. 40. (This letter is in the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

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15, Herbert St. Dublin Saturday 11 p.m. [18 September 1957] Iain, a chara,

This is the first letter I ever wrote you in long hand (which I am not good at). I think you were perfectly right in your letter.1 I sat at the old typewriter till 8 p.m. without eating or drinking till I finished the job - I cannot drink if I'm writing because it's all rubbish and I cannot eat because I haven't been drinking. If you had not written the letter - and if you had sent the chicken's neque2 we would still have been fucking around with the mss. next week. As it is, when I was finished I just got to the pawn with the old typewriter and pawned it for four quid.3 I then went and drank a glass of whiskey, a ball of malt — three English ups, isn't it? — some soda and a half one with a bloke I met. Here it is anyway and I hope you will all get a few nicker out of it. I am tired now but will ring you up early in the week. Love to the girls and indeed to Bob Lusty. Mo gradh dhuit fein (agus 6 Beatrice) do cara, Breandan

Notes lain Hamilton had written to Brendan on 13 September saying that he 'cannot let you have another instalment until you've delivered the last of the typescript, when, of course, there is a great deal to come.' 2. Cockney rhyming slang for a cheque. 3. Colloquial for pound. Cf. 'Brendan alighted from a No. 50 bus at the corner of Westmoreland Street and made his way to Kelly's pawn office in Fleet Street. "How much will yeh give me on me typewriter, John?" he asked. "What yeh always get, Brendan, three quid'", Dominic Behan, My Brother Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1965) p. 82. 4. My love to yourself (and from Beatrice) your friend, Brendan. 1.

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57 To IAIN HAMILTON

At last Borstal Boy was delivered in its entirety and Brendan wrote this letter shortly after its submission. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15, Herbert Street Dublin, 26th September, 1957 Iain, a chara,1 I miss my poor old book! though long and lovingly I cussed it. However, there's more where that came from as the mother of twenty said. Your arrangements for me are good ones, except for one thing. I could do nothing with a score a month — I mean Beatrice couldn't, and I would have to do journalism to keep going at all. I want you, I would like you, to make it forty quid a month, to be paid, beginning on the 1st October, to my account at: Brendan Behan, c/o Mr. MacNeill, Munster and Leinster Bank, Pembroke Branch, 52, Upper Baggot Street, Dublin. Now and on my part, I refused yesterday the job of Dublin corr. for the People newspaper, which meant a Sunday column in the Irish edition and some newsgathering. I have just bought a cottage in C. Wicklow and am putting it into repair, so I don't just booze it all. Pay me — for half the time, will you Iain, and I can keep on writing my own stuff, and yours I hope? I am not doing anything with an eye to you now, because I'm writing a play in Irish,3 but in a couple of weeks I'm starting a book called the catacombs* (the lower case is intentional) which I will submit to you and Bob Lusty. I do not expect you to commission it — my neck is not that hard — but if I do journalism I cannot write it and if I took the job off the People I would finish up in the D.T.'s anyway.5 With a tenner6 a month I'm like Goldsmith's Vicar,7 passing fair, mo ghradh thu,, Breandan

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Notes 1. 2.

Iain, my friend. Iain Hamilton had written to Brendan on 20 September 1957 making the following suggestion: 'Why not let us pay now, say £20 on the first of every month - this will see you through to somewhere about the end of 1959 when we can review the position. I think that this would be very much more satisfactory from your point of view than calling for bigger supplies.' The present editor learns that the idea behind this was not meanness, but Hamilton's desire to protect Beatrice Behan. Brendan liked to breeze into the office and demand a fistful of 'readies' which he was likely to spend in a single session in a bar, entertaining all and sundry. Hamilton did in fact agree to increase the monthly remittance to £40. 3. An Giall, later to be translated as The Hostage. 4. Brendan began work on this novel in January 1958, when he went with Beatrice to Ibiza, Spain. Before he returned to Ireland in March, he had completed at least thirty pages of it. the catacombs was never finished. All that exists of it has recently been published in Brendan Behan, After the Wake, edited by Peter Fallen (Dublin: O'Brien Press, 1981), pp. 57-97. 5. Delirium tremens. 6. Colloquial for ten pounds. 7. Dr Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith. 8. My love to you, Brendan.

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58

To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15, Herbert St. Dublin 1 October 1957 Iain a chara, This is to introduce my friend Denise Browne. She is a Dublin University graduate who has lived some years in Paris, working there as a translator. I have a very high opinion of her ability and think you might find her [The rest of this letter is missing.]

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59

To IAIN HAMILTON

After a great deal of toing and froing on the matter of the title of Borstal Boy, Brendan's patience snapped. In this brief note in his own hand he finally recorded the title of the book. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

(The brevity of this note is due to the fact that I am in bed with flu)

15, Herbert St. Dublin 9th November 1957

Iain, a chara dil,1

(1) (2) (3)

Congratulations on your book, Scotland the Brave,2 of which I've only seen reviews yet. The title of my own book is Borstal Boy in the English edition Do you intend continuing the £40 a month? It would be convenient for me to know. I got nothing this month & it is humiliating to be going into the bank and asking about it3 — do chara4 Brendan

Notes 1. Iain, my faithful friend. 2. Iain Hamilton, Scotland the Brave (London: Michael Joseph, 1957); published in the USA as Half a Highlander (New York: Dutton, 1957).

132 3.

The Letters of Brendan Behan In reply to Brendan's note Iain Hamilton wrote on 12 November 1957: Of course we intend continuing the £40 a month. Paragraph 3 of your letter came as a nasty surprise and we went off to explore the machine where we found a little accounting spanner holding up the works. This was quickly removed and the cheque was sent off to the Bank Manager yesterday afternoon. I am sorry about this. Just a slip which should never have occurred and will not (I hope) again.

4.

Your friend.

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60 To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15, Herbert Street, Dublin,

12th November 1957

Iain, a chara. mo chroidhe, The line occurs in the 'Convict of Clonmel'2 (Priosunach Chluain Meala — incidentally Cnoc an Mhadaidh, means the Hill of the Dog, you ignorant Scotch ballocks, not the Hill of the Wolf — Wolf is "mac tire" — Cluain Meala means the Vale of Honey) and you and Bob Lusty thought I made it up, and is in the verse: How hard is my fortune, and vain my repining, The strong rope of fate for this young neck is twining! My strength is departed, My cheeks sunk and sallow, While I languish in chains In the jail of Clonmala. Scotland the Brave is a darling book, and is being reviewed in the Irish Times either next Sat or the one after. I'll send you the review anyway, and make sure you have it over here for Christmas (Who's the fucking publisher you or me?) do chara3 Brendan Behan

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Notes 1. 2. 3.

Iain, friend of my heart. The Convict of Clonmel' was by Jeremiah Joseph Callanan (1795-1829). Your friend.

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61

To IAIN HAMILTON

There was still one further problem concerning Borstal Boy; the aptness of the title. Although Brendan had come up with an alternative of 'What Matter' (from 'O what matter when for Erin dear we fall!') Iain felt the allusion was obscure and did not sufficiently convey the nature and flavour of the book. It would not do for the USA because it would mean little or nothing there, and he was not sure it was really an adequate label in England for a book of such quality. Iain offered instead: 'Me son, me son, what have ye done?' — from a Dublin street ballad. And this was Brendan's reply. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15, Herbert Street, Dublin 13th November, 1957. Iain, a chara mo chroidhe,1

There is a good phrase in G. S. Fraser's review of your book about a ceilidh:2 "The sly girls holding at arms length, the shy and burning boys." He says you worked it off by going for long walks in a kilt and plotting Scottish Nationalism. It made me think of whose boyhood, only my own. I have seen no reviews over here yet. If you are sending it to the Irish Press I wish I could do it. And probably every other movement of violence, Commandos, SS, Jeunesse de [la] Resistance, Falange, Young Conservatives — as those illiterate bastards on T.V. say: The lot.

It has just occurred to me that the I.R.A. owes most of its most active members to that shy burning.

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Maybe it would be a good thing for the peace of the world if sex (boy-and-girl stuff I mean) was compulsory. I could give a talk on the Third Programme about that: "It seems to me that the whole problem of adolescence and indeed of world peace, may lie in the choice: Fuck or Fight." It might also interest you to know that the song "Scotland the Brave" is a great thumply-umper with kids on the street, even over here. It is a must at any wedding where there is an accordion and is also the signature tune of a sponsored programme for cheese. I think Jimmy Shand popularised it. I regret to say (but no doubt you'll put up with it) that there is a low version of it a line of which goes: "Land of the purple heather, all swing your balls together," which I heard sung by a. troop of Catholic Boy Scouts coming back from the mountains, on a bus. Now, about my own title. Maybe you're right about Borstal Boy but you're dead wrong about that Me son miaow thing. You told me to go and search the scriptures in the form of the old songs and I've come up with this: "This Young Neck." How is that? Will you settle for This Young Neck for the English edition? I don't care a fiddler's fuck about the American edition except for the readies, but whether you or I like it or not, London is the capital of the English language. I don't mind standing in the dock and being charged with high treason, for there can be no treason where there is no allegiance, but the language is as much yours and mine as it is the Duke of Edinburgh's (for example) and to be truthful with you I'd sooner lose money even, than be disgraced in London with that title, Me son me son etc. I have This Young Neck for the English edition and you call it anything you like for any other editions? Is that all right? This Young Neck comes from a song called the "Prisoner of Clonmel", translated from the Irish by J. J. Callanan. It's in 1000 Years of Irish Poetry. Send Scotland the Brave soon will you? Love from Beatrice do chara,3 Brendan Behan

1957: A Busy Year for Correspondence P.S.

137

I haven't seen Scotland the Brave over here, where it would go down like a dinner. You should tell Michael Joseph4 to send some over for the Christmas. Also, I should try Hutchinson's next time, if I were you.

Notes 1. Iain, friend of my heart. 2. A dance; an informal party or gathering of friends and neighbours characterised by spontaneity of singing and dancing. 3. Your friend. 4. The publisher of Iain Hamilton's book, Scotland the Brave.

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62

To the Editor of THE EVENING HERALD

'Const. Flower and Mr Bloom', Evening Herald (Dublin), 29 November 1957, p. 5.

26 November 1957

Sir, Anthony MacDonnell's series is very interesting. I hope he gives us a few more of the cases from the Invincible times,1 like the case of Joe Poole. (Leabdidh i mease na bhFimni dho.) I knew and, indeed, know, and have known for years many of Poole's family, and there are plenty of them, even babies, in Dublin at the present day. With regard to to-night's (26/11/57) piece about Constable Henry Flower and the drowning of poor Bridget Gannon,3 Henry Flower was one of the aliases James Joyce gave to Leopold Bloom in the latter's love letters in Ulysses. Joyce also uses the initials of the witness, Bridget Gannon's friend, Margaret Clowry:"What object did Bloom add to this collection of objects?" "A 4th typewritten letter received by Henry Flower (let H. F. be L. B.) from Martha Clifford (find M. Q." This is in page 683 of the Bodley Head edition and the parentheses are Joyce's. Brendan Behan

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Notes 1. The Invincibles' were a Dublin anarchist group who had assassinated Lord Frederick Cavendish, chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Thomas H. Burke, the Permanent Under-Secretary for Ireland, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1882. 2. Rest amongst the Fenians to him. 3. Anthony MacDonnell, Two Dublin Tragedies', Evening Herald (Dublin), 26 November 1957, p. 6.

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63 To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

[Postmarked 4 December 1957] I got this picture of a German doss-house when I was in London & it's time it went back there.1 Make M. J.2 send copy of S. the B.3 to: Benedict Kiely, Literary Editor, Irish Press, Burgh Quay, Dublin, for review week before Christmas. Get them to send it now will you? do chara* Brendan

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

The picture on the postcard, sent from Dublin, shows Buckingham Palace. Michael Joseph, the publisher of Iain Hamilton's book. Scotland the Brave. Your friend.

5 1958: International Travel Spain, Sweden

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64

To IAIN HAMILTON

Brendan, accompanied by Beatrice, left for Ibiza, Spain, not only to get away from it all, but to write his novel the catacombs in peace. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

Lista Correos, Ibiza, Baleares Spain [January 1958] Iain, The work goes forward on i.e. — it's begun anyway.1 Could you get £20 sent to Mr. MacNeill, Pembroke Branch Munster & Leinster Bank 50, Upper Baggot St. Dublin for transfer to me here? - The trip shook me in more ways than one!2 Love from Beatrice. do chara,3 Brendan

Notes 1. 2. 3.

the catacombs. Brendan later based his play Richard's Cork Leg on this story. 'Shook' is Anglo-Irish slang for 'short of money'. Your friend.

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65 To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

Lista Correos, Ibiza, Baleares, Spain Sat-25-1-58. Iain mo chroi,1

Here is that page you were looking for. Will you send that twenty nicker as soon as possible? Famine looms ahead. I've written the address again on the back of this. Mo ghrddh go deo thu.2 Breandan

Notes 1. Iain, my heart. 2. My love for ever to you.

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66

To IAIN HAMILTON

While he was still in the Balearic Isles, however, Brendan had the idea that it would be a good thing if Borstal Boy carried a photograph of himself in his 'teens, as this would match the book better than an up-to-date portrait. But he did not possess one of himself during the period concerned, and could scarcely ask the Home Secretary for an official photograph, so he persuaded a Spaniard, who resembled him closely at the same age, to stand in for him wearing a large IRA placard around his neck with the words BRENDAN BEHAN, 47383501, written in block capitals underneath it. The prints he dispatched to Iain. R (London: Hutchinson, 1966) p. 43. (Original letter in the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

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Lista Correos Ibiza, Baleares Spain 8 Marzo 1958

Iain, a chara mo chroidhe,1 I like Duncan2 but do not like that picture. I thing the teen-age job is the best idea. I am having a job done tomorrow which will give you a faked picture of me at about 18 - it will cost you or me £10.10.0 and Knopf 3 $30 and I think will be most satisfactory.4 Gra mo chroi thu.5 Love to Eileen & Co. Brendan

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

Iain, friend of my heart. Duncan was the photographer used by Hutchinson to photograph Brendan. Alfred A. Knopf, who published the American edition of Borstal Boy in 1959. In reply to Brendan's suggestion Iain Hamilton wrote on 18 March 1958:

Thank you for the two handsome prints, but I fear that we cannot use them. It would be absolute madness to put faked photographs into this excellent book and if you haven't yourself, and if your people in Dublin haven't, a snapshot of yourself at the age of sixteen or seventeen, then we must just use the grown-up picture that we have — and which is in fact very good. 5.

Love of my heart to you.

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67 To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

do Kruger, Dunquin Co. Kerry, 24th May, 1958. Iain, a chara mo chroidhe, I am sorry I did not get your letter till today — well yesterday — but there is no post till today. I am down here in Kerry talking Irish and writing the catacombs. By Jesus, I think myself it[']s going like a bomb, but about the other thing first. (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v)

Do whatever you, yourself think in this matter.2 O.K.3 and, as regards the American edition aren't the Hamshanks giving us the one money, anyway?4 so they can cut what they like too, though I'd prefer you'd do it. Let the Hamshanks give it what fugging title they like.5 This I will do,6 BUT I sent off the corrected proofs by registered post to you three weeks ago. I have no others. I gather you got the corrected one? They are in my flat in Dublin. I will get them collected and sent off.7

The opening lines of t.c.8 are as follows: no, by Jesus, I'll not tell you no more about it, till I send you the completed copy. But I think it will satisfy you, do chara.9

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The p.s. in your letter was very kind of you,10 go raibh maith agat, * and tell Koshland many thanks from me. Apart from your job in the venal side of the business, as writer, you know that we have no proper view of our own work — we think we're James Joyces one minute and plain gobshites12 the next. I resolved long ago, not to take it seriously only when I read remarks like Koshland's. Let on we're doing it for a living, etc. — well only for a living. It[']s a soft touch, I reckon. I loved Hanley's book,13 and the quotation from Groucho was a master stroke. I wonder would he have anything for our American edition? The only part I didn't like in Hanley's book was that horrible imitation Latin Quarter bit in his young brother's flat at the end. He should leave that to the respectable young angry gents, down your way. Their writing is all about each other. They should be had up for incest. That said, the book is a bit of old magic, I think. You should hold on to that fellow Breandan Love from Beatrice

P.S.

Notes 1. 2.

