Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan , 1923-64, Irish dramatist. A notoriously outspoken and uninhibited man, he joined the Irish Republican Army in 1937 and was twice imprisoned for political offenses. His first play, The Quare Fellow (1956), a grimly comic drama set in the hours preceding a prison hanging, was followed by The Hostage (1958), a song and dance farce set in a brothel. Brendan Behan's Island: an Irish Sketch-Book (1962) is a miscellaneous collection.

Bibliography: See his autobiographical Borstal Boy (1958); biographies by his brother Dominic Behan (1966) and U. O'Connor (1971).

Behan, Brendan (1923–64) Irish writer, notorious for his riotous lifestyle. Behan became a member of the IRA at the age of 14 and served several years in reform school, as described in his autobiography Borstal Boy (1958). His first play, The Quare Fellow, was produced in 1954. Influenced by the work of Brecht, his second play was The Hostage (1959).

Behan, Brendan (1923–64), Irish playwright, was arrested in 1939 for his involvement with the IRA, and his subsequent period of Borstal training is described in his autobiographical Borstal Boy (1958). His best-known works are The Hostage (1958), a tragi-comedy about an English soldier held hostage in a Dublin brothel, and The Quare Fellow (1956), set in an Irish prison on the eve of a hanging.