102-543: Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan ) ( / ˈ b iː ə n / BEE -ən ; Irish : Breandán Ó Beacháin ; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright , and Irish Republican , an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely acknowledged alcohol dependence , despite attempts to treat it, impacted his creative capacities and contributed to health and social problems which curtailed his artistic output and finally his life. An Irish Republican and
204-777: A borstal youth prison in the United Kingdom and imprisonment in Ireland . During this time, he took it upon himself to study and became a fluent speaker of the Irish language . Subsequently released from prison as part of a general amnesty given by the Fianna Fáil government in 1946, Behan moved between homes in Dublin, Kerry and Connemara and also resided in Paris for a time. In 1954, Behan's first play, The Quare Fellow ,
306-547: A unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century. With a writing system , Ogham , dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe . On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht , Munster and Ulster Irish . All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography . There
408-612: A volunteer in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Behan was born in Dublin into a staunchly republican family, becoming a member of the IRA's youth organization Fianna Éireann at the age of fourteen. There was also a strong emphasis on Irish history and culture in his home, which meant he was steeped in literature and patriotic ballads from an early age. At the age of 16, Behan joined the IRA, which led to his serving time in
510-717: A bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg . Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages. While an official language of
612-575: A better future for Ireland and all her citizens." The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It
714-483: A bungled police raid, revealing the human cost of war, a universal suffering. The subsequent English-language version The Hostage (1958), reflecting Behan's own translation from the Irish but also much influenced by Joan Littlewood during a troubled collaboration with Behan, is a bawdy, slapstick play that adds a number of flamboyantly gay characters and bears only a limited resemblance to the original version. His autobiographical novel Borstal Boy followed in 1958. In
816-527: A comedy band, on their album Blue . Brendan is Seamus Robinson's song-tribute to Behan. Behan's prison song The Auld Triangle (which featured in his play The Quare Fellow —this term being prison slang for a prisoner condemned to be hanged), has become a standard and has been recorded on numerous occasions by folk musicians as well as popular bands such as The Pogues , The Dubliners , the Dropkick Murphys and The Doug Anthony All Stars . Behan
918-478: A cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards,
1020-553: A degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE / GCSE examinations. Exemptions are made from this requirement for students who were born or completed primary education outside of Ireland, and students diagnosed with dyslexia . NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of
1122-563: A friendship. Behan loved the story of how, walking along the street in London shortly after this episode, a Cockney approached him and exclaimed that he understood every word he had said—drunk or not—but had not a clue what "that bugger Muggeridge was on about!" While addled, Brendan would clamber on stage and recite the play's signature song, The Auld Triangle . The transfer of the play to Broadway provided Behan with international recognition. Rumours still abound that Littlewood contributed much of
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#17327903597651224-460: A fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history. Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish. The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora , chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia , New Zealand and Argentina . The first large movements began in
1326-504: A new name to Canada or another distant part of the British Commonwealth . Refusing to be turned, the 16-year-old Behan was sentenced to three years in a borstal ( Hollesley Bay , once under the care of Cyril Joyce ) and did not return to Ireland until 1941. He wrote about the experience in the memoir Borstal Boy . In 1942, during the wartime state of emergency declared by Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera , Behan
1428-420: A number of properties in the area. There is an oral history which suggests he spent less than six months as a brother-novice at St Stanislaus College , Tullabeg, Rahan, County Offaly ; according to surviving members of his family, Behan was found in a compromising situation involving one of the college's domestic servants. According to Behan himself, he found this an attractive method of extricating himself from
1530-585: A paper suggested that within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish might typically be members of an urban, middle class, and highly educated minority. Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in
1632-575: A pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English, and receive lessons in Irish during their two years of training. Official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga , the Irish language ombudsman). The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on
1734-551: A path that had not been chosen by him. After leaving the seminary, he was apprenticed to his step-father as a house-painter. Behan joined the Irish Republican Army . During the Irish Civil War , Behan fought on the anti-treaty side and was incarcerated for two years in Kilmainham Jail . Behan married Kathleen Kearney in 1922. Kathleen's brother Peadar Kearney was a famous songwriter and poet, who wrote
1836-625: A religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga , commissioned by Bishop Bedell , was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival. It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by
1938-547: A result of linguistic imperialism . Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022. The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within
2040-510: A short prison sentence in 1947 for trying to break an imprisoned IRA man out of prison in Manchester , Behan effectively left the organisation, but remained friends with the IRAs long term Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding . Behan's prison experiences were central to his writing career. In Mountjoy he wrote his first play, The Landlady and also began to write short stories and other prose. It