Iain, friend of my heart. Iain Hamilton, in a letter to Brendan dated 16 May 1958, had written: Would you object if all the anglo-saxon monosyllables of some strength in Borstal Boy (with the exception of 1) were spelled out in full? We are not sure yet whether we can do this or not, but I feel sure that if we can we ought to. Failing that I think that we should adopt something like 'fugging'. I take it however that you do not yourself as author insist on the dash. The spelling out of the 'anglo-saxon monosyllables' in question (common today) was frowned upon in England during the 1950s.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

3.

Iain Hamilton had asked Brendan's 'confirmation that you have no objection to the trimming of repetitions wherever this seems necessary'. 4. Iain Hamilton had taken it also 'that you have no objection if the text is cut somewhat — not very much — in the American edition?' 5. Iain Hamilton had thought that the title of Borstal Boy was 'most unsuitable' for the American edition. The title, however, was not changed when the book was eventually published in the USA. 6. William Koshland, of Alfred A. Knopf - the American co-publisher of Borstal Boy - had written to Iain Hamilton saying that 'Although many of the prison and reform school terms are clear enough in context, I think, for American readers, it would be helpful if a glossary could be prepared including certain slang expressions, abbreviations in the form of a series of initials, etc.' 7. Iain Hamilton had asked Brendan to return to him 'the bags of correspondence from the lawyers that you took away with the galley proofs'. 8. the catacombs. 9. Your friend. 10. Iain Hamilton had quoted this paragraph from William Koshland's letter: As for me, I am quite overwhelmed by the writing itself, and the* general excitement of the prose, its moving quality, and, as one of your first blurb writers put it so clearly, the case of an Irishman coming along, and proving just where the source of vitality in the writing of the English language lies. I have no doubt in my mind that you are right in hailing this as literature with a capital 'L'. 11. Thank you. 12. Anglo-Irish for 'idiots'. 13. Clifford Hanley, Dancing in the Streets (London: Hutchinson, 1958).

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68 To IAIN HAMILTON

Brendan's new play, An Giall, was presented by An Club Dramaiochta under the auspices of Gael-Linn, the Irish-language organisation, at the Darner Hall, Dublin, on 16 June 1958. The play received excellent reviews, and Brendan wrote to Iain enclosing the review of The Irish Times, which is reprinted at the end of this letter. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15, Herbert Street, Dublin. June 22nd, 1958. (Feast of St Joseph Stalin) Iain, a chara. mo chroidhe,1 I am truly penitent for not sending you this over before. It is only the glossary but I am doing Mr. Rubinstein's letter this afternoon. I am trying to catch the twelve o'clock post with this. I enclose a piece from the Irish Times about my new play,2 partly as exculpation of my dotty dilatoriness in the matter of 'B. B.' I am attacked by some citizens who maintain that my poor old play is ProBritish! Jesus, I've heard it all now. However, it is a tremendous success, and is being retained. Being Scots or Irish is a great thing in the days of our youth, when we look good in a kilt, and associate it with giving us a good excuse for tramping the mountains, but sometimes I wish I was born something else. Not French (Algeria) nor English (Cyprus and Kenya) nor Russian - my affection for them is in their role of spectres haunting Maynooth College - but Swedish or Mexican . . . Gneu, gou, gu. the catacombs goes like a bomb. I have thirty pages of it done, and will send them to you whenever you like. do chara,3 Breandan.

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Irish Times, June 17th 1958. One expects the unusual from Mr. Brendan Behan and one is seldom disappointed. He is one of the few writers in Ireland who writes in both French and English, and last night at the Darner Hall, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, he proved to an overflowing audience that he was equally at home writing Irish. Mr. Behan's Gaelic might not be approved of by the purists, but it certainly suits the working-class Dublin of which he writes. His new play An Giall (The Hostage) is set in a lower-class Dublin brothel owned by a fanatical Gael, the son of an Anglican bishop, who was educated at Oxford, and managed by a one-legged old I.R.A. man willing to use it for his own ends. A young English soldier, stationed in Armagh, is kidnapped by the I.R.A., brought to Dublin and imprisoned in the brothel. It is only by accident that he discovers that he is a hostage and will be executed by the Republican soldiers if a young man, under sentence of death in Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast, is hanged. He falls in love with the maid in the house and she with him, and they find that both have more or less the same background — that neither cares a straw for any war or battle which Ireland and Britain might have had in the past or would have in the future. The manager of the place also understands the futility of carrying on the 'Old fight' but he is powerless to intervene. An Giall is a very cleverly written play. Indeed, in the first act the writing was possibly too clever and the dialogue was over-loaded with witty lines that were of little use to the play as a whole. However, this was a small fault and did not detract from the over-all picture of excellence. Mr. Frank Dermody's production was of a high quality which, coupled with Mr. Behan's pen, presented a most entertaining show. It is hoped that Mr. Behan translates his play into a language which more people can understand and more theatregoers enjoy.

Notes 1. 2. 3.

Iain, friend of my heart. 'Brendan Behan's Fine Play in Irish', The Irish Times (Dublin), 17 June 1958, p. 8. Your friend.

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69

To IAIN HAMILTON

Iain Hamilton had written to Brendan on 13 June 1958: There is one more job that you must do before being shot of Borstal Boy completely. Here you see the report by Michael Rubinstein, Harold Rubinstein's son, on the corrected galley proofs, and you will note that he raises various questions with the dread risk of libel in mind. Will you please take this report and go through the various points together with those raised in the earlier reports, further copies of which I am sending you in case you have lost the originals, and let me have your answers to them as soon as possible. We must make quite certain that there is no chink through which some busybody can come with a libel action and do damage to the whole project. And this was Brendan's reply. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

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The Letters of Brendan Behan 15, Herbert Street, Dublin. 24th June, 1958.

Iain, a chara, About Mr. Rubinstein's letter of llth June. Page 2: Sean Russell is dead. The landlady, her lodger and sister; the first was married to an Englishman and only too anxious to forget that [she] ever knew me. The sister did not exist, at least I did not know her. Neither did the lodger. These two are composite figures from a few people I have known, but mostly in Belfast, and at a later date than the period of Borstal Boy. Page 4: I am very glad you mentioned this, and I meant to write to you about it. Please change her name to Sheila. Pages 19-20: Mr. Whitbread: there is no such person - a composite character; none of the originals had a name remotely resembling Whitbread. Dudley for instance was one of their names. Pages 21-3: * * * - right name * * * (and 22 Guinness's Brewery) actually he worked for the Great Southern Railway — now C.I.E. Page 35: * * * and * * * - I meant to write to you about this, too. Their names must be changed. Page 39: Father Lane died last year at the age of 78. Page 44: * * * and * * *: their names must be changed. (I thought I did change them in the corrected proof). Page 59: * * * - right name * * *. Is dead but it would [do] no harm to further change his name. Pages 66 & 105: I'm sure Mr. Rubinstein knows better than I, but I thought you could not libel a corporate body. If they could take an action against, why not the Catholic Church or the British Empire? Page 132: I'm sorry about Saint Paul's. Mr. Rubinstein should have gone to Borstal instead and w/itten a book about it. Then he'd have been someone else's headache, who at the breakfast table would cast a grumbling look at his briefcase, and say, "That bloody Rubinstein," instead of himself, saying, on his way to Gray's Inn, "Jesus, a hangover, andmo

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Page 123: I will change his name further. Page 152: * * * — name should be changed to Griffith everywhere. I thought I had done this. Pages 160—1: Colonel Craven was not his name, nor nothing like it; what his real name was, I forgot. Page 164: I will change the names still further. Page 213: I was fond of old 'ooker the fooker and will change his name still further. With regard to the second last paragraph of Mr. Rubinstein's letter, the only songs which are copyright and quoted are a couple of verses from Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree and two verses from a poem of A. E. Housman's. I suppose we could get permission from their executors? Now, to get down to cases: Would not the best thing be for you to send back the corrected proof and I recorrect the fresh one you sent me, with the first corrected one, by my side? Sorry for the trouble, the delay and my best thanks to Rubinsteins, athair agus mac,1 for the trouble they have taken and the interest they [have] shown in my work, do chara Brendan Love to Eileen and the girls from Beatrice.

Notes 1. Father and son. 2. Your friend.

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70 To RAE JEFFS

There was some doubt in Hutchinson as to whether Borstal Boy should be published in its entirety, or whether some of the four-letter words should be expurgated. Rae Jeffs was getting frequent telephone calls from the press enquiring when the book would be published and now they were beginning to get curious about the cause of the delay. Finally Rae gave one reporter the background story so that he might have a clearer understanding of the difficulties involved. However, the story as it appeared in print was different: Brendan Behan, that wild man of Ireland who astounded London theatregoers two years ago with his play, The Quare Fellow, and everyone else with his drinking capacity — remember that tipsy TV interview1 — will be in a four-letter mood today. For I can tell him that his Publishers are having second thoughts about his book, Borstal Boy. Rae wrote to Brendan explaining what had happened, and this was Brendan's reply, written on a postcard of the Customs House and River Liffey, Dublin, and simply addressed 'Rae (of Sunshine)'. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

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24.6.1958 Dear Rae, I have not seen the paper which does not circulate here these days.2 I should be obliged if you would send me a copy for the laughs. I got a wire from them, signed blank, asking me to ring them, which I did not because blank is * * *. Don't bother about it, for [and here the four-letter word had been scored out heavily in green ink by the censor] sake. All publicity is good except an obituary notice. Send me a copy of it though, love as ever to you, Eileen and all — Brendan.

Notes 1.

2.

Brendan had been interviewed by Malcolm Muggeridge on 'Panorama' on the BBC on 18 June 1956. Brendan's drunken appearance was reported by almost all English newspapers the following day. See Malcolm Muggeridge's recollections of this interview, 'Brendan Behan at Lime Grove', New Statesman (London) vol. 67, 27 March 1964, 488.

The People.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

71 To RAE JEFFS

Rae Jeffs sent Brendan the newspaper clipping he requested and again by return of post came another postcard, this time of the Four Courts, The Quays and River Liffey. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15 Herbert St. [1st July, 1958] Rae (of Sunshine), I loved it — thanks. But not the picture — Beatrice loved it all and we both love you — not Jeffs but [here a drawing of the sun illustrated the point.] Brendan

1958; International Travel - Spain, Sweden

157

72

To IAIN HAMILTON

At the beginning of August 1958, Brendan went to Sweden with Beatrice at the invitation of Dr Olof Lagerlof, a Swedish ophthalmic surgeon, and his wife, Dagny, whom the Behans had met in the preceding year while in Dunquin, Co. Kerry. There, in a summer-house at Ljustero, not far from Stockholm, Brendan put the finishing touches to Borstal Boy and began the English translation of An Giall, which as The Hostage was to be presented later in the year by Theatre Workshop under the direction of Joan Littlewood. (In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15th August, 1958 Hummelmora, Linanas, Sweden Iain, a chara mo chroidhe,1

I enclose the corrected book proofs and will bring the long sheets with me when I come back on Saturday, 23rd. The parcel may take some days so I am sending this page by post.2 No wonder Charles Dickens used to drink two glasses of port and an egg before he'd start work in the morning; navvying couldn't be much worse that writing in longhand.3 Regards to Eileen4 and Rae (tell her we're looking forward to the party on pre-publication day)5 and Bob.6 Regards to Margaret too,7 and the married one8 — ask her how it feels these times. beannacht dhuit fein uaim-se agus o do chara.9 Brendan

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Notes 1. 2.

Iain, friend of my heart. Iain Hamilton had written to Brendan on 8 August 1958: Will you also take a sheet of paper and copy on to that in your hand the first page of the book. This is to be photographed and used on the back panel of the jacket. Your narrative opens splendidly and there is little doubt that if anybody handling the book casually in a bookshop reads the first few paragraphs he will want to go on and read the whole thing. Now it is most essential that you should do this without delay since it is high time that we were printing the jacket.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

Brendan, like his father Stephen, was a house-painter. In 1937 he attended the Day Apprentice School in Dublin to learn this trade. Eileen Horrocks, Iain Hamilton's secretary. This party was given by Hutchinson on 16 October 1958. See Michael Campbell's report, 'Book and Author', The Irish Times (Dublin), 25 October 1958, p. 6; and Rae Jeffs, The Night of the Party', in Brendan Behan: Man and Showman (London: Hutchinson, 1966) ch. IV. Robert Lusty, Chairman of the Hutchinson Publishing Group. Margaret Taylor, assistant in Hutchinson's Publicity Department. A girl called Jose, who used to work in Hutchinson's Publicity Department. Blessing to yourself from myself and from your friend.

1958; International Travel - Spain, Sweden

159

73

To TOR N. H. BRIANT'

At the end of September 1958, Brendan, after a hectic visit to London, went back to Dublin to give himself a breather in readiness for the opening night of The Hostage in London and for the publication, a few days later, of Borstal Boy. In the confusion, Brendan missed the train, making his existing ticket null and void. He wrote to the British Railways claiming a refund on his ticket. An official, signing himself 'for N. H. Briant', wrote: 'Before giving consideration to your claim for a refund I should be glad if you would be good enough to let me know the circumstances which prevented you from using the ticket.' And this w and Showman.J

[September 1958] Dear for N. H. Briant, I don't know that it matters, but we missed the train from Paddington and had to travel from Euston to Liverpool. If you do want to give me back my twelve quid, do so. If you need it, keep it. I am not depending on it ... God help any poor traveller that was. I have more to do than be answering your silly letters.1 Send the money or don't. My time is valuable. I am usually paid more than twelve nicker for writing as much as this, for Brendan Behan, Brendan Behan.

Note 1. Cf. 'Red tape and officials enrage him', Marie Flanagan; "'He's Aerach", Behan's Wife', The Toronto and Daily Star, 21 March 1961, p. 42.

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74 To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

15, Herbert Street, DUBLIN, 2nd October, 1958 Dear Iain, I have just got your letter and initialled the contract. As you may know, I am a housepainter by trade - though not by inclination and though it is many a long year since I have held a stockbrush or scraper, I still have an interest in a firm here which paints (sporadically, but on the whole profitably). At the moment if you could advance me two hundred pounds, it would do us a great deal of good, because we are getting the painting of the Big Stand in Croke Park - one of the largest objects in the country.1 I do not know how we stand, but I have a play opening in New York in a fortnight, and if you wished we could consider the matter in the light of a loan, and I would pay you from my New York royalties, till the royalties on Borstal Boy came in. Give Bob Lusty my word that it is for business purposes and for no other that I need these readies. Good luck, Brendan

1958; International Travel - Spain, Sweden

161

Notes 1. The money Brendan required was sent to him, though no one knows what happened about the project. 2. The Quare Fellow opened at the Circle-in-the-Square Theatre, off Broadway, on 27 November 1958.

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75 To IAIN HAMILTON

(In the possession of Mrs Peter A. Sebley.)

First: cead mile failte romat as an U.S.A.! — do chara Breandan.1 15 Herbert Street November 26th 1958 Dear Iain, Many thanks for your letter of the 19th. We hope you had a good time in New York, but we missed you very much at the B.B. party. We have bought a house after much searching, on Anglesea Road, rather a snob area, opposite the R.D.S.2 It costs 1,470 pounds, and we have paid 400 already. So if you could send the 750 pounds it would mean we could complete the purchase. It[']s a pity you weren't there for the first night of the show.3 Have you seen the Catholic Herald, Friday, Nov. 21st. and the Irish Democrat! All the best and love from Beatrice Love to Rae and all.

Notes 1. A hundred thousand welcomes to you from the USA! Your friend, Brendan. 2. Royal Dublin Society. 3. The Hostage.

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76 To IRMA SALKELD

In 1958 Blanaid Salkeld, the Irish poetess and Beatrice Behan's grandmother, died; and Brendan sent this letter to her daughter Irma, his mother-in-law. When Brendan and Beatrice had a daughter in 1963, they named her after Blanaid Salkeld. See Eavan Boland, 'Two Women Poets', The Irish Times (Dublin), 23 January 1974, p. 6. (Carbon copy in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

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15, Herbert Street, 18th December, 1958. Dear Irma, I am very sad of course that poor Me is gone from us, but I must also congratulate you, on the splendid way in which you did your Christian duty by her. My love to Cecil and yourself.2 I think Louis Ryan3 or some other male relative would be the best to make funeral arrangements, etc., and I do not want to poke my fine Roman nose too far into your family affairs, but if there is anything I can do to help, you know you only have to let me know, and I'll take as much as I can off your shoulders, which capable though they be, must surely require a rest, now and again, I am your loving son-in-law

Brendan Behan.

