THE LORD MAYOR of Dublin has unveiled a plaque commemorating Irish writer Brendan Behan at the location of Behan’s childhood home beside Croke Park.
Lord Mayor Ray McAdam described Behan as a “fearless, unmistakably Dublin writer” at the ceremony this morning at 13 Russell Street in Dublin 1, which took place on what would have been Behan’s 103rd birthday.
The home has been demolished since Behan lived there, and replaced by a commercial building which is home to Fighting Words, the creative writing organisation co-founded by Roddy Doyle.
Behan “took the language of the streets and proved it belonged on the page and on the stage,” McAdam said at the unveiling.
“His work gave voice to lived experience and working class Dublin, with all its wit, tenderness and hard truth”.
Behan was born in 1923 into a strongly republican family and lived on Russell Street until 1937, when his family moved to Crumlin on the southside of Dublin.
Behan moved to Liverpool just two years later, at the age of 16, where he was sentenced to three years in a borstal after being found in possession of explosives. He was a member of the IRA, which had opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty at the time.
He wrote about his experience in the detention centre years later in his best-known work, Borstal Boy.
He was later deported back to Ireland where he served five years in jail after firing shots at policemen in Dublin. The Dictionary of Irish Biography notes that “during the remainder of his life he was to find himself in police cells on several occasions, mostly as a consequence of drunken disorder”.
He died in 1964 at just 41, and his funeral, with full IRA honours, is described as “one of the largest ever seen in the city”.
Behan’s grandsons, Guy and Rupert Walker, attended the unveiling on Russell Street today, which concluded with Glen Hansard and Josh O’Keefe performing The Auld Triangle, which Behan famously included in his play The Quare Fellow.
Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography
Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography / Fennell Photography
The decision to erect the plaque was made by councillors on Dublin City Council’s commemorations and naming committee, who have asked for more suggestions for what should be remembered in Dublin city.
“We welcome suggestions from the public for people and events to be commemorated,” said Green Party councillor Donna Cooney, chair of the committee.