2142-600: A song by The Pogues . The Pogues' Thousands Are Sailing written by lead guitarist Philip Chevron, features the lyric and in Brendan Behan's footsteps / I danced up and down the street . Behan is also referenced in Damien Dempsey 's 'Jar Song'. Behan's version of the third verse of The Internationale , from Borstal Boy was reproduced on the LP sleeve of Dexys Midnight Runners 's debut album, Searching for
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#17327903597652244-593: A tape recorder because he was no longer able to write or type for long enough to be able to finish them. Behan died on 20 March 1964 after collapsing at the Harbour Lights bar (now Harkin's Harbour Bar) in Echlin Street, Dublin. He was transferred to the Meath Hospital in central Dublin, where he died, aged 41. At his funeral he was given a full IRA guard of honour, which escorted his coffin. It
2346-430: A vitriolic attack on Britain; it delineates Behan's move away from violence. In one account, an inmate strives to entice Behan into chanting political slogans with him. Behan curses and damns him in his mind, hoping that he would cease his rantings-hardly the sign of a troublesome prisoner. By the end, the idealistic boy rebel emerges as a realistic young man, who recognises the truth: violence, especially political violence,
2448-545: A wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man , as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban , Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively. In English (including Hiberno-English ), the language is usually referred to as Irish , as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic . The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss
2550-553: A young Bob Dylan . However, this newfound fame did nothing to aid his health or his work, with his alcohol dependence and diabetic conditions continuing to deteriorate. Brendan Behan's New York and Confessions of an Irish Rebel received little praise. He briefly attempted to combat this by a dry stretch while staying at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, and in 1961 was admitted to Sunnyside Private Hospital, an institution for
2652-504: Is "slurred, angry, panting and ready to commit murder to get at a drink". According to the journalist William J. Weatherby, Behan's wife admired Sellers' impersonation of her husband and considered Bedham's references to "the thirst" the most accurate part of the sketch. The Sketch was written by Max Schreiner with music by Ron Goodwin . Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish : Gaeilge ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ɪ k / GAY -lik ),
2754-603: Is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family . It is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland . It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as
2856-452: Is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet , a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters , has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords ). Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of
2958-520: Is also referenced in the opening line of the Mountain Goats song Commandante , where the narrator proclaims that he will "drink more whiskey than Brendan Behan". Behan's two poems from his work The Hostage , On the eighteenth day of November and The Laughing Boy were translated into Swedish and recorded by Ann Sofi Nilsson on the album När kommer dagen . The same poems were translated in 1966 to Greek and recorded by Maria Farantouri on
3060-511: Is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including: The general goal for this strategy was to increase the number of daily speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run. By 2022, the number of such speakers had fallen to 71,968. Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years
3162-567: Is futile. The 1950s literary critic Kenneth Tynan said: "If the English hoard words like misers... Behan sends them out on a spree, ribald, flushed, and spoiling for a fight." He was now established as one of the leading Irish writers of his generation. Behan revered the memory of Father William Doyle , a Dublin priest of the Society of Jesus , who served as military chaplain to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers as they fought in
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3264-515: Is on display at the National Writers Museum. Behan fell out with the spiky Kavanagh, who reportedly would visibly shudder at the mention of Behan's name and who referred to him as "evil incarnate". Behan's fortunes changed in 1954, with the appearance of his play The Quare Fellow . Originally called The Twisting of Another Rope and influenced by his time spent in jail, it chronicles the vicissitudes of prison life leading up to
3366-587: Is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent. According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht , Sport and Media , only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology , described
3468-412: Is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language . These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí ). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it
3570-666: The Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht ), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish. There are Gaeltacht regions in the following counties: Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged. The Act
3672-485: The Irish national anthem ' A Soldier's Song ', and ' Down by the Glenside .' Whilst Behan was incarcerated, his first child Brendan was born. Behan's first sight of Brendan was from a window in the prison that looked out to the streets below, as Kathleen held the child up for him to see. According to his children, Behan was an extremely influential force; a talented teacher, he read from the classics to his children in
3774-631: The Republic of Ireland , and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union . The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard ")
3876-634: The 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies . Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine . This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English
3978-725: The 1998 Good Friday Agreement , the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language and in 2022 it approved legislation to recognise Irish as an official language alongside English. The bill received royal assent on 6 December 2022. The Irish language has often been used as