Notes 1.

2. 3.

Granny Me. Cf. 'I had called her Granny Me since my childhood days when she had shown me photographs in a family album, pointing out, "That's Cecil, that's Irma, and that's me." Afterwards she was never referred to among the family as Granny, but as Granny Me, or simply Me', Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) p. 51. Cecil Salkeld, Brendan's father-in-law. First cousin of Blanaid Salkeld.

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165

77 To MARY KIELY

Mary Kiely, a schoolgirl at the time and now Mrs Neyler, is the daughter of Benedict Kiely (1919- }, the Irish writer. (Carbon copy in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

as from 15 Herbert Street [c. 1958] Dear Mary, I should like to know what you mean by writing letters to Petro Flan1 and not to me Breno Bee-han. And you may furthermore tell Sister Brigid that if it was not a sin to hit a holy nun with a hammer — as all females should be hit regularly — Petro, Sister Brigid & you — I would take it very ill of her not to use me for geography lessons for the sixth and seventh. Regards to the Maureen2 & Ben3 & the other kids & for Sister Brigid (only a few because she's a nun) Brendan (& Beatrice) Behan

Notes 1.

2. 3.

Petronella O'Flanagan, Irish journalist. Cf. 'We sat around, talking in the living room, Brendan and his friends, Celia and her friend Seamus, Rae, Petronella and I. They were concerned about me because I told them I thought my baby was almost due', Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) p. 234. Maureen Kiely, Mary Kiely's mother. Benedict Kiely.

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78

To the Editor of TIME

'The Quare Fellow', Time, vol. 73, 5 January 1959, p. 8. This magazine had published an article on Behan on the occasion of the production of The Quare Fellow at the Cirde-in-the-Square Theatre, New York, on 27 November 1958. The article - 'Blanking Success', Time, vol. 72, 8 December 1958, pp. 78-80 described Behan's success as 'thunderous and immediate'.

[December 1958] I enjoyed reading about myself and my wife in Time, and indeed it was very generous of you, but the nicest thing of all happened when a foreign citizen turned around from looking at my picture and said, 'I did not realize you were Jewish.' 'I am not', I said, 'but Our Blessed Lord is — I hope I've caught a little of the contagion.' Brendan Behan Dublin

6 1959: Berlin, Paris; First Breakdown

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79 To the Editor of the EVENING

HERALD

'Children in the Dark', Evening Herald (Dublin) 26 February 1959, p. 2. The Herald ran a six-article series on mentally-retarded children: 'Children in the Dark', Evening Herald (Dublin), 23 February 1959, p. 5; 24 February 1959, p. 5; 25 February 1959, p. 5; 26 February 1959, p. 5; 27 February 1959, p. 7; and 28 February 1959, p. 7.

[26 February 1959] A Chara,1 I congratulate you on your courageous series 'Children in the Dark', and on your editorial on behalf of the 50,000 children abandoned by Mother Ireland because the hand of God has fallen on them.2 But what of the Mayo County Councillor who begrudges the inmates of Castlebar Mental Hospital a rasher and egg twice a week, because it would cost the ratepayers three-half-pence a year? Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2.

My friend. 'Children in the Dark', Evening Herald (Dublin), 23 February 1959, p. 6.

1959; Berlin, Paris; First Breakdown

169

80

To the Editor of the VILLAGE VOICE

'The Praise That Pleased Most', Village Voice (New York) 27 May 1959, p. 15.

[27 May 1959] Dear Sir: Tynan and Hobson are both very well.1 Le Monde il fait beau and Brooks Atkinson's swell,2 Die Welt, the Spectator all made me rejoice, But the praise that pleased most was your sweet Village Voice.3 Toor-a-loo, toor-a-lee, But the praise that pleased most was your sweet Village Voice.

I only got back from the Continent yesterday,4 and so missed the deadline for sending anything for this issue of your paper, but I hope the above message reaches you for the 'Obies' meeting.5 As poetry it's not much, only if you heard me sing it. Ask Ken Tynan. With regards to one and all, and thanking you. Greenwich Village has been to me, since the age of 14, the Killarney of America, and you have made me proud and happy. Again thanking you one and all, Brendan Behan, Dublin, Ireland.

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Notes 1. Kenneth Tynan and Harold Hobson, the English drama critics. 2. Brooks Atkinson, the American drama critic. 3. See Jerry Tollmer, Theatre', The Village Voice (New York), 3 December 1958, p. 7, which judged The Quare Fellow 'a masterpiece'. 4. Brendan had gone to the Continent to attend the production of The Quare Fellow at the Schillertheater, Berlin, on 15 March 1959; and at the Theatre de 1'QEuvre, Paris, on 16 April 1959. 5. Brendan's The Quare Fellow won the 1959 'Obie' Award for the Best New Play. Samuel Beckett had received this award in 1958. 6. Killarney, County Kerry, is a beautiful district in Ireland.

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171

81 To the Cast of THE HOSTAGE

The Hostage opened at Wyndham's Theatre, London, on 11 June 1959, At the end of the performance, the shouts of 'Author' from the audience brought forward an actor who read a message from Brendan. Cf. 'I asked him not to go and he contented himself by sending a telegram to be read at the final curtain', Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) p. 165. (Quoted in Ulick O'Connor, Brendan Behan, 1970.)

11 June 1959 Tell the audience I was asking for them.

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82

To JOHN CULLEN

For a note on John Cullen see p. 102. (In the possession of Methuen.)

5, Anglesea Road,1 Dublin, Ilth IX 1959. Dear John, Will you send copies of The Quare Fellow and The Hostage to: Leszek Elektorowicz, Krakow, Mazowiecka 8/4, Poland. He wants to translate them or something. My health, I think, improves, and I hope yours is as good as ever,

Brendan Behan.

Notes 1. 2.

The Behans bought 5 Anglesea Road late in 1958 and moved to it in the Spring of 1959. This is the first letter written from this address. The Hostage was translated into Polish by Maria Skroczyriska and Juliusz Zulawski. The Quare Fellow was translated by Grzegorz Sinko.

7 I960: Dublin, London, New York; Second Breakdown

174

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83

To the Editor of THE SUNDAY TIMES

'Christian Theatre', The Sunday Times (London) 10 January I960, p. 32.

[10 January 1960]

Sir, Though I arn very pleased to read Mr. Harold Hobson's notices of my work,1 and indeed enjoy any mention of anything I write by anyone, I seldom write or talk about it myself. I was glad that Canon McKay considers that The Hostage among the four plays he mentions has 'a religious value for any thinking Christian'.2 The Catholic Herald3 and The Tablet4 recognise my work as that of a Catholic. Which I am, though a bad one. I could not write as I do if I were not some kind of a one. In my own country I have been accused of blasphemy. So, of course, has that great Christian, Sean O'Casey. Mr. Evelyn Waugh5 was recently quoted as saying: 'I can see nothing objectionable in the total destruction of the earth, provided it is done, as seems likely, inadvertently.' Now, to me, that is blasphemy. So are the speeches on Apartheid by those other religious men, the South African Government, and the son of the manse, Montgomery.6 Dublin

Brendan Behan.

1960: Dublin, London, New York; Second Breakdown

175

Notes 1. See Harold Hobson's review of The Quare Fellow, The Pity of It', The Sunday Times (London) 29 July 1956, p. 4; and of The Hostage, Triumph at Stratford East', ibid, 19 October 1958, p. 21, and Theatre: The Hostage', ibid, 14 June 1959, p. 23. 2. In a letter on Christianity and the theatre Canon Roy McKay mentioned four plays which he considered had a religious value for any thinking Christian. These were The Hostage, The Complaisant Lover, A Taste of Honey, and Five Finger Exercise. See 'Christianity in the theatre', The Sunday Times (London) 20 December 1959, p. 22. 3. See Clare Simon's review of The Quare Fellow, The Hours Before the Execution', The Catholic Herald (London) 10 August 1956, p. 3. 4. See Alex Matheson Cain's review of The Quare Fellow, 'Death's Jest Book', The Tablet (London) 9 June 1956, p. 540; and of The Hostage, 'Plays and Non-Plays', 25 October 1958, p. 352; and Trench Without Laughs', ibid, 27 June 1959, p. 573. 5. Evelyn Waugh (1903-66) English writer often regarded as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his day. Brendan found out somehow that the mention of Evelyn Waugh's name drew a laugh from a London audience, so it became a stock article in his plays and stories. 6. Field Marshal Montgomery's (1887-1976) father, Henry Hutchinson Montgomery, was Anglican bishop of Tasmania.

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84

To DAVID ASTOR

Brendan became sick while on a visit to London. As he was getting ready to go to the Middlesex Hospital, he asked Rae Jeffs to telephone David Astor, then editor of The Observer, and to tell him that he was determined this time to cure himself and to give up alcohol altogether; he had not forgotten Astor's offer of help the previous November. After consultation with his wife Beatrice, Brendan signed a note authorising David Astor to supervise his treatment. The Honourable David Astor (1912- ) is the son of Lady Astor and the 2nd Viscount Astor. See his recollections of Brendan in Ulick O'Connor, Brendan Behan (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1970) where this note is quoted.

April 2, 1960 I agree that David Astor should supervise medical treatment for me, and I authorize him to prepare such measures as he sees fit.1 Brendan Behan

Note 1. It was arranged by Astor that Brendan ould e ter a private home in Surrey, run by a Dr McKeeffe, after e had onvalesced in the Middlesex Hospital.

1960: Dublin, London, New rk; Second Breakdown

177

85

To AGNES HARVEY

Agnes and Frank Harvey were friends of the Behans. Frank had given Brendan a gift of lobster he had caught himself, and Brendan wrote this postcard to Agnes, who was in Glenties, Country Donegal. (In the possession of Agnes Harvey.)

[Postmarked Dublin, 29 June 1960] Softly swimming came the lobster all across the Irish Sea Flapped his flippers to attention when he was caught by Harvey Clutched his claws and flapped his flippers Greeny black he plumbed the pot and the water scalding hot came out dead and red — Agnes, he was smashing. Brendan

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86

To the NEW YORKER

'A Letter from Brendan Behan', New Yorker, vol. 36 (10 September 1960) p. 131. The Hostage, under Joan Littlewood's direction and with most of the Theatre Workshop cast, opened at the Cort Theatre, New York, on 20 September 1960. Brendan went to New York with Beatrice to attend the opening.

[10 September 1960] A Gaelic poet went to a farm near Utica, New York, in the nineteenth century. He wrote home glowing accounts of the beauty and fertility of the country and how it felt to be a free citizen of the great United States. But he warned his brother in a letter: "Don't you come to America — it's only for people who like hard work."1 I hope it is clearly understood when I come to New York in September that I am allergic to shovels, and do not want to go tunnelling under the East River in case it gives me the shakes — I know a more amiable way to get them. I would like to see the Rockefellers' paintings by Diego Rivera. I would also like to see in New York the Rockefeller who said that he would like to see me in Ireland. I would like to see and pay my respects to Big Daddy, Burl Ives, Lee Tracy, Studs Lonigan, Billy Graham, Tom Lehrer, the Empire State Building, the Saint Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, Costello's saloon in Third Avenue, Robert Frost, Marilyn Monroe back and front, the most unforgettable character you know, the Mafia, the Mizrachi, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Ivy League, Niagara Falls, Nick the Greek, the Governor's pitch in Albany, William Faulkner, the Yankee Stadium, a love nest, a hot dog stand, a jam session, the Golden Gloves, and the candidates for the presidential election.2

I960: Dublin, London, New York; Second Breakdown

179

Now I'll tell you what I'd like you to see — my play The Hostage. I wrote The Hostage because I like people. I like all kinds of people. I even like the actors in The Hostage — especially when they read my lines correctly. My play includes a Scotch-kilted romantic called "Monsewer", a worldly, semi-retired old revolutionary, a Gospelsinging female on the make, a homosexual or two, pretty young girls who sell their bodies to a U.S.S.R. sailor, an innocent young English soldier, a blue-nosed character called "Mulleady", a pretty young convent girl and an American negro prize fighter named "Princess Grace". After reading this off assortment, you might wonder how I ever brought all these people together, or where. That is not as difficult as is seems. Humans come together quite easily because they need to touch other human beings or, for that matter, just to share a word and have a beer. What's the plot? As in life, there are lots of plots, but perhaps the most important one deals with the eternally romantic struggle of young people to better the world they live in. But, my older generation doesn't just nod its head sagely and say "Pish, tush, you younger generation! Have your fling, you'll know better when you grow up". In The Hostage, older folk are torn between youthful loyalties and so-called adult wisdom, which comfortably concludes that the world doesn't really want to be improved. And, when the struggle between their memories of the good old days and appraisal of the science-ridden real world becomes too difficult, they usually settle for another beer. You see, in The Hostage I have nothing to sell — not religion, not a political system, not a philosophy, and certainly not a panacea for the ills of the world. I respect kindness to human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything concerned with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper, and old men and women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer. Please come to The Hostage to have a good time. Don't come if you expect serious problems and equally boring solutions. My play is meant for fun and for good, loud laughing, even though I admit to being an Irishman. (I'm told New York expects every Irish play to do its duty by tears and sadness.) There is music and dancing and songs and, once in a while, a serious thought to take home. Most of all, The Hostage is of live human beings extremely busy living and striving for a little gaiety and communication with their fellow men.

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And now a word of advice: Joan Littlewood, our directoress, moves people across the stage just the way people move in real life. No one waits for another to finish a set speech before saying what they think or feel. Conversations overlap, laughs come quickly, action is fast, because that is the way people are. You will enjoy yourselves just a little more if you come prepared to join our rather remarkable group of your fellow beings. I hope to see you all at the Cort Theatre on or after September 20th.

Notes 1.

2.

The Gaelic poet referred to is Padraig Phiarais Cundun [Patrick Condon] (1777-1856). In a letter to Seamus Mac Gearailt [FitzGerald] Cundun wrote 'Give my greetings to my brother Thomas Condon and tell him not to think of coming here; the work here is too hard for him and if he comes he will be sorry.' See Risteard O Foghludha (ed.) Padraig Phiarais Cundun (Dublin: 1932), p. 72. Brendan is obviously quoting from memory. Brenda arrived in New York in the middle of the election campaign and naturally, as a fellow-countryman, he was ardently pro John F. Kennedy.

1960: Dulin, London, New York; Second Breakdown

181

87

To RORY OG FURLONG

This postcard was sent from Albany, New York. 'Og' in Irish means 'young or 'junior'. Ron/ Og is the son of Rory furlong, Brendan's halfbrother. (In the possession of Rory furlong.)

[Postmarked 7 November 1960] Tell Rory Mor and May I'll write soon.1'2 Brendan

Notes 1. 2.

'Mor' in Irish means 'big'. May, now dead, was Rory Furlong's first wife.

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88

To CECIL SALKELD

Cecil Salkeld (1908-69), Beatrice Behan's father, was a well-known Irish painter. One of the characters in Flann O'Brien's At Swim Two Birds, Cashel Byrne, was modelled on him. See obituary, The Irish Times (Dublin), 12 May 1969, p. 11; andArland Ussher, 'An Appreciation', ibid, 12 May 1969, p. 11. (Carbon copy of this letter in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

[Tuesday 1960] Cecil, my dear UFIL, This is a great town.2 We all should have come here years [ago]. Tell Seal3 I am glad she's better. I'd have sat by her sickbed if I was at home. The only difficulty would be keeping me out of it. Breandan

Notes 1. Unruly father-in-law. Cf. 'YUBIL' ( = Your unruly brother-in-law) p. 60. 2. New York. 3. Celia Salkeld, Beatrice's sister.

8 1961: 11000 miles across USA, Canada and Mexico

184

The Letters of Brendan Behan

89

To the Editor of THE IRISH

TIMES

'The Language', The Irish Times (Dublin), 17 January 1961, p. 5. A meeting of the Dublin Centre of Irish PEN took place in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, on Saturday night, 14 January 1961. It was addressed by John B. Keane (1928— ), the Irish dramatist, who spoke of the Irish language as a threat to the Irish theatre. He said that the Irish language also was a menace to everything that was truly Irish and patriotic in the strict sense. 'The language, and those who perpetuate it by parliamentary sanction and funds are the greatest known examples of fraud and hypocrisy in Ireland today.' Brendan wrote this letter in reply to Keane's attack. Keane's counter-reply is reprinted at the end of Brendan's letter. See also Keane's recollections of Brendan, 'A Last Instalment', in Sean McCann (ed.) The World of Brendan Behan (London: New English Library, 1965) pp. 201—5.

