THE QUARE FELLOW

“The Quare Fellow” is made up of three acts. The play is set in a city prison. The first lines of the play are of a prisoner singing the song “The Old Triangle”. In the Pike Theatre production of the play in Dublin, it is Brendan himself that sings the song. The strong life of Irish theatre can be seen in “The Quare Fellow” and “The Hostage”. This play reflected Behan’s observations and experiences of imprisonment. Behan received instant recognition when the play opened in the Pike Theatre in Dublin. The Pike Theatre no longer exists in Dublin. Brendan was on his way to fame when Joan Littlewood staged the play in London.

THE HOSTAGE

“The Hostage” is set in an old Georgian house in Nelson Street, Dublin. The play was first written in Irish being called “An Giall”. This was staged in ‘An Damer’ in Dublin. Behan was persuaded to translate the play into English becoming “The Hostage”. There is a character in the play called ‘Pat’. This character is largely based on Brendan’s father Stephen.

“The Hostage” was the last of Brendan Behan’s plays to be staged in his lifetime.


BORSTAL BOY

“Borstal Boy” is an autobiography of Behan’s time spent in a “Borstal”. A borstal is a boy's prison. He was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment. “Borstal Boy” shows that Behan found something other than hate in borstal, he found friendship, solidarity and occasional flashes of kindness.


BRENDAN BEHAN'S ISLAND

In this book there is a whole chapter on Dublin's Fair City. Such places as the Curragh Races in Kildare, Nelson Street where “The Hostage” was set, The Custom House, and The Blue Lion Pub on Parnell Street where he drank many times. He mentions The Guinness Brewery on Liffey Quay, and also a famous Dublin landmark, the Ha’penny Bridge. In this book Behan goes outside of Dublin and tells us stories that are set near places like the Rock of Cashel, the Blasket Islands off the coast of County Kerry. Behan then tells us a story later on in the book of a family who gathers seaweed for manure near Carraroe, Connemeara in Galway.


HOLD YOUR HOUR AND HAVE ANOTHER

“Hold your hour and have another” is a completion of Brendan Behan’s stories that he wrote for the Irish Press newspaper. All of the stories are set in areas in Dublin, some of these are Howth, Summerhill, Dolphin’s Barn, Mountjoy Square and Croke Park the G.A.A's stadium in Drumcondra.

One journalist after Behan died wrote “Too young to die, but too drunk to live”.

Play                                 First Performance

Moving Out (Radio Eireann) 1952
A Garden Party (Radio Eireann) 1952
The Quare Fellow (Pike Theatre) 1954
The Quare Fellow (Theatre Royal) 1956
The Big House (BBC) 1957
An Giall (The Hostage)(An Damer) 1958
The Hostage (Theatre Royal) 1958
Richard's Cork Leg (Abbey Theatre) 1972

In 1942 he had been sentenced to fourteen years (later commuted) for an incident after a Republican commemoration ceremony at Glasnevin Cemetery. This incident seems crucial to some of the attitudes revealed in “The Hostage” and “Richard's Cork Leg”. Glasnevin Cemetery is in North Dublin; many famous Irish people are buried there. Some include Daniel O'Connell to Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera. His term in Mountjoy Prison was to supply him with the background for “The Quare Fellow”.

“The Big House” reveals a side of Behan's work and personality which only evolved and emerged strongly after he had completed “The Quare Fellow”, which is pretty straight reportage of his Mountjoy experiences.

By Niamh McGann.

Over we have a map of Dublin, we have highlighted certain areas that Brendan Behan has visited (mostly unwelcome because of his Drinking habits), he also wrote about a lot of these places.

Below is a key of the highlighted areas:

1) DOLPHINS BARN : Mentioned in one of Behan’s plays as the town On the Grand Canal.

2)GUINNESS BREWERY : A place visited by Behan a lot during his Lifetime.

3) ROAD TO GLASNEVIN CEMETERY : The cemetery in which Behan is buried.

4) HA'PENNY BRIDGE : A place visited by Behan many times reciting his plays.

5) CUSTOM HOUSE: Behan mentioned the Custom House in a play he wrote.

6) PARNELL STREET : Behan drank a lot in the Blue Lion Pub on Parnell Street.

7) SUMMERHILL : Another place Behan went for a drink now and then.

8) MOUNTJOY PRISON : A place Behan unfortunately ended up once or twice through his life.

9) CROKE PARK: One more place that Behan visited during his life.

Dublin Map

HIS LIFE Brendan was born in Holles Street Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. He was born in the year 1923. Brendan was reared in a family who were involved in a revolution against the British. He left school at a very young age to join the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was an anti English rebel. In 1939 he was convicted of carrying explosives. He was sentenced to three years in prison and he spent much of the 1940’s in reform school and prison. It was during this time that he began to write. He wrote an autobiographical account of this detention called “Borstal Boy”. By the age of eighteen Brendan was an alcoholic, he was deported from Dublin in 1942 and was soon involved in a shooting incident in which a policeman was wounded. He was captured and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. He was returned to Dublin and imprisoned. He served much of this sentence in Mountjoy prison in Dublin but was moved to the Curragh military camp in County Kildare where he was released. During the time he had spent in prison Brendan had perfected his Irish language. He wrote a play in Irish called "An Giall". In 1948 Brendan went to Paris to write. He returned to Dublin in 1950 and wrote short stories and scripts for Radio Telefis Eireann. He also sang on a programme called “Ballad Maker’s Saturday Night”. In 1958 Brendan got married to Beatrice. He wrote a tragic comedy corning the reactions of jailers and prisoners to the hanging of a condemned man. It presents an explosive statement on capital punishment. He called it “The Quare Fellow”. He wrote many plays in the years to come; one was called “The Hostage”. It was about a tragic situation of an English soldier whom the IRA holds as a hostage in an effort to prevent the execution of one of their own men. This play was a success in London and it went to Broadway in 1960. It was a complete success in New York, and Brendan became a celebrity personality there. Brendan’s last works, which he dictated on tape was “Brendan Behan’s Island”, a book of Irish anecdotes. “The Scarperer” and “The Confessions of an Irish Rebel” were later published as further memoirs. By Marie Lyons.