4080-403: The 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh , including ecclesiastical terms : examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus , and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica ). By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish , which
4182-571: The Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions. The Official Languages Scheme
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4284-772: The Chelsea , written by Behan's niece Janet Behan , was the first play performed in the Naughton Studio at the new Lyric Theatre in Belfast. The production tells the story of Behan's residence at New York's Hotel Chelsea in 1963. It was a critical success and is being revived for a tour to Theatre Row in New York in September 2013 before returning to the Lyric in October 2013. Morrissey 's 2014 song Mountjoy references
4386-471: The European Union , only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. This derogation ultimately came to an end on 1 January 2022, making Irish
4488-549: The Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times , referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse , quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but
4590-602: The Quare Fellow, based on a fellow prisoner. In June 1944 Behan was interned both with other IRA men and with Allied and German airmen at the Curragh Camp in County Kildare . He later related his experiences there in his memoir Confessions of an Irish Rebel . Released under a general amnesty for IRA prisoners and internees in 1946, Behan's active IRA career was largely over by the age of 23. Aside from
4692-620: The Republic of Ireland ), new appointees to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland , including postal workers , tax collectors , agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc., were required to have some proficiency in Irish. By law, a Garda who was addressed in Irish had to respond in Irish as well. In 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement ,
4794-557: The West End. Behan generated immense publicity for The Quare Fellow as a result of a drunken appearance on the Malcolm Muggeridge TV show. The English, relatively unaccustomed to public drunkenness in authors, took him to their hearts. A fellow guest on the show, Irish-American actor Jackie Gleason , reportedly said about the incident: "It wasn't an act of God, but an act of Guinness!" Behan and Gleason went on to forge
4896-527: The Young Soul Rebels . He was named by the US website Irish Central as one of the greatest Irish writers of all time. Australian singer songwriter Paul Kelly wrote Laughing Boy as tribute to Behan, and it was covered by Weddings, Parties, Anything on their Roaring Days album. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones 2000 album Pay Attention features the song All Things Considered , which contains
4998-513: The age of thirteen. The title was from the affectionate nickname Mrs Behan gave to Collins. Behan's uncle Peadar Kearney wrote The Soldier's Song, which became the Irish national anthem Amhrán na bhFiann when translated into Irish. His brother Dominic was also a songwriter, best known for the song The Patriot Game ; His brother Brian was a prominent radical political activist and public speaker, actor, author, and playwright. Biographer Ulick O'Connor wrote that one day, aged eight, Brendan
5100-617: The album Ένας όμηρος ( The hostage ) by Mikis Theodorakis . Irish actor Shay Duffin wrote and performed a one-person show in which he portrayed Behan. A pub named after Behan is located in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston , Massachusetts. A bronze sculpture of the writer sits on the banks of the Royal canal, while a bronze of Behan's head sits inside Searson's bar, one of his watering holes, on Pembroke Road, Dublin.. According to J.P. Donleavy's History of The Ginger Man , Behan
5202-415: The artist within. Although he still drank heavily, he managed to earn a living, supposedly by writing pornography. He returned to Dublin and began to write seriously, and to be published in serious papers such as The Irish Times , for which he wrote In 1953, drawing on his extensive knowledge of criminal activity in Dublin and Paris, he wrote a serial that was later published as The Scarperer . Throughout
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#17327903597655304-641: The beginning of the following academic year. For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in English-medium schools to achieve competence in Irish, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few Irish speakers in Dublin , and faced incredulity when trying to get by speaking only Irish in Dublin. He
5406-775: The early 1950s but this was not diagnosed until 1956. As his fame grew, so too did his alcohol addiction. This combination resulted in a series of famously drunken public appearances, on both stage and television. Behan's favourite drink was champagne and sherry. The public wanted the witty, iconoclastic, genial "broth of a boy", and he gave that to them in abundance, once exclaiming: "There's no bad publicity except an obituary." His health suffered, with diabetic comas and seizures occurring regularly. The public who once extended their arms now closed ranks against him; publicans flung him from their premises. His books, Brendan Behan's Island , Brendan Behan's New York and Confessions of an Irish Rebel , published in 1962 and 1964, were dictated into
5508-664: The education system. Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968. In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland , 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it. From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of
5610-474: The end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911. Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde , was inaugurated as
5712-581: The execution of "The quare fellow", a character who is never seen. The prison dialogue is vivid and laced with satire but reveals to the reader the human detritus that surrounds capital punishment. Produced in the Pike Theatre , in Dublin, the play ran for six months. In May 1956, The Quare Fellow opened in the Theatre Royal Stratford East , in a production by Joan Littlewood 's Theatre Workshop . Subsequently, it transferred to
5814-560: The first President of Ireland . The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect. In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of