1961; 11 000 miles across USA, Canada and Mexico

185

[16 January 1961] SIR, John B. Keane is the best-known playwright in Ireland.1 He is a man of courage, and is right to attack the official Gaels. But his attack on the Irish language itself (January 16th)2 was misdirected. The Irish language is a bloody great land-mine, containing all sorts of explosive material from The Midnight Court3 to Padraig Pearse's4 essay on censors and craw-thumpers5 - "An Fear Meathta," or "The Rotted Man." Keane should remember that the only Kerry writers known to the outside world are two who thought, spoke and wrote in Irish — in Kerry Irish, at that. They are Tomas O Chriomhthain and Muiris O Suileabhain.7 Fiohe Blain ag Fas is in the World's Classics and was reprinted for about the twentieth time only a few weeks ago. An tOilednach was read to Maxim Gorki far away in Red Russia. The English names of these works are Twenty Years a-Growing and The Islandman, and I suggest to the literary men of Kerry, where the geniuses fall in by parishes, that they throw not out their dirty Gaelic water till they get clear English8 — Yours, etc., Brendan Behan, Dublin, January 16th, 1961.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

Reply in The Irish Times, Saturday 21 January 1961, p. 7 The Language' [letter to the editor]. SIR, In reply to Brendan Behan (January 17th), may I point out that my criticism of the Irish language had nothing to do with its literature? I resent only compulsory Irish, which leads to stupidity in the interpretation of school subjects. It is of no use to our emigrants and will be of no use to them as latter-day employees of Germans and Chinese at home. Compulsion leads to bigotry, as the G.A.A.9 ban on soccer and rugby, which stems from the same compulsion. I wonder if the ban extends as far as the Congo, or how far does flagwaving extend? Let those who want the Irish language have it, but do not ram it down our throats in schools and elsewhere at our own expense. I still insist that parliamentary sanction of compulsory Irish is hypocrisy. Why not use "the language" in Dail Eireann?10 I see no reason why Behan should drag Tomas O Criomhthain and Muiris O Suilleabhain into an issue which in no way affects them. — Yours, etc., John B. Keane 37 William Street, Listowel, Co. Kerry. January 18th 1961.

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187

Notes 1. 2.

Keane's first play, Sive, was an immediate success in 1959. Irish Language "A Menace'", The Irish Times (Dublin) 16 January 1961, p. 6. 3. The Midnight Court [Cuirt an Mhedin Oiche] by Brian Merriman (c. 1747-1805), is a Rabelaisian satire on the hypocrisy of the Church and the State. See Frank O'Connor, The Midnight Court: A Rhythmical Bacchanalia Translated from the Irish of Bryan Merryman (London and Dublin: Maurice Fridberg, 1945). This version was banned in Dublin on its appearance. 4. Patrick Pearse (1879-1916), Irish patriot, teacher, and man of letters. In 1903, he became the editor of the Gaelic League's weekly newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis [The Sword of Light], which played a leading role in the campaign to get Irish spoken in schools, pulpits, and homes of Ireland. Pearse also brought Gaelic poetry into the twentieth century and carved a recognised place for himself in the Irish poetic tradition. He was executed in 1916 for his involvement in the Easter Rising. 5. Anglo-Irish for hypocrites. 6. Tomas O Criomhthain [Tomas O'Crohan] (1856—1937). 7. Muiris O Suilleabhain [Maurice O'Sullivan] (1904-50). 8. Brendan first got the feeling for the Gaelic-speaking parts of Kerry through these two books, which he read in prison. 9. Gaelic Athletic Association of Ireland. 10. The Irish Parliament. Keane's point is that, according to the constitution Irish is the first or official language of the Irish State, and yet it is not the medium of Ddil Eireann, which suggests a double standard in Government thinking on the language question.

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90

To ALEXANDER H. COHEN

7 was convinced Brendan had left America behind him until one morning a letter arrived from Arthur [sic] Cohen, a New York impresario, inviting him to return to compere a jazz revue. I wasn't enthusiastic. With Brendan drinking again the thought of a return visit to America made me unhappy. 'You'll only be bored in a jazz revue,' I pointed out. 'And you know what will happen then.' 'What do you mean?' he snapped. 'I mean you're not a jazzman, Brendan. You'll just go on another bash. Write to Cohen and tell him you can't go.' Arthur Cohen had offered a lot of money which I knew Brendan would find it hard to refuse. I was surprised a few days later when he told me he had decided not to go and that I should write to Cohen to tell him the trip was out of the question. But Arthur Cohen was not a man to take no for an answer. He cabled six pages with an appealing story about the money he had already spent on advance publicity. He implored Brendan to think again. Brendan thought again, and said yes. Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) pp. 180-1. (In the possession of the Library and Museum of the Performing Arts Lincoln Center, New York.)

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5, Anglesea Road Ballsbridge Dublin. February 21st 1961. Dear Mr. Cohen, After a great deal of discussion and consideration, I have decided that I cannot appear on your show 'Impulse' next March. Owing to commitments to my publishers, both in America and England, as well as pressure from my London producer who expects my new play2 to open at the end of March, I find myself in this position. I am sorry for any inconvenience which may arise out of this, and I hope at some future date to avail [myself] of your offer in New York. With best wishes, Yours sincerely, Brendan Behan I return your cheque for $500.

Notes 1. Brendan gave an interview in Toronto on the occasion of this revue. See 'Notes by Sage of Nonsense', The Globe and Mail (Toronto), 18 March 1961, p. 13. For a review of this show, which was not a success, see Hugh Thomson, 'Improvisation Taken Too Far in New Revue', ibid, 21 March 1961, p. 9. See also Arthur Brydon, 'Sparks, Ashes, Insults. Behan Brings Back New Hate — Publishers', ibid, 20 March 1961, p. 17.; and 'No Longer in Impulse! Behan Battled, Bailed Out, Bounced', ibid, 23 March 1961, p. 29. 2. Richard's Cork Leg.

190

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91

To the Editor of the New York DAILY NEWS

'Aggrieved Playwright', Daily News (New York), 17 March 1961, p. 43. The Daily News had run numerous 'news' stories concerning Brendan's activities in New York.1 This letter was written in response to the following editorial which appeared on 16 March 1961 when Brendan was denied permission to participate in St Patrick's Day Parade in New York for being a 'disorderly person': BEHAN BENCHED Brendan Behan, Irish Playwright and off-and-on three-bottle boy, was hoping to march in New York's St Patrick's Day parade, but parade chairman James J. Comerford said no. This irked Behan no little, and probably broke the heart of his press agent, since Behan has a new play coming along. For our part, we're glad Justice Comerford thumbed Behan to the sidelines. Tomorrow's parade should be much the better for the absence of a showoff whose antics, frankly, are threatening to become as boring as Lady Loverley's chatter or any six imitators of Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Jersey City, you can have him.

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[17 March 1961] Manhattan I read carefully a review of "The Hostage" by John Chapman,2 and despite this, became a friend of his.3 I was often mentioned in your news columns, and at no time complained, or had cause to complain, of my treatment therein.4 I am also conscious of the fact that in Dublin, or in Fleet Street,5 editorials are written by university graduates of much learning. They have too much learning for ordinary day-to-deadline newspaper work, and not sufficient talent to become professional creative writers, so they write these little essays, that interest or annoy nobody except as in this case. Most of them are dramatists manques with a deep detestation of such creative writers they deem successful.6 Your leader writer says he. is bored by my off-and-on the bottle antics. He is not more bored than I, by newspaper reports of my personal activities, habits, or failings. Through no fault of mine, the newspapers began reporting these things. They can stop reporting them whenever they wish and stick to more serious matters such as unemployment. The cure is in the hands of The News and every other newspaper that thinks my drinking habits (or non-drinking habits) are of interest to the ordinary readers. They can leave my tea or champagne statistics out of the news columns, where they don't belong anyway. See you in Jersey City.7

BRENDAN BEHAN

Notes 1.

See, for example, 'Law Acts to Unbend Behan's Bender', Daily News (New York) 11 July 1959, p. 3; James Davis, 'Wagon He's On Takes Behan to the Tailor', ibid, 19 September 1960, p. 49; Henry Lee, 'Behan Nixed, But He Marches On', ibid, 15 March 1961, p. 5; 'Behan's Yo-Ho in Hoboken, Is Guest of Cops', ibid, 29 July 1961, p. 8; and 'Sorry, Behan, They're Pretty Fussy in Cork', ibid, 28 August 1962, p. 5.

192 2. 3.

4. 5.

6.

7.

The Letters of Brendan Behan John Chapman, 'In Behan's The Hostage There's No Such Thing As a Little Gaelic', Daily News (New York) 21 September 1960, p. 55. Cf. The New York critic is careful, painstaking, devoted, and, of course, vastly influential. None of them [sic] is known to me personally except John Chapman, and the devil of much good that did my notice in his paper', Brendan Behan in an interview in Show, October 1961, p. 111. Cf. The publicity which is the by-product of success delighted him', Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) p. 8. Fleet Street, in London, England, became famous in the nineteenth century as the centre of British newspaper publishing. The term 'Fleet Street' still has that connotation, although some newspaper offices have moved to adjacent areas. Cf. 'Editorial writers are another matter,' he said. They do not have enough application to be reporters and not enough talent to do what I'm doing', Arthur Brydon, 'Behan Brings Back New Hate - Publishers', The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 20 March 1961, p. 17. Brendan accepted an invitation to celebrate St Patrick's Day in Jersey City. See 'Behan in Jersey City', The New York Times, 18 March 1961, p. 46; "Twas a Nippy Parade, and a Day for Nipping', Daily News (New York) 18 March 1961, p. 5; and 'We Don't Have Leprechauns, Paddys and Magic Mists', Newsweek, 27 March 1961, p. 28.

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92

To MAY AND RORY FURLONG

This note was sent to Brendan's half-brother and his wife from Monterey, California, and was written on a menu-postcard of Gallatin's restaurant. (In the possession of Rory Furlong.)

[Postmarked Monterey, California, 16 May 1961] Dear May & Rory, I am sending you a more important message — which I hope will reach you before this. California is a great place (if you've got some dough). Love Brendan

Notes 1. 2.

The 'message' was $100 Brendan sent to Rory. Slang for money.

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A card to Brendan's brother, re 'message'

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195

93 To RORY FURLONG

After New York, Brendan went on a visit to California. He moved to the Montecito Hotel in Hollywood, where various important locals streamed in and out to see him. From Montecito, he wrote this letter to Ron/ Furlong, his halfbrother in Dublin. Rory is the only one of Brendan's brothers who still lives in Dublin. The recent unveiling of a plaque on 14 Russell Street to commemorate Brendan, inspired Rory to write a short play entitled The Street, which was broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He also wrote the sleeve-notes to a recent record to commemorate Brendan, 'We Remember Brendan Behan — Our Dear Laughing Boy', Midnite Record (Ireland) AM 304. See his letter to the Editor defending Brendan from charges of homosexuality made by his biographer Lllick O'Connor, 'New Book on Brendan Behan', Irish Independent (Dublin) 29 July 1970, p. 8; and his recollections of Brendan in E. H. Mikhail (ed.) Brendan Behan: Interviews and Recollections (London: Macmillan, 1982). (Previously published, with omissions, in Ulick O'Connor, Brendan Behan. In the possession of Rory Furlong.)

196

The Letters of Brendan Behan The Montecito [Hotel] Hollywood, California May Furlong1 the 19th 1961

Rory, a chara, I am having a holiday — from what? — you may well ask — here. It's a screwy kind of place. Full of good kindly famous people. In Frank Sinatra's nite club they played Irish' airs for me when I went in last night and Groucho just rang up to say he's calling for us in the morning. He and Harpo3 are friends of ours from New York. Harpo and I (and Harry Truman!) share a new publisher.4 We had a great party in New York and Harpo and I were televised and photographed all over the place wearing Harpo wigs. It was in the papers all over, but I don't suppose the Dublin papers had it - they only seem to know when I'm in jail or dying. One of the reasons I never write letters is that I can get more than a dollar a word for writing and I assure you that nobody else has heard of me at such length; but you are constantly in my mind on Broadway and Sunset Boulevard (which, oddly enough, in its own repulsive way is not unlike Sundrive Rd.!5 Trees and modern shops but unmitigated by the Floating Ballroom6 even. I'd think you'd prefer Broadway which, I may tell you, is a great place for a quiet piss-up, the secret being to get the newspapermen pissed too.) New York is a real city — Los Angeles has no navel — no Broadway - and nothing to recommend it except the sunshine swimming pools. I just leave my suite and go down in the lift wearing my togs, with the Jews and smart Irish — I don't see why the culchies7 and fardowners8 ever go any further than England. If you dig holes in the road, a hole in Lancashire must be as good as a hole in Los Angeles. The songs I learnt off you such as 'Buddy, can you spare a dime?' (sure — lots of them — take 2 they're small) and 'My Deep Purple' enjoy a great vogue and in California all the Broadway exiles regard me as the only genuine purveyor of the Broadway melody. I always acknowledge yourself as the source of these anthems — which does not run in our family — at least it ran past Dominic! Unfortunately, your course in American culture ceased circa 1938 and I horrified the crowd in Sinatra's (a tenement aristocrat like myself) by announcing that what I most wanted [to] see in Hollywood was a film of W. C. Fields called The Bank Dick — several modern film

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stars went out, presumably to look for an overdose of sleeping pills I have a copy of Harpo's new book9 autographed with a drawing of himself playing the Harp for you and May,1 but it's back in N.Y. and I thought this message, particularly the few lines stapled on the front of this address were of more immediate interest. Love to May, Deirdre,11 Jack,12 Rory Og,13 May Og,14 Mrs Trimble15 and Tommy.16 If a guy wants to get on show business here or on Broadway, you provide a good education. You will be glad to hear that Fred Astaire got an award here recently and still looks a lean forty — we talked about you and me and the Drumcondra cinema and about Waterford City where he went with his wife or someone's wife — they're not too particular about those things (wives, I mean) here — though they don't like bad language as they call it, nor nude bathing - except in the moonlight - Tell Sean I said fuck Gagarin17 and Shepard18 — Hollywood and Broadway are space enough for your (and his) loving brother Brendan

Notes 1. May Furlong was Rory Furlong's first wife, now dead. 2. Groucho Marx. 3. Harpo Marx (1890-1964) American comedian; one of the four Marx Brothers. 4. Bernard Geis, who published the American editions of Brendan Behan's Island; Brendan Behan's New York; and Confessions of an Irish Rebel. 5. A road in Crumlin, Dublin, known for dark lanes and courting. 6. A public house on Sundrive Road. 7. Irish colloquial for country people. 8. Natives of the north of Ireland; often used disparagingly. 9. Harpo Speaks. 10. May Furlong. 11. Deirdre Furlong, Rory's daughter. 12. Jack Furlong, Rory's eldest son. 13. Rory Og Furlong, Rory Furlong's second son. See Brendan's card to him, p. 181.

198 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

The Letters of Brendan Behan May Og Furlong, Rory Furlong's second daughter. Rory Furlong's mother-in-law (May Furlong's mother). Rory Furlong's brother-in-law (May Furlong's brother). Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934-68), Soviet cosmonaut who, on 12 April 1961, became the first man to orbit the earth. Alan B. Shepard, Jr (1923- ), first US astronaut to travel in space.

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94

To the Editor of the SAN FRANCISCO

EXAMINER

'Brendan Behan Replies', San Francisco Examiner, 22 May 1961, p. 34.

