Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan (1923–1964) was an Irish poet, novelist, and playwright whose writing drew on prison life, Dublin speech, and Irish political experience.

The Quare Fellow: A play by Brendan Behan about prisoners awaiting execution in an Irish jail. Its prison setting and gallows humor made it Behan’s breakthrough play.
Irish Republican Army: An Irish republican paramilitary organization that sought to end British rule in Ireland and unite Ireland. Behan joined the IRA as a teenager and was imprisoned for related activity.
Beatrice Behan: An Irish writer and singer, and the mother of Brendan Behan. Her family stories and political commitments formed part of Behan’s early environment.
Abbey Theatre: A national theatre in Dublin founded in 1904, central to the development of Irish drama. Its national dramatic tradition provides a backdrop to Behan’s challenge to Irish stage conventions.
Borstal Boy: Brendan Behan’s autobiographical account of imprisonment in an English borstal after his arrest for IRA activity. It recounts the juvenile imprisonment that became a defining source for his writing.
Mountjoy Prison: A prison in Dublin that opened in 1850 and has held men and women convicted in Ireland. Behan’s experience there informed the prison setting of The Quare Fellow.
Paddy Kavanagh: An Irish poet and novelist whose work included the poem “On Raglan Road.” Kavanagh was Behan’s uncle and an influential presence in his literary family.
Irish Literary Revival: A late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century movement that renewed Irish literature, language, and cultural identity. Behan inherited debates about Irish identity shaped by this earlier cultural movement.
The Hostage: A play by Brendan Behan in which an Irish rebel’s planned execution intersects with a British soldier held hostage. Its comic, multilingual stage world develops Behan’s treatment of nationalism and captivity.
Holles Street Hospital: A Dublin maternity hospital, now part of the National Maternity Hospital. Behan was born in Dublin at this hospital in 1923.

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