Brendan Behan was born of republican parents Stephen Behan and Kathleen Kearney on 9 February 1923, in Holles Street Hospital, Dublin. The Civil War was at its height and Stephen was an IRA prisone.
Allegedly, Brendan Behan's last words were “Sister, may all your sons be bishops.” Apocryphal or not, that story, unjustly, sums up the life of the writer. Irish writer Brendan Behan was born in Dublin on February 9, 1923 - here, a look at his life.
Brendan Behan was once asked in an interview: “What would you like to have said of you in 50 years’ time?” With a chuckle, Behan replied: “That I’ve celebrated my 86th, my 87th, birthday!”
Brendan Behan was arguably one of the last writers to emerge from the Irish literary revival movement. This originated in the 1880s, initiated within the Protestant Ascendency class, by Douglas Hyde, W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory, and J.M.