[22 May 1961] To The Examiner:

One of your readers1 [Mail Box, May 18] is surprised that I got into an KSFO programme about Commander Shepard. So am I. My first reaction is that of a merchant in Moliere's play who hears that his son has been taken by Algerian pirates — 'What the hell was he doing on that damned galley?'3 Because I have not a great deal of interest in vertical travelling into nowhere, a trip into space would seem to promise as much real excitement as a Sunday visit to Glasgow. The eyes of the fool used to be on the ends of the earth, but now the breadth of the brain is in inverse ratio to the distance in space needed to impress it. Jack Dempsey4 said of Tunney's5 Yale lectures on Shakespeare: 'If that's his racket, I'm for it.' This precisely is my attitude to Messrs Gagarin6 and Shepard. The subject of spacemen in this radio interview was not of my choosing. I was asked to comment on it by the interviewer, a man doing an honest day's work, with great skill. He probably thought the inclusion of an earthbound sinner's voice with the voice from on high of a space-age saint would provoke comment, and he was right. It has. I was too polite to say what I really felt: Your money is your own to do what you like with, and so is the Russians', but when millions die in agonizing deaths from preventable diseases, it is criminal to spend the vast sums involved in your space tricks.

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Instead of these dispatches from the dark, it would be a more wonderful headline for your paper, and in every other paper in every language all over the world, to proclaim: "A Cure for Cancer!" Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

L. B. Walker, The Editor's Mail Box', San Francisco Examiner, 18 May 1961, p. 32. For a note on Shepard see p. 198. Geronte in Les Fourberies de Scapin [The Rogueries of Scapin]. Jack Dempsey (1895-1983) world heavyweight boxing champion. Gene Tunney (1897—1978) world heavyweight boxing champion. For a note on Gagarin see p. 198.

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95 To RORY AND MAY FURLONG

Brendan sent this postcard to his half-brother and his wife from Los Angeles, California, It carried two views, of 'Hollywood freeway' and 'Hollywood Bowl'. (In the possession of Ron/ Furlong.)

[Postmarked Los Angeles, California, 31 May 1961] Rory & May, Thanks for your letters — I'm glad you got the century.1 This place is like this. Only more so. Brendan P.S.

Great city for a quiet piss-up — ALL celebrities, so many none are noticed.

Note 1.

Slang for $100. See reference to this money in Brendan's letter, p. 193.

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96

To JOHN RYAN

This postcard was sent from Tijuana, Mexico. John Ryan is the former editor of Envoy (Dublin). See his recollections of Brendan, 'The Home and Colonial Boy', in Remembering How We Stood; Bohemian Dublin at MidCentury (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1975) pp. 61-79; and Pat Smyllie, 'John Ryan: A Dublin Man of Many Parts', The Irish Times (Dublin) 26 June 1979, p. 5. (In the possession of John Ryan.)

[Postmarked 12 July 1961] Dear Hemingway Ryan, A strange thing — I was thinking of Swift1 and Cronin2 and all when I saw this3 — I shed a tear of tequila into my vaso. F. Scott Behan 4 I'd better say 'Kavanagh would love this place' — I'm quite sure he wouldn't — I hope he's well.

Notes 1. 2. 3. 4.

Patrick Swift, the Irish painter. Anthony Cronin, the Irish writer. The murals of Diego Rivera printed on the postcard. Patrick Kavanagh, the Irish poet. For a note on him see p. 56.

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97 To the Editor of THE IRISH

TIMES

'O'Casey', The Irish Times (Dublin) 29 August 1961, p. 5. There had been some correspondence in The Irish Times in response to an editorial which stated that the time was long overdue for ending the quarrel between Sean O'Casey and fellow-countrymen. See 'O'Casey', The Irish Times (Dublin) 25 August 1961, p. 7; Gabriel Fallon, 'O'Casey', ibid, 26 August 1961, p. 7; Liam MacAoidh, 'O'Casey', ibid, 29 August 1961, p. 5; J. O, G. Macnamara, 'O'Casey', ibid, 31 August 1961, p. 7; and Anthony Mangan, 'O'Casey', ibid, 4 September 1961, p. 7.

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27 August 1961 Sir, The Irish bourgeoisie like to pretend before foreigners that they know of, and admire, Sean O'Casey, Beckett, Denis Johnston and myself. I do not include myself as a man of equal stature to Sean O'Casey,1 but the four dramatists mentioned are the living Irish dramatists of international reputation. Is it an accident that three of these men, so different in their work, are permanently resident outside Ireland,2 and that the fourth spends an increasing amount of his time abroad? Mr. Lemass3 indulged in some theatrical table-talk about myself at Rockwell College last August;4 in view of the census figures, he must now be as expert on emigration as he is in dramatic criticism, so, marrying his dual talents, he may produce an answer to this question - why Irish playwrights leave home. There is a great and most rewarding audience in Dublin - they supported my own plays to the capacity of the Abbey and the Olympia. I must also state that the Belfast theatregoing public is a generous and rewarding band of Irish people. But the fact remains that anybody writing for Irish consumption must be prepared to placate the craw-thumpers,5 orange and green, who run the island. This I have no time to do, nor the inclination. O'Casey - a benignant colossus bestriding the theatre of the great world from Moscow to New York — is as great an Irishman, and as Catholic as Colmchille [sic].6 Like Colmchille, he is able to take his own part in Irish, and I've often wished he could answer his clerical detractors in that language — to leave them speechless. However, being Catholic, he is universal, and must work for the great audiences of the world.7 In the United States, O'Casey is studied, criticised and praised in schools and universities all over the country. In the U.S.S.R., I am told, he is a highly respected artist. O'Casey is one of the few remaining unifying influences in a divided world. Why the hell should he care about a few craw-thumpers in Ireland? And what better is he than the rest of the 2.9 per cent? Yours, etc., Brendan Behan Great Southern Hotel, Galway August 27th, 1961

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Notes 1. Sean O'Casey was Brendan's literary giant whom he highly respected and always praised. 'O'Casey [is] the greatest playwright living in my opinion', he wrote in Confessions of an Irish Rebel (London: Hutchinson, 1965) p. 30. When he went to New York in 1960 to attend the premiere of The Hostage, he told a reporter that O'Casey 'is a great man, and it is a credit to the United States that he's appreciated here' (New York Times, 3 September 1960, p. 8). And in the course of a BBC television interview shown on 29 November 1960 he expressed his views to his interviewer Eamonn Andrews: O'Casey's a great man. I mean for me to praise [him] . . . would be a piece of impertinence. It would be like praising the lakes of Killarney . . . saying that they were rather nice looking. O'Casey's a marvellous man, a great man . . . I think any playwright, certainly any Irishman writing plays in the past forty years that denies that O'Casey influenced him is a fool — a liar. Yes, of course he influenced us all.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

O'Casey himself always showed concern for Brendan. In an interview ('O'Casey Plays Not for TV, Irish Press, 9 May 1961, p. 3) he said: 'It's sad to see this man abusing himself like he is. If he does not mind his talent it will fade.' The same year he wrote (15 August 1961) to Dominic Behan, Brendan's brother: '[Brendan] is a talented lad, and should give himself a chance to develop fully.' When Brendan died, O'Casey was moved. To the reporter of the Dublin Evening Press (21 March 1964, p. 1) he said: 'One thing Brendan Behan never did was to exploit his own talents . . . He died too quickly.' Sean O'Casey was living in England; Samuel Beckett in France; and Denis Johnston in the USA. Sean Francis Lemass (1899-1971), Taoiseach (Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland). During the week of the rural organisation which Muintir na Tire (People of the Land) held at Rockwell College, Cashel, Co. Tipperary, from 14 to 21 August 1960. Anglo-Irish for hypocrites. Saint Colmcille (521-597). Apart from the apparent alliteration, there is also a certain aptness in the comparison. Colmcille was combative, as O'Casey was; an exile, as O'Casey was; and yet a

206

7.

The Letters of Brendan Behan great missionary, a propagandist of the 'one true faith', as O'Casey too was a bit of a missionary, and although his 'faith' was socialist, Behan was not the only one to observe that it was also peculiarly Christian, for David Krause cites O'Casey as claiming that Christ was a great communist (Sean O'Casey: The Man and His Work, 2nd (enlarged) edn, 1975, p. 293). Behan goes on in his next two sentences to give more reasons for his comparison. He means to be paradoxical, no doubt, just as O'Casey was about Christ. Sean O'Casey, a Protestant, dedicated his play The Drums of Father Ned (1960) to a number of Catholic priests, including Dr Walter McDonald, 'courageous theologian'. He also dedicated his autobiographical volume Inishfallen, Fare Thee Well (1949) to Dr McDonald, 'a great man gone, and almost forgotten; but not quite forgotten'. The chapter entitled 'Silence' in this book deals with this Catholic priest. Cf. Tor the matter of that, it was a Protestant navvy, Sean O'Casey, who wrote one of the master anti-recruiting songs of the 1914—18 war: 'Come on, you land of saints and bards', Says the Grand Ould Dame Britannia. 'Will yous come and join the Irish Guards?' Says the Grand Ould Dame Britannia. Brendan Behan, Hold Your Hour and Have Another (London: Hutchinson, 1963) p. 34.

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98

To the Editors of THE EVERGREEN

REVIEW

Patrick Boyle, the Irish writer and Brendan's friend, had sent a short story to The Evergreen Review, but had not heard from the Editors for a long time. (Carbon copy in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

[Dublin, c. September-October 1961] Editors, Evergreen Review

Dear Dick1 or Barney,2 Pat Boyle is a friend of mine. I cannot see why you think the contents of your or any other magazine is so good that you can afford to do without his short story — You might at least send the fucking MSS back. Much love Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2.

Dick Seaver. Barney Rossett.

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99

To JUDITH SCHMIDT

In addition to the previous letter concerning Patrick Boyle, Brendan wrote the following letter to Judith Schmidt, who worked on The Evergreen Review, and whom he had recently met in New York. (Carbon copy in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

.[Dublin, c. September-October 1961] Judith You know I love you — but I didn't know you were capable of * * * See the "Metal Man" is read or I'll go back to New York and rape you! I'd like to anyway. Brendan

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100

To PETER ARTHURS

In the Spring of 1961, Brendan went again to New York, where he met Peter Arthurs, a seaman who later became Brendan's confidant and bodyguard. Brendan returned to Ireland in July, when the film version of The Quare Fellow was about to get under way in Dublin. Peter, who was also interested in acting, forwarded a telegram to Brendan and Beatrice inquiring if a part in the film would be given to him. A few weeks later he received the following postcard. (Previously published in Peter Arthurs; With Brendan Behan. In the possession of Peter Arthurs.)

[Postmarked Dundalk, 7 November 1961] A Peadair a cam1

Had a great time with Father Pete.2 Brendan Sldn-pbeannact 6 Beatrice:1

Notes 1. Peter my friend. 2. Peter Arthurs's father, also called Peter, whom Brendan and Beatrice visited in Dundalk at the request of his son. During their visit, they stayed in the Imperial Hotel, from which they sent this postcard. 3. Health and blessing from Beatrice. The card is also signed by Peter Arthurs's father. On Peter Arthurs see Petronella O'Flanagan, 'Our Man from "The Quare Fellow'", Sunday Press (Dublin) 26 November 1961, p. 8.

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101

To MICHEAL 6 hAODHA

For a note on O hAodha see p. 40. (In the possession of Michedl O hAodha.)

5, Anglesea Road, Ballsbridge, Monday 8th January 1962 Dear Micheal, Please give John Molloy1 my two radio scripts, Moving Out and The Garden Party.2 Aith Blian mhaith, Brendan Behan

Notes 1.

2.

3.

John Molloy was a well-known Dublin actor who had recently had a considerable success as Matt Talbot in Thomas Kilroy's Talbot's Box at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin, and at the Royal Court Theatre, London. Molloy and John Ryan produced Moving Out and The Big House in the same year at the Gate Theatre, Dublin. Micheal O hAodha had commissioned Brendan to write these two plays. See Robert Hogan (ed.) Moving Out and A Garden Party: Two Plays of Brendan Behan, Introduced by Micheal O hAodha (Dixon, California: Proscenium Press, 1967) The 'Short Play' Series, no. 3. Happy New Year.

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213

102 To BEATRICE BEHAN

Brendan wrote this letter to his wife Beatrice from a nursing home in London. He was delayed by his treatment from joining her on a visit to their friends Ralph Cusack and his wife, who were living in southern France. Brendan's handwriting in this letter is shaky and reveals his condition at that time. (In the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

99 Cromwell R. London SW7 [Postmarked 25 October 1962] Darling Pet, I don't know when I'm getting out, but I am allowed two hours with Eddie1 for a walk. I enclose Suzanne Czeck's2 letter & can write no more except to say I love you & hope to see you soon — also I miss you — mo grad tu.3

Pig

Notes 1. 2. 3.

Brendan's nurse. Suzanne Czeck used to work for the International Copyright Bureau, London. I love you.

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A letter to Beatrice towards the end

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215

103

To the Editor of the NEW

STATESMAN

This letter was never published. The Editor of the New Statesman, John Freeman, wrote to Brendan on 9 January 1963 saying that he was 'very sorry that I am unable to publish your letter in the New Statesman. We ran this subject from 23 November to 21 December inclusive — five consecutive issues. The correspondence has been closed since 21 December.' The correspondence started with an article (23 November 1962) by A.J.P. Taylor entitled 'Genocide', in which he reviewed a book on the Irish potato famine entitled The Great Hunger, by Cecil Woodham-Smith. Leonard Woolf responded twice to this review which stated that in 1846 'all Ireland was a Belsen', and accused Taylor of 'whitewashing Hitler and the Nazis'. Brendan's counter-reply was in response to Woolf's letters. (Carbon copy in the possession of Beatrice Behan.)

216

The Letters of Brendan Behan 5, Anglesea Rd. Dublin 4. [December 1962]

A chara, Sydney Smith,1 a predecessor of Canon Collins, another great Englishman, as Dean of St Paul's, declared that at the mention of Ireland, a species of madness descended on the English, which he described as Erinphobia. This is true only of the boss class and such workers as are corrupted by the racialist propaganda of their "betters." Bernard Shaw pointed out that the English poor suffered also during "the hungry forties."2 The Cockneys who lined the streets in their thousands, and stood bareheaded while the funeral of the martyred MacSwiney,3 Lord Mayor of Cork, came from Southwark Cathedral, for delivery to a British destroyer, could hardly be described as Erinphobiacs. My brother, Brian,4 whom I respect, despite some differences of opinion, led English, Irish, Scots, Welsh, and negroes, in the struggles of London building workers, [and] is married to a lovely English girl — a great example of a good wife and mother, that knows how to keep herself attractive in a way that was unknown in the days of my childhood in the Dublin slums. (Incidentally, one of the few things I give our native rulers credit for is their magnificent flats for the Northside people which have gone up since the British left Dublin — and to hell with the Georgian society — they didn't have to live with the bugs). My brother, Dominic,5 is married to a Glasgow girl, who with great good humour looks after his children, and only gets angry with me when I take the mickey out of him,6 and the other third programme Irish Keeners. They are Protestant and Catholic and Jewish. The Jew, Leslie Daiken,7 being the least mournful of the bunch. Although, God knows, if ever the English (radio licence holders anyway) had an excuse for a pogrom against the Irish, they have it in the BBC. Now, it seems I am getting back into form after reading The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith,8 for it tore the heart out of me. I am also coming to the point at a hand gallop. My sister, Carmel, is married to a young carpenter, Joe Paton, also from Glasgow, and they live in Crawley New Town, where I have

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217

been awakened from many a hangover by their babies - beautiful but alas, not dumb. Mr. Woolf,9 the working class never hate each other except when they are put up to it, by their exploiters. You know many things but you cannot feel that because you are not of the worker or small farming class. I know that English people of your class affect to despise any display of emotion, but I must also state this. As a writer, and as a member of our common human race, I love the memory of one dear to you10 — go dtugaidh Dia di'dean maith dhi11 — God give her a welcoming shelter. Let me tell you straight that if you join in a controversy on the simple annals of the famine poor, you must put up with the simple manners of their descendants. You seem to think that Mr. Taylor's12 and Miss Woodham Smith's views of the so-called Irish Famine in some way lessen the horrors of the later Belsen.13 I say so-called because there was more than enough corn and cattle exported from Ireland in "Black forty-seven" than would have fed the population. It was, I will admit, a more primitive attempt at a final solution than Himmler's.14 At the same time, Lord Russel's score wasn't bad.15 He reduced the population of Ireland from eight million to four and a half in five years. I advise Mr. Woolf to read Jail Journal by John Mitchel,16 Ulster son of a Unitarian minister, transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1848,17 for trying to rise the people against the British Government, and their collabo[rator]s, the Catholic hierarchy. The lying history taught [to] Irish children mentions James Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, as a "great churchman" whatever the hell that is. There is a street named after him in Carlow — "J. K. L. Street." Well, J. K. L. who dined with the landlords, boasted of his flock that they were such good Christians, that they would die of starvation rather than let the landlord go without his "lawful dues." No doubt, in later times, French schoolchildren will be taught the collaborating] Bishops of 1940-4 were "great churchmen." Many of the ordinary parish clergy were devoted men who went into cholera-ridden cabins and perished miserably and gloriously with their people.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

Most of the Young Ireland leaders were Protestant,18 Mitchel,19 Davis,20 Mitchel's brother-in-law, another Ulsterman called John Martin. And let Vyvyan Holland21 remember with pride that his honoured father had a gallant mother, who stood up in Green Street courthouse, when the crown questioned the authorship of an article in The Nation calling on the people to rise rather than die like dogs in ditches. "I wrote it," she shouted — Leabdidh i mease na hFinmi dhi22 — a rest amongst the Fenians to you, Speranza of The Nation. I say that it was an attempt at a final solution. Many nations sent food by the shipload — principally amongst the Americans. Especially the Quakers who, American, English or Irish are forever respected in Ireland. The gratitude of the Irish people to the United States is undiminished to this day, even amongst leftists. I personally disagree with much that some powerful Americans stand for, but I speak of them, not as a client but as a friend who remembers what an old woman told him of the so-called Famine when he was a very small boy. The Sultan of Turkey sent a shipload of food which was turned back at Dublin Bay by the British Navy. When I was just old enough to remember, an old woman told me she saw in Kildare, (the diocese of the aforesaid J. K. L.) a woman lying dead on the roadside and a little starved baby suckling her dry breasts. My own mother told me that her grandmother saw the dead in the fields with the green (appropriately enough) grass juice running from their mouths.24 "The spinning wheel stops and the girls grow pale, While their mother is telling a sorrowful tale, Of snug cabins levelled and coffinless graves and ships swallowed up by the wild ocean waves."25 Queen Victoria sent a five pound note to the Famine fund — I hope the Royal Family don't miss it. T the expense of the survivors. "If the Dutch had Ireland," he said, "it would be a garden - if the Irish had Holland they would all drown."

1962: New York, Dublin, London, France

219

Still, Queen Victoria, Bismarck or Hitler were not original sin on the part of the people that produced Schiller, Heine and Brecht. His Holiness the Pope, at a time when what Pius XI described as "the most faithful nation" was dying by the hundred thousand[s], sent Queen Victoria an ivory and silver rosary beads. It is not on record that he sent as much as a plate of spaghetti to "the most faithful nation," though he may have sent a case of scotch to John Brown.27 I am bound to state that we were only called "the most faithful nation" in 1932. President de Valera28 and ex-President Sean T. O'Kelly29 were in power and presumably the excommunication of them and about 20,000 others, including my father had been lifted from ten years previously. Anyway both of these patriots have since been made Papal noblemen. This honour has so far eluded my father, though he has achieved the distinction of being President of The Irish Painters Union (peintres en batiment,30 not artistes peintres). So far as I know his health is too good for him to bother enquiring about his excommunication, as yet. He occasionally gets over to London and sees his opposite numbers of the British painters, such as such working class noblemen as Jock Bisset (one-armed — the other one lies somewhere round University Hill or Albacete) and Alf Silverstein. In case Mr. Woolf thinks the Irish Catholics think only of our own persecutions — there were more famines than one, I must tell him this. I have a great affection for New York, San Francisco and Hollywood. I don't like London, except for the Cockney, and some friends of Fleet Street, Long Acre, and Stratford East, and peculiarly enough, East Finchley. But mostly it is not a city but a succession of villages, and at midnight on Piccadilly you might as well be in the middle of the Bog of Allen.31 In Jim Downey's Steak House on Broadway I chatted with * * *. Two boys called Untermeyer, sons of a writer, were arrested for sending parcels of clothing to Palestine, as it was called by the British. In these parcels was discovered items more lethal than underclothing and the boys were pinched. Their mother was naturally in a sorrowful state imagining all sorts of terrible third degrees being

220

The Letters of Brendan Behan

administered to her sons. Paul went down and saw the station sergeant and found the boys having a cup of coffee and a cigarette. "Well, how is it going?" asked Paul. The sergeant replied: "These are good kids, I wish we had a few more like them in County Mayo in 1920." Last St. Patrick's Day was celebrated by Irish air pilots in Israel by decorating the graves of Irish Catholics that died fighting for Israel. Mr. Woolf, being an Englishman, may not have relished the Irgun.32 I would leave Ben Hecht to fix him up on that one,33 as he has already fixed the Rabbi Stephen Elias. I have never written of my conspiratorial or military activities except in fun, but again, in case Mr. Woolf thinks the Irish Catholic thinks only of his own sufferings, may I state, that in addition to those that got there, there were other Irish Catholics that tried to get fighting for Israel, and I was amongst them. This fact can be verified by reference to Robert Briscoe, T. D.34 and Dr. Mya Fisher of the Mizrachi, a Dublin man now resident in Israel. A Jewish man from Dublin was amongst the many Dublin Jews that fought there and was a member of the Israeli Navy when it comprised 8 men. I only use the term Irish Catholic to indicate that they too were concerned with the fate of the Jewish people. Dr. Fisher was a classmate at National University of Kevin Barry, hanged35 at 18 years of age by the British Government after torture by the British Black and Tans36 and military. I have no desire to enter a competition in horrors between European Jews and Irish peasants. Nor have I any bitterness against the British people. I especially remember the kindness of Mr. Savory and his colleagues of the BE A on a recent trip to Nice.37 Joan Littlewood is no Black and Tan38 nor are the deb nurses of the Middlesex or Westminster hospitals. I cannot mention the doctors because they would be had up by The Medical Council. To coin a phrase — some of my best friends are English — even my publisher usually represented by a beautiful English rose39 from Sussex (Sussex Soleil40 — not silly Sussex).

1962: New York, Dublin, London, France

221

For the matter of that, Tony Armstrong-Jones41 and I ate and drank at my home in Dublin and he asked me could he bring some of his relations to a show of mine in the Abbey Theatre. I must say that I was dismayed he had so many and so were the management. It's a good job he didn't bring his later acquired relations or I'd have had to put on the show in the Phoenix Park. However, his lovely wife was a cash customer of mine at Wyndham's42 and an appreciative one. But Mr. Woolf should know that in many cases of deaths from starvation coroners' juries returned verdicts of wilful murder against Lord John Russell. These juries were not as a rule composed of rebels, or even of Catholics. However, there must have been some good in the breed or else, where would we have got Bertrand Russell?43 The Morning Post gloatingly reported in an editorial on the socalled famine: The Celt is going - going with a vengeance - shortly the Irishman will be as scarce on the banks of the Shannon as the Red Indian on the Banks of the Potomac. Could Streicher be more explicit?44 Fortunately, The Morning Post is gone and so is Der Sturmer,45 while Leonard Woolf and Brendan Behan are still kicking around. Miss Woodham Smith achieved the unlikely feat of making me weep — and Mr. Taylor was right — as the saying has it: "God sent the potato blight, but England made the Famine." To finish, for Christ's sake, on a more cheerful note, I danced the Hora at the Bar Mitzvah of Leonard Lyons[']46 son, Douglas, with his godfather or whatever it is, William O Douglas of the American Supreme Court, wearing my Yamulka, which I still preserve. The cantor was an Australian and I told him the best way to acquire a good accent in Hebrew or Gaelic (the "ch" sound that does not exist in English) was to listen to a taxi-driver clearing his throat on a winter's morning at Central Park. I was swimming at the Y.M.H.A. on Lexington Avenue and was having a shower when a little Negro employee came in. He surveyed our naked forms and said "Mr Behan — there is a message for you on the 'phone." "O.K., son," said I, "come down the locker room till I put some clothes on."

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

I was giving him a half-dollar and a thought struck me. "Did you see my picture on the newspaper?" "No, sir." "Well," I said, "how did you know me?" "You had no clothes on, sir, and the other men were all Jewish sir." I gave him another half a buck and said, "Sirs" must be cheap in Harlem if you call me "sir." I might be a Sir yet and Shelagh Delaney a Dame,47 but both of us would have to forget about the Famine first To Mr. Woolf a happy Channuchach48 and to all the human race many happy returns. Shalom - Slainte Brendan Behan

Notes 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

Sydney Smith (1771—1845) English clergyman, essayist, and witcanon of St Paul's, London, from 1831 to 1845. The 1840s, when bad harvests and the Irish potato famine — combined with the Corn Laws (1804-28), which imposed restrictions and levies on the import of grain into Britain — caused great distress. Terence MacSwiney (1879-1920) Irish nationalist politician; a leader in the Easter Rebellion (1916); went on hunger-strike and died of starvation in Brixton Jail, London. See Brian Behan, With Breast Expanded (London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964). Chapter 30 of this autobiography is about Brendan. See Dominic Behan, My Brother Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1965); and Teems of Time and Happy Returns (London: Heinemann, 1961). American edition of this autobiography is entitled Tell Dublin I Miss Her (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1962). See also Dominic's obituary of Brendan, The Funeral of Brendan Behan', Life, International Edition, vol. 36, no 7 (20 April 1964) p. 32. Dominic Behan attained some celebrity as a ballad singer. Leslie Daiken (1912-64) Irish writer; his writings include They Go, the Irish (1944) and Signatures of All Things (1945). Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1962).

1962: New York, Dublin, London, France 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

25. 26.

223

Leonard Woolf (1880-1969) English historian and critic; in 1912 married Virginia Stephen, who achieved distinction as a novelist under the name of Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf, who committed suicide in 1941. This is translated by the author in the sentence following. A. J.P. Taylor, who reviewed Woodham-Smith's book. See 'Genocide', New Statesman (London) vol. 64, 23 November 1962, pp. 741-2. A Nazi concentration camp, north of Hanover, Germany; the second to be liberated by the British in April 1945. Heinrich Himmler (1900—45) German official who was chief of the Gestapo from 1936 to 1945. He attempted to negotiate the surrender of Germany in April 1945, but was captured by the British and committed suicide. Lord John Russell (1792-1878) British statesman who became Prime Minister from 1846 to 1852. He quieted Ireland by a combination of coercive and relief measures. John Mitchel (1815-75) Irish patriot who founded the United Irishman to advocate the repeal of the Act of Union and the armed resistance to England. Van Diemen's Land is a large island off south-eastern Australia which was discovered in 1642 by the Dutch statesman Anton Van Diemen (1593-1645). It is now known as Tasmania. Young Ireland, the name given to the revolutionary party in Ireland in 1848. John Mitchel, the Irish patriot, was the son of a Presbyterian minister. Thomas Osborne Davis (1814—45), Irish poet and co-founder of The Nation (1842). Vyvyan Holland (1886-1967) Oscar Wilde's son. This is translated by the author in the sentence following. 'Speranza' was the pen-name of Lady Jane Wilde, Oscar Wilde's mother. 'Didn't they condemn the men of 'forty-eight and tell the people to give up their crops and die of the hunger in the ditches at home, with the grass-juice running green from the dead mouth of a mother clutching a live infant!' Brendan Behan, Borstal Boy (London: Hutchinson, 1958) p. 70. Irish traditional folk ballad. Prince Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck-Schonhausen (1815-98) Prussian statesman and first Chancellor of the German Empire.

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

Queen Victoria's manservant. Eamon de Valera (1882-1975) Irish political leader who became President of Ireland in 1959 and in 1966. 29. Sean Thomas O'Kelly. For a note on him see p. 103. 30. House painters. 31. A group of marshes of vast extent stretching to within seventeen miles of the outskirts of Dublin. 32. Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Jewish terrorist organisation. See J. Bowyer Bell, Terror Out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, LEHI and the Palestine Underground 1929-1949 (Dublin: Academic Press, 1979). 33. Ben Hecht (1894-1964) American Jewish writer. 34. Teachta Dala = Deputy of Dail [The Irish Parliament]. 35. In 1920. 36. British recruits who filled vacancies in the Royal Irish Constabulary caused by the killing or intimidation of its Irish-born members during the War of Independence in Southern Ireland. They gained a reputation for terrorist tactics. 37. British European Airways. 38. Joan Littlewood is the English director who established Theatre Workshop. She directed the first London production of The Quare Fellow at Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London, on 24 May 1956; and that of The Hostage at the same theatre on 14 October 1958. 39. Rae Jeffs. For a note on her see p. 112. Cf. 'Early on Christmas morning [1962] I was awakened by the telephone. It was Brendan calling from Dublin . . . He wished me a happy Christmas with flagons of booze to go with it, asked me to listen while he read out a letter he had written to the New Statesman complaining about a review of a book', Rae Jeffs, Brendan Behan: Man and Showman (London: Hutchinson, 1966) p. 194. 40. French for sun. 41. Anthony Armstrong-Jones, British photographer who later married Princess Margaret and became Lord Snowdon. 42. Brendan's The Hostage transferred from Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London, to Wyndham's Theatre, West End, on 11 June 1959. 43. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) the English mathematician and philosopher, was the grandson of LoM John Russell. 44. Julius Streicher (1885-1946) German journalist and politician who became notorious for his anti-Semitic campaign. He was hanged as a war criminal. 45. Streicher was managing editor of Der Strurmer from 1923 to 1945.

27. 28.

1962: New York, Dublin, London, France 46. 47. 48.

225

American Jewish journalist. See his recollections of Brendan in The Lyons Den', New York Post Magazine, 11 December 1960, p. 7. Shelagh Delaney (1939- ) British dramatist who rose to fame about the same time as Brendan. She had little education and no training in dramatic writing. Irish spelling for the Jewish feast of Hanukkah.

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10 1963: The Last Two Letters

228

The Letters of Brendan Behan

104

To SUZANNE CHAPMAN

In August 1963, Brendan's health deteriorated and he was constantly under the care of Dr Terence Chapman in Dublin. Dr Chapman became Brendan's friend and Brendan confided his problems to him. Brendan's intervals of sobriety were few, but more disturbing was the fact that many nights he stayed away from the house. Terence Chapman would tell me that Brendan used to arrive on his doorstep early in the morning, dirty and dishevelled, for an insulin injection. The maid would announce, 'There's a drunk at the door, doctor.' But the children would invite him in and he became their special friend. He would ask for a drink, and invariably he would be given tea. Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan (London: Leslie Frewin, 1973) p. 229. One morning, Dr Chapman's small daughter, Suzanne, presented Brendan with a poem she had written. And Brendan wrote this letter to her. (Previously published in Beatrice Behan, My Life with Brendan.j

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1963: The Last Two Letters

[c. August 1963] Suzanne, a chara. I was delighted and complimented, as a writer, to receive a copy of your poem, "The Sea".1 Your mention of the shark reminds me of Hollywood. Everyone there has a swimming-pool and you might wonder why, when they have the whole beautiful Pacific Ocean stretching along the coast for one thousand miles. The answer is the shark, who every year kills a couple of hundred people. Here 'the sharks lying among the weeds' don't stay among their weeds, but swim straight into the beach attacking and savaging anything or any person that comes in their way. Anyway, thanks for the poem, and if you write any more, or I should say when you write some more, don't forget a copy for — your loving Bawdy Boy. Brendan

Note 1. Flow on sweet river! Flow on to join the sea. Where fish are swimming in and out the reeds, Where sharks are lying amongst the weeds. Where many shells are found lying on the ground. Waiting there patiently all day, all night . . .

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The Letters of Brendan Behan

105

To BERNARD ROGAN

Bernard Rogan, a barrister-at-law, broke his leg once during a rugby game when he was a student at Trinity College Dublin, and was rushed to the Royal City of Dublin Hospital. When he awoke after an operation, he found that Brendan was in the next bed to his in the Stoney Ward.1 Brendan had been left on his own in this Ward, which usually accommodates ten patients, because the nursing staff did not want his gregarious nature to be imposed on the other patients or on the nurses themselves. He was continually asking Rogan's rugby friends to 'go out and buy me an noggin of brandy'. Some days later, Rogan had to go once again to the operating theatre, and when he returned to the Ward and awoke he knew that Brendan had discharged himself from the hospital. However, Brendan — never without his own sense of humour — had left Rogan this note, written on a doctors' prescription pad and stuck to Rogan's water-beaker. Shortly after Brendan discharged himself, he collapsed and was found unconscious on a road near Dublin.2 A few weeks later he was admitted to the Meath Hospital,3 where he died on 20 March 1964, (In the possession of Bernard Rogan.)

[29 December 1963] To Bernard who was out for my good. Brendan

1963; The Last Two Letters

231

Notes 1. 2.

3.

See 'Brendan Behan Hospitalized', The New York Times, 20 August 1963, p. 38. See 'Brendan Behan Injured', Irish Independent (Dublin) 30 December 1963, p. 1; 'Behan Improves Slightly; Gardai Uncertain What Caused Injuries', The Irish Times (Dublin) 31 December 1963, p. 1; 'Behan Was Not Hit by Car', Evening Press (Dublin), 31 December 1963, p. 1; 'Behan Injury Caused by Fall', The New York Times, I January 1964, p. 16; and 'Behan Leaves Hospital', The New York Times, 13 January 1964, p. 24 See 'Behan in Coma', The Daily Telegraph (London), 18 March 1964, p. 1; and 'Behan Sinks in Coma', The Irish Press (Dublin), 19 March 1964, p. 1;

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Appendix A: Index of Recipients page Anon Arthurs, Peter Astor, David

37 209 176

Behan, Beatrice Behan, Brian Blythe, Ernest Bourke, F. S. Bradshaw, Bob Briant, N.H. Byrne, Teresa

62, 67, 213 9 30, 32, 76 35 26 159 4

Chapman, Suzanne Cohen, Alexander H. Cullen, John

228 188 102, 172

Daily News (New York) de Burca, Seamus Doran, Thomas

190 20, 23, 33 19

Evening Herald (Dublin) Evening Mail (Dublin) Evening Press (Dublin) Evergreen Review (New York)

108, 138, 168 47. 58, 121 108 207

Furlong, May Furlong, Rory Furlong, Rory 6g

193, 201 193, 195, 201 181

Gilligan, Arthur

87

Hamilton, Iain Harris, Nuala Harvey, Agnes

94, 97-9, 106-7, 116-18, 123-37, 140-53, 157, 160-2 79 177

Irish Democrat (Dublin) Irish Times (Dublin)

7 69, 74, 184, 203 233

234

Appendix A: Index of Recipients

Jeffs, Rae Joyce, C. A. Kavanagh's Weekly (Dublin) Kearney, Pearse Kiely, Mary Leader (Dublin) Lusty, Robert New Statesman (London) New Yorker 6 hAodha, Micheal O'Kelly, Seamus G. O'Kelly, Sean T.

112, 154, 156 34 49 15 165 63 88, 93 81, 95, 215 178 40, 212 12 103

Picture Post (London)

111

Rogan, Bernard Rosset, Barney Russell, Barbara Ryan, John

230 207 77 202

Salkeld, Cecil Salkeld, Celia Salkeld, Irma San Francisco Examiner Savage, Jim Schmidt, Judith Seaver, Dick Simpson, Alan Spectator (London) Sunday Times (London)

182 60 163 199 13 208 207 66 86 174

Time

166

Vail, Sindbad Village Voice (New York)

43, 45, 51, 53 169

Appendix B: Select Bibliography of Behan's Works The Quare Fellow (London: Methuen, 1956; New York: Grove Press, 1957). Borstal Boy (London: Hutchinson, 1958; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959). The Hostage (London: Methuen, 1958; New York: Grove Press, 1959). Brendan Behan's Island (London: Hutchinson, 1962; New York: Bernard Geis, 1962). Hold Your Hour and Have Another (London: Hutchinson, 1963; Boston: Little, Brown, 1964). The Scarperer (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1964; London: Hutchinson, 1966). Brendan Behan's New York (London: Hutchinson, 1964; New York: Bernard Geis, 1964). Confessions of an Irish Rebel (London: Hutchinson, 1965; New York: Bernard Geis, 1966). Moving Out and A Garden Party (Dixon, California: Proscenium Press, 1967). Richard's Cork Leg (London: Eyre Methuen, 1973; New York: Grove Press, 1973).

Note 1.

For more details on Brendan Behan's other works and the critical writings on them see the present editor's Brendan Behan: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism (London: Macmillan, 1980).

235

Subject Index References are to page numbers. The figures in parentheses after entry numbers indicate the number of references. 'Me' is treated as if spelt 'mac'. Works by Behan are listed under Behan, Brendan.

Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 22, 25, 30, 40, 55, 76, 79, 80, 204, 221 Adams, Dominic, 28, 29 All Ireland (Rynne), 83 Allen, Les, viii, 77 Andrews, Eamonn, 205 Anglesea Road, Dublin, 162, 172, 189, 212, 216 Aran Islands, 117 Arbour Hill Military Prison, Dublin, xiv, 23, 27, 30 Armagh, 150 Armstrong-Jones, Tony, see Snowdon, Lord Artane, Ireland, 9 Arthurs, Peter, 209 Ashe, Thomas, 17 Astaire, Fred, 197 Astor, David, 176 Atkinson, Brooks, 169, 170 Babbacombe, Devon, 78 Ballsbridge, Dublin, 62, 77 Barbour, Thomas, 114 Barry, Kevin, 220 BBC, 82, 106, 119, 155, 205, 216 Beaslai, Piarais, 25 Beckett, Samuel, xiv, 170, 204, 205

Beckett and Behan . . . (Simpson), 66

Behan, Beatrice, vii, ix, x, xiv, 32, 60, 61, 62, 67, 69, 74, 78, 80, 86, 87, 91, 100, 103, 104, 113, 115,

119, 127, 128, 129, 136, 142, 156, 157, 162, 163, 174, 165, 166, 171, 176, 178, 182, 188, 192, 207, 208, 209, 213, 215, 228 Behan, Blanaid, xvi, 163 Behan, Brendan: biographical chronology of, xiii—xvi; his schooling, xiii, 7, 64; his knowledge of Irish, 4, 7, 25, 30, 31, 33, 40, 42, 45, 49, 53, 55, 69, 70, 76, 146, 150, 184, 185, 187; and of French, 24, 150; an avid reader, 28; as a talker, ix; in various jails, xiii, xiv, 9, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 34, 36, 43, 47, 187, 196; deported from England, xiii, 17, 36; and IRA activities, xiii, 12, 19, 22, 26, 28, 34, 36, 48, 51, 53, 59, 95, 113, 114, 150; and Irish nationalism, 18, 28, 29, 35, 36, 37, 74, 82; his writing career, 113; his characteristics as a letter-writer, ix—xii; his signature, xi; his spelling, xi, his punctuation, xi; recipients of his letters, xii, 233-4; as a dramatist, x, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 30-2, 40, 54; as a poet, 4, 16, 17, 18, 25, 37, 41, 45, 53, 55, 67-8, 113, 169; as a novelist, 44, 51; as a short story

236

Subject Index writer, 28, 29; as a journalist, xiv, 55, 113, 128; as a critic for Radio Eireann, 109; as a singer, 41, 169, 196; as a house painter, xii, 51, 52, 111, 158, 160; as a seaman and smuggler, xiv, 43, 44; as a city man, 45, 52, 70, 113; and the working classes, 70, 82, 113, 150, 217, 219; hates red tape, 159; on religion, 114, 174, 205, 206; on sex, 45, 135; on Irish education, 63-5; on corporal punishment, 63—5; his hobbies, 113; loves west of Ireland, xiv, 51, 52, 116, 117, 128, 146, 169, 204, 209; in Dublin, xv(3), xiv(2), 82, 95, 154, 156, 173, 184, 211; in west of Ireland, 146, 157, 204; in Belfast, 36, 95, 109, 152, 204; in London, xv(2), 66, 82, 106, 159, 173, 176, 211, 213, 219; in Liverpool, xiii, 9, 13, 14, 19, 34, 36, 159; in Manchester, xiv, 36, 48; in Leeds, 82; in New York, xv(2), 173, 178, 180, 181, 182, 188, 190, 191, 196, 205, 208, 209, 211, 219; in Jersey City, 191, 192; in Los Angeles, 195, 196, 201, 219, 229; in San Francisco, 199, 219; in Monterey, 193; in Canada, xv, 80, 183; in Paris, xiv(2), xv(2), 43, 51, 55, 167, 170; in Dieppe, 43, 44; in southern France, xvi; in Spain, xiii, xv, 129, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145; in Mexico, xv, 183, 202; in Sweden, xv, 141, 157; in Germany, xv, 167, 170; prejudice against, 53, 56, 104, 149, 174; his extravagance, 126, 127, 129, 131, 142, 143, 160; his drinking, 43, 44, 45, 51, 51, 55, 61, 67, 77, 87, 113, 127, 154,

237

155, 176, 179, 188, 190, 191, 228; his sickness, xvi, 172, 176, 213, 228, 231; in hospital, xv(2), xvi(3), 176, 213, 230, 231; suffers breakdowns, xv(2), 167, 173; dies, xvi, 230; recollections of, xii, 6, 12, 15, 20, 26, 30, 34, 44, 61, 66, 69, 94, 176, 184, 195, 196, 202, 225; interviews with, 61, 66, 80, 96, 154, 155, 189, 192, 195, 199, 205; tributes to, 30, 222; his influence on the British Theatre, x; bibliography of works, 235 Brendan Behan: Writings After the Wake, 129 Big House, The, vx Borstal Boy, x, xiv(2), xv, 29, 43, 44, 54, 88, 98, 99, 100, 112, 114, 116, 124, 128, 131, 135, 136, 144-8, 151-4, 157, 159, 160, 223 Brendan Behan s Island, xiv, xv, xvi, 16, 29, 55, 112, 197 Brendan Behan s New York, xvi(2), 112, 197 catacombs, the, 120, 128, 129, 142, 146, 148, 149 Complete Plays, The, 66 Confessions of an Irish Rebel, xvi(2), 25, 112, 197, 205 Fine Day in the Graveyard, A, xv Garden Party, A, xvi, 40, 212 Giall, An, xv(3), 14, 128, 129, 149, 150, 157 Hold "Your Hour and Have Another, xvi, 46, 206 Hostage, The, x(2), xv(8), 60, 90, 92, 129, 157, 159, 162, 171, 72, 174, 175, 178, 179, 191, 192, 205, 224 landlady, The, xiii, 23-5, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32 Moving Out, xvi, 140, 212

238

Subject Index

Poems and a Play in Irish, 14, 55 Quare Fellow, The, x(2), xiv(3), xv(4), 16, 31, 40, 66, 76(2), 79, 80, 87, 89, 90(2), 91, 92(2), 102, 109, 110, 124, 154, 160, 161, 166, 170, 172, 175, 209, 224 Richard's Cork Leg, xv(2), xvi(2), 142, 189 Scarperer, The, xiv, xvi, 44, 112 Behan, Brian, 9, 22, 216, 222 Behan, Dominic, 22, 127, 196, 205, 216, 222 Behan, Kathleen, xiii, 6, 9, 16(2), 21, 24, 36, 46 Behan, Seamus, 22 Behan, Stephen, xiii, 29, 36, 48, 52, 103, 158, 219 Belfast, 7, 54, 95, 109, 150, 152, 204 Bell, The (Dublin), xiv, 29, 72, 113 Belsen, 217 Betjeman, Candida, 72 Betjeman, John, 72 Bismarck, 218, 219, 223 Bisset, Jock, 219 Black and Tans, 220 Blasket Islands, Co. Kerry, xiv Blythe, Ernest, 30-2, 76 Bog of Allen, 219 Boland, Gerry, 15 Boolavogue (Kearney), 33 Boru, Brian, 19 Bourke, F. S., 35 Bourke, Jimmy, see de Burca, Seamus Bourke, Margaret, 21, 22, 29 Bourke, Patrick J., 20, 29 Bourke, Patsy, 21, 22, 24 Bourke, Peadar, 21, 22 Boyle, Patrick, 207, 208 Boyle, Tom, 27 Bradshaw, Bon, 26-8 Bray, Co. Dublin, 14, 27, 29 Bray Harriers, The, 14 Brecht, Bertolt, 219

Brendan Behan (O'Connor), 4, 26, 30, 32, 60, 171, 176, 195 Brendan Behan: A Memoir (de Burca), xii, 15, 20 Brendan Behan: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism (Mikhail), 235 Brendan Behan: Interviews and Recollections (Mikhail), 61, 66, 195 Brendan Behan: Man and Showman (Jeffs), xii, 112, 126, 144, 158, 159, 224 Briant, N.H., 159 Briscoe, Robert, 220 Brown, John, 219, 224 Browne, Denise, 130 Broy, Eamonn, 14 'Broy Harriers', 13, 14 Brydon, Arthur, 189, 192 Builders' Employers Federation, Ireland, 122 Butler, Anthony, 48 Byrne, Teresa, 4-6 Callanan, Jeremiah Joseph, 134, 135 Campbell, Michael, 158 Carlow, Co. Kildare, 217 Carraro, Co. Galway, 76 Carroll, Paul Vincent, 50 Catholic Herald (London), 162, 174, 175 CBC, 195 CBS, 124 Chapman, John, 191, 192 Chapman, Suzanne, 228 Chapman, Terence, 228 Circle-in-the-Square Theatre, New York, 161, 166 Clontarf, Ireland, 19 Clowry, Margaret, 138 Cohen, Alexander H., 188, 189 Coldstream Guards, 66 Collins, Joe, 47

Subject Index Colmcille, Saint, 204, 205 Comedy Theatre, London, 110 Comerford, James ]., 190 Concanon Artists Services, London, 100 Condon, Patrick, 180 Connolly, James, 13, 14, 82, 83 Corkery, Daniel, 50 Cort Theatre, New York, xv, 180 Crawley, Sussex, 60 Cronin, Anthony, 44, 56, 202 Crumlin, Dublin, xiii, 29, 46, 59, 197 Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast, 150 Cullen, John, 102, 172 Curragh Internment Camp, Co. Kildare, xiv, 30, 32 Cusack, Ralph, 213 Czeck, Suzanne, 213 Daiken, Leslie, 216, 222 Daily News (New York), 190, 191, 192 Daily Telegraph (London), 231 Darner Hall, Dublin, xv, 149, 150 Davis, Thomas, 18, 223 Dawson Lounge, Dublin, 87 Day Apprentice School, Dublin, xiii, 158 Dead as Doornails (Cronin), 44, 56 de Burca, Christine, 21, 22, 23 de Burca, Seamus, vii(2), ix, xii, 15, 16, 17(3), 20-5, 29, 33 Delany, Shelagh, 222, 225 Dempsey, Jack, 199, 200 Dermody, Frank, 150 de Valera, Eamon, 14, 219, 224 De vine's, Dublin, 61 Dickens, Charles, 157 Dieppe, France, 43, 44 Doran, Thomas, 19 Down to the Sea . . . (de Burca), 20, 22 Doyle, James, 217 Dublin, xv(3), xvi(2), 82, 95, 154,156, 173, 184, 211

239

Dublin Corporation, xiii, 29, 45, 46 Dundalk, Co. Louth, 209 Dunquin, Co. Kerry, 146, 157 Easter Rising, xiii, 34, 222 Ede, Chuter, 47, 48 Elektorowicz, Leszek, 172 Elias, Rabbi Stephen, 220 Emmet, Robert, 54, 100, 101 'Emmet Street', 44 Encounter, 94 English, Granny, 29 English, Patrick, 29 Enniskerry, Ireland, 27, 29 Envoy (Dublin), 202 Esquire (Chicago), 124, 125 Evening Herald (Dublin), 12, 47, 48, 108, 138, 168 Evening Mail (Dublin), 47, 48, 58, 121 Evening Press (Dublin), 108, 110, 205 Evergreen Review, xv, 207, 208 Banna (Dublin), 113 Fianna Eireann, xiii(2), 36 Fields, W. C, 196 Finglas Road, Dublin, 16 Fior, Michael, 89 Fisher, Mya, 220(2) Flanagan, Marie, 159 Floating Ballroom, Dublin, 196, 197 Flower, Henry, 138 Foley, Henry, 138 Foley, Donal, 66 Forrester, Arthur, M., 59 Fraser, G. S., 96, 135 Freeman, John, 215 French Sisters of Charity, School of (Dublin), xiii, 8 Furlong, Deirdre, 197 Furlong, Grannie, xiv Furlong, Jack (Kathleen Behan's first husband), xiii Furlong, Jack (Rory Furlong's son), 197

240

Subject Index

Furlong, May, 181, 193, 196, 197, 201 Furlong, May 6g, 198 Furlong, Rory, vii, ix, xiii, 22, 37, 181, 193, 195, 196, 197, 201 Furlong, Rory 6g, 181, 197 Furlong, Sean, xiii, 21(2), 22, 24(2), 25, 27, 28, 29, 197 Gael Linn, ix, xv, 149 Gaeltacht Park, 24 Gagarin, Yuri, 197, 198, 199 Gallatin's, Monterey, 193 Gannon, Bridget, 138 Geis, Bernard, 197 George, R. 1C, 91 Gilligan, Arthur, 87 Gilligan, Imelda, 87 Gill's Pub, Dublin, 5-6 Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, xiii, 13,

17, 34, 36

Glenties, Co. Donegal, 177 Globe and Mail (Toronto), 189, 192 Globe Magazine (Toronto), 80 Goldsmith, Oliver, 128, 129 Gorki, Maxim, 185 Gormanstown Camp, 36, 104, 105 Goulding, Cathal, vii 'Granny Me', see Salkeld, Blanaid Great Hunger, The (Woodham-Smith), 216 Greenwich Village, New York, 169 Grey, Greg, 61 Grey, Zane, 95, 96 Grossman, D. Jon, 53, 56 Gunpowder Alley, London, 82 Hackett, Walter, xii Hamilton, Iain, xii, 88, 92, 94, 97101, 106-7, 113, 115, 116-20, 123-37, 140-53, 157-8, 160-2 Hanley, Clifford, 147, 148 Hardwicke Street, Dublin, 82

Hardy, Thomas, 153 Harper's Bazaar, 79 Harris, Aylmer, 79 Harris, Nuala, 79 Harvey, Agnes, 177 Harvey, Frank, 177 Hecht, Ben, 220, 224 Heine, Heinrich, 219 Heller, H. R. 89, 90 Herbert Street, Dublin, 86, 89, 93, 96, 97, 100, 102, 104, 106, 109, 119, 124, 127, 128, 130, 131, 133, 135, 149, 152, 156, 160, 162, 164, 165 Himmler, Heinrich, 217, 223 Hitler, Adolf, 219 Hobson, Harold, 119, 169, 170, 174, 185 Hogan, James, 7, 8 Hogan, Robert, xvi, 212 Holland, Vyvyan, 218, 223 Hollesley Bay Borstal Institution, Suffolk, xiii, 9, 14, 17, 19, 28, 34 Hollywood, 195, 196, 201, 219, 229 Hone, Marlowe, 82, 83 Horrocks, Eileen, 97, 98, 100, 107, 113, 116, 145, 153, 157 Housman, A. E., 153 Humanities Research Center, Austin, 101 Hummelmora, Sweden, 157 Hutchinson Publishing Group, vii, xiv, 88, 93, 112, 136, 145, 158 Hyde, Douglas, 31 Ibiza, Spain, xv, 129, 142, 143, 144, 145 Illsley, Stanley, 109 Imperial College Dramatic Society, 77 Impulse (Cohen), 189 Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan, 72 'Invincibles, The', 138, 139 Iremonger, Valentin, 55, 86 Irgun, 220, 224

Subject Index Irish Association of College Lecturers, 63, 65 Irish Christian Brothers' School, xiii, 7, 8, 65 Irish Democrat (Dublin), 7, 8, 162 Irish Famine, 215, 217, 218, 222 Irish Free State, 57 Irish Independent (Dublin), 195, 231 Irish Keeners, 216 Irish Painters Union, 219 Irish Press (Dublin), xiv, 23, 135, 140, 205, 231 Irish Republican Army (IRA), xiii, 12, 14, 19, 22, 26, 29, 47, 51, 53, 58, 59, 86, 95, 96, 113, 150 Irish Republican Brotherhood, 16 Irish Times (Dublin), xiv, 26, 30, 32, 44, 53, 55, 56, 69, 71, 73, 74, 97, 100, 133, 149, 150, 158, 163, 182, 184, 186, 187, 202, 203, 231 Irish Writing (Cork), 29 Jail Journal (Mitchel), 217 Jeffs, Rae (Mrs Peter A. Sebley), vii(2), ix, xii, 88, 93, 94, 97, 99, 106, 107, 112-15, 116, 118, 119, 123, 126, 128, 130, 131, 133, 135, 140, 142, 143, 144, 146, 149, 151, 154-6, 157, 158, 159, 160, 162, 165, 176, 224 Jersey City, 191, 192 Johnson, Denis, 204, 205 Joseph, Michael, 136, 140 Joyce, C. A., 34 Joyce, James, 138, 147 KSFO, 199 Kavanagh, Patrick, 50, 53, 56, 69(3), 70(3), 71, 72, 73, 202 Kavangh's Weekly, 49, 73 Keane, John B., 184, 185, 186, 187 Kearney, Colbert, 15, 16, 17

241

Kearney, Eva, 15, 16, 17 Kearney, Kathleen, see Behan, Kathleen Kearney, Peadar, 15, 16(2), 17(4), 18, 21, 22, 25, 33, 36 Kearney, Pearse, 15 Kennedy, John F., 180 Keogh, William, 72 Kiely, Benedict, viii, 140, 165 Kiely, Mary, 165 Keily, Maureen, 165 Kildare Road, Dublin, 28, 29, 59 Killarney, Co. Kerry, 169, 170, 205 Kimathi, Dedan, 96 Knopf, Alfred A., 97, 98, 101, 145, 148 Koshland, William, 100(2), 101, 147, 148 Krause, David, viii, 206 Lagerlof, Olof, 157 Landis, Carol, 70, 72 Larkin, James, 82, 83 Leader (Dublin), 63, 65 Leeds, 82 Lefebre, M., 89 Legree, Simon, 64, 65 Lemass, Sean, 204, 205 Leonard, Grand-Uncle, 24 Lewes Prison, Sussex, xiv Littlewood, Joan, xv, 29, 91, 178, 180, 220, 224 Liverpool, xiii, 9, 13, 14, 19, 34, 36, 159 London, xv(2), 66, 82, 106, 159, 173, 176, 211, 213, 219 London County Council (LCC), 92 Los Angeles, 201 Lusty, Robert, vii, 88-93, 94, 97, 100, 113, 115, 116, 119, 127, 128, 133, 157, 158, 160 Lynch, Jack, 25 Lyons, Douglas, 221 Lyons, Leonard, 221.

242

Subject Index

Maas, William, 114 McCabe, John, 48 McCann, Leo, 110 McCann, Sean, 30, 69, 184 McCarthy, Joseph, 77, 78 MacConmara, Donncad Ruad, 18 MacDonagh, Donagh,53 MacDonnell, Anthony, 138, 139 MacGorain, Riobard, ix McKay, Roy, 175 'MacNessa, Conor', see Collins, Joe MacSwiney, Terence, 216, 222 Maffey, John 69, 72 Mancherster, xiv, 36, 48 Mangan, James Clarence, 18 Mansion House, Dublin, 95 Martin, Eamonn, 80 Martin, Fionnuala, 80 Martin, John, 218 Martin, Kinglsey, 96 Marx, Groucho, 100, 101, 147, 196, 197 Marx, Harpo, 196, 197 Maupassant, Guy de, 24, 25 May, Freddy, 21, 22, 24 May, Sheila, 21, 22 Meath Hospital, Dublin, xvi, 230 Merlin (Paris), 114 Merriman, Brian, 186, 187 Methuen, vii, 76, 102, 172 Mexico, xv, 183, 202 Middlesex Hospital, 176, 220 Mikhail, E. H., 61, 66, 195, 235 Mitchel, John, 218, 223 Moliere, 199 Molloy, John, 212 Monahan, J., 63 Monde, Le (Paris), 169 Montecito Hotel, Hollywood, 195 Monterey, California, 193 Montgomery, Field Marshall, 174, 175 Montreal, 79 Maureen, Mooney, 28

Mooney's, Dublin, 61 Morehampton Road, Dublin, 104 Morley, Robert, 109, 110 Morning Post (London), 221 Mother of All the Behans (Behan), 6, 9, 46 Mount] oy Prison, Dublin, xiii, xiv, 13(2), 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 30, 37 Muggeridge, Malcolm, 155 Murdoch, John, 61 Murphy, Delia, 40, 41 My Brother Brendan (Behan), 222 My Dear Eva (Kearney), 17 My Life with Brendan (Behan), xii, 61, 164, 165, 171, 188, 192, 228 Nation, The (Dublin), 218 National Library of Ireland, 35 Nemo, John, 73 New Statesman (London), 29, 81, 83, 95, 96, 155, 215, 223, 224 New York, xv(2), 173, 178, 180, 181, 182, 188, 190, 191, 196, 205, 209, 211, 219 New "York Herald Tribune, 96 New York Post Magazine, 225 New "York Times, 192, 205, 231 New Yorker, 178 Newhaven, Sussex, xiv Newman, Alec, 69, 71, 73 Newspaper Workers, Club, London, 82 Newsweek, 192 North Circular Road, Dublin, xiii, 8, 46

North William Street, Dublin, xiii, 8 Northern Ireland, 7, 8 Obie Award, 169, 170 O'Brien, Flann, 182 Observer (London), xii, 176 O'Callaghan, Sean, 95, 96

243

Subject Index O'Casey, Sean, ix, x(2), 27(2), 29, 45, 54, 69, 70, 77, 78, 174, 203, 204, 205 O'Connor, Ulick, vii(2), 4, 26, 30, 32, 60, 171, 176, 195 O'Crohan, Tomas, 187 O Douglas, William, 221 O'Duffy, Eoin, 14 O'Faolain, Sean, 21, 22, 63 O'Flaherty, Peadar, 24 O'Flanagan, Petronella, 165, 209 6 hAodha, Micheal, vii, ix, 40-2, 212 O'Keefe, Timothy, 113, 115 O'Kelly, Seamus G., 12 O'Kelly, Sean Thomas, 103, 219, 224 Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 108, 109, 204

Omagh, Co,. Tyrone, 58, 59(2) Osborne, John, 109 O'Sullivan, Maurice, 187

Paler Shade of Green, A, (Hickey and

Smith), 66 Paris, xiv, xv(2), 43, 51, 55, 167, 170 Paris Review, 114 Parnell, Charles Stewart, 54 Paton, Carmel, 60, 61, 216 Paton, Joe, 61, 216 Paton, Jim, 21 Peacock Theatre, Dublin, xvi Pearse, Patrick, 185, 187 People, The, (London), 128, 155 Phoblact, An, xiii Picture Post (London), 95, 111 Pike Theatre, Dublin, xiv, 66, 76 Pitman, Robert, 112 Points (Paris), ix, 43, 44, 45, 51, 53, 55, 56, 114 Poole, Joe, 138 Pope's Brass Band, 70, 72 Quarry Hill Estate, Leeds, 82 Queen's Royal Theatre, Dublin, 29(2)

Quintero, Jose, xv Radio Eireann, 25, 45, 55, 75, 109 Raffles, Gerald, C, 88, 89, 90(2), 91(3), 92(2), 93, 97, 100, 102 Remembering Hoiv We Stood (Ryan), 202

Rivera, Diego, 202 Rockwell College, Cashel, 204, 205 Rogan, Bernard, 230 Rooney, William, 18 Rossett, Barney, 207 Royal City of Dublin Hospital, 230 RTE, 40, 60 Rubinstein, Michael, 119, 124, 149, 151, 152, 153 Russell, Barbara, 77, 78 Russell, Bertrand, 221, 224 Russell, Lord John, 217, 221, 223, 224 Russell Street, Dublin, 6, 29, 46, 195 Ryan, John, vii, 202, 212 Ryan, Louis, 164 Rynne, Stephen, 82, 83 S., P. H., 32 Sacred Heart Church, Donnybrook, xiv Sadleir, John, 72 St Patrick's Day Parade, New York, 178, 190 Salkeld, Beatrice, see Behan, Beatrice Salkeld, Blanaid, 163, 164 Salkeld, Cecil, xiv, 60, 61, 104, 105, 164, 182 Salkeld, Celia, 60, 165, 182 Salkeld, Irma, 163-4 San Francisco, 199, 219 San Francisco Examiner, 199—200 Savage, Jim, 13 Schiller, Johann, 219 Schillertheater, Berlin, 170 Schmidt, Judith, 208 School Children's Protection Organisation, 63, 64

244

Subject Index

Scotland the Brave (Hamilton), 132, 133, 136, 140 Script Plays, London, 89(2), 90(4), 91(3), 92(2) Searson's, Dublin, 60, 61 Seaver, Dick, 207 Sebley, Mrs Peter A., see Jeffs, Rae Shand, Jimmy, 136 Shaw, Bernard, ix, 54(2), 216 Sheehy, Edward, 28, 29 Sheehy-Skeffington, Francis, 64 Shepard, Alan B., 197, 198, 199 Shepperd, Jean, 114 Sheridan, Richard Brisnley, 54 Show, 192 Silverstein, Alf, 219 Simpson, Alan, xiv, xvi, 66 Sims, George, 55, 57 Sinatra, Frank, 196 Sinko, Grzegorz, 172 Sinn Fein, 103 Skrocznska, Maria, 172 Slater, Michael, 104 Smith, Sydney, 216, 222 Snowdon, Lord, 221, 224 Soldier's Song, The (de Burca), 17 Spectator, The (London), 86, 117, 169 'Speranza', see Wilde, Lady Jane Standard (Dublin), 72 Stephens Green Loan Fund, Dublin, 21 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 65 Strange ways Jail, Manchester, xiv, 47 Streicher, Julius, 221, 224 Sunday Dispatch (London), xiv Sunday Express (London), 112 Sunday Press (Dublin), 34, 49, 50, 209 Sunday Times (London), 119, 124, 174, 175 Sundrive Road, Dublin, 196, 197 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, 196 Sweden, xv, 141, 157 Swift, Carolyn, viii, 66 Swift, Patrick, 202

Synge, J. M., x, xi, 24, 27 Tablet (London), 174, 175 Taylor, A.J.P., 215, 217, 221, 223 Taylor, Margaret, 113, 116, 119, 157, 158 Teems of Time . , . (Behan), 222 Theatre de I'CEuvre, Paris, 170 Theatre des Nations Festival, xv Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London, xiv, xv, 76, 89, 110, 175, 224 Theatre Workshop, London, 76, 91(2), 157, 178 lime, 166 Timmons, Dick, 21, 22, 24 Tone, Wolfe, 54, 74 Toronto, 80 Toronto and Daily Star, 159 Traynor, Mickey, 28, 29 Tunny, Gene, 199, 200 Twentieth Century (London), 125 Tynan, Kenneth, x, xii, 169, 170 Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe), 65 University College Dublin, 72, 73 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin, 61 USA, xv, xvi, 183 Vail, Sinbad, ix, 43-6, 51-7 Victoria, Queen, 218, 219(2), 224 Village Voice (New York), 169 Vogue, 79 Wakefield Jail, 22 Walker, L. B., 200 Wall, Bernard, 119, 120, 124, 125 Wall, Richard, vii(2), viii Walton Jail, Liverpool, xiii, 14, 16, 17 Washington Post, xii Waterhouse, John, 89(2), 90(3) Waterloo House, Dublin, 61 Waterloo Road, Dublin, 60, 61, 62, 69, 75, 77, 79, 82, 89

Subject Index Waugh, Evelyn, 174, 175 Westbourne Grove, London, 82 Westminster Hospital, 220 Wilde, Lady Jane, 218, 223 Wilde, Oscar, ix(5), xi(4), 53, 54, 55, 56, 223 With Breast Expanded (Behan), 222 Wood, Wendy, 100 Woodham-Smith, Cecil, 215, 216, 217, 221, 222 Woolf, Leonard, 215, 217(2), 219, 220, 221(2), 222, 223 Woolf, Virginia, 223 Wormwood Prison, 19

245

World of Brendan Behan, The (McCann), 30, 69, 184 Writings of Brendan Behan, The (Kearney) Wyatt, Mary, 53, 56 Wyndham's Theatre, London, xv, 171, 221, 224 Wynne, Barry, 89(2), 90, 91, 92 Yeats, W.B., ix(2), x, xi(5), 18, 54, 100 York House, Dublin, 16, 17 Young Ireland, 218, 223 Zulawski, Juliusz, 172