5916-716: The language family, is derived from the Old Irish term. Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in Galway, Gaeilg / Gaeilic / Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲəc] in Mayo and Ulster , Gaelainn / Gaoluinn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ] in West/Cork, Kerry Munster , as well as Gaedhealaing in mid and East Kerry/Cork and Waterford Munster to reflect local pronunciation. Gaeilge also has
6018-410: The language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language. This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language. The vehicle of
6120-425: The language. For most of recorded Irish history , Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people , who took it with them to other regions , such as Scotland and the Isle of Man , where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx . It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada , with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland ,
6222-423: The late 1950s of a British conscript soldier, seized by the IRA as a hostage pending the scheduled execution in Northern Ireland of an imprisoned IRA volunteer. The hostage falls in love with an Irish convent girl, Teresa, working as a maid in the house. Their innocent world of love is incongruous among their surroundings since the house also serves as a brothel . In the end, the hostage dies accidentally during
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#17327903597656324-489: The lyrics Most of what he tells us no one's verified / He swears he was there the day that Brendan Behan died . Behan is referenced in Thinking Voyager 2 Type Things , a song from the 1990 Bob Geldof album, Vegetarians of Love , with the lyrics So rise up Brendan Behan and like a drunken Lazarus / Let's traipse the high bronze of the evening sky like crack crazed kings . Chicago-based band The Tossers wrote
6426-582: The mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, parents sanctioned the prohibition of Irish in schools. Increasing interest in emigrating to the United States and Canada was also a driver, as fluency in English allowed
6528-497: The name of the language is Gaeilge , from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg , the form used in Classical Gaelic . The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent ⟨dh⟩ in Gaedhilge . Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠəɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðʲelɡ] in Old Irish . Goidelic , used to refer to
6630-409: The new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. An estimated one quarter to one third of US immigrants during the Great Famine were Irish speakers. Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them
6732-522: The number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht . Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara , the west of the Dingle Peninsula , and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as
6834-518: The organisation's magazine, Fianna: the Voice of Young Ireland . In 1931 he also became the youngest contributor to be published in The Irish Press with his poem Reply of Young Boy to Pro-English verses . At 16, Behan joined the IRA and embarked on an unauthorised solo mission to England to set off a bomb at Cammell Laird shipyard. He was arrested while in possession of explosives . British prosecutors tried to persuade him to testify against his IRA superiors and offered in return to relocate him under
6936-448: The other official language, if not already passed in both official languages. In November 2016, RTÉ reported that over 2.3 million people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael D. Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project". There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish
7038-429: The painter Cecil Ffrench Salkeld . A daughter, Blanaid, was born in 1963, shortly before Behan's death. Various biographies have established that Behan was bisexual to some degree. Behan found fame difficult. He was a long-term heavy drinker (describing himself, on one occasion, as "a drinker with a writing problem" and claiming "I only drink on two occasions—when I'm thirsty and when I'm not") and developed diabetes in
7140-415: The political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament , the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. After
7242-436: The relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages, and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" ( / ɜːr s / URS )
7344-432: The requirement for entrance to the public service was changed to proficiency in just one official language. Nevertheless, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools in the Republic of Ireland that receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland ). Teachers in primary schools must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge . As of 2005, Garda Síochána recruits need
7446-561: The rest of his writing career, he would rise at seven in the morning and work until noon, when the pubs opened. He began to write for radio, and his play The Leaving Party was broadcast. Literary Ireland in the 1950s was a place where people drank. Behan cultivated a reputation as carouser-in-chief and swayed shoulder-to-shoulder with other literati of the day who used the pub McDaid's as their base: Flann O'Brien , Patrick Kavanagh , Patrick Swift , Anthony Cronin , John Jordan , J. P. Donleavy and artist Desmond MacNamara whose bust of Behan
7548-647: The revival was the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature. Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in
7650-574: The song Breandan Ó Beacháin , released on their 2008 album On A Fine Spring Evening . Shortly after Behan's death a student, Fred Geis, wrote the song Lament for Brendan Behan and passed it on to the Clancy Brothers , who sang it on their album Recorded Live in Ireland the same year. This song, which calls "bold Brendan" Ireland's "sweet angry singer", was later covered by the Australian trio The Doug Anthony All Stars , better known as
7752-530: The text of The Quare Fellow and led to the saying, " Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood , Brendan Behan wrote under Littlewood". Littlewood remained a supporter, visiting him in Dublin in 1960. In 1958, his Irish-language play An Giall ( The Hostage ) opened in the Damer Theatre, Dublin. Reminiscent of Frank O'Connor's Guests of the Nation , it portrays the detention in a teeming Dublin house in
7854-489: The treatment of alcohol dependence in Toronto , but he once again turned back to alcohol and relapsed back into active alcohol use. Behan was born in the inner city of Dublin at Holles Street Hospital on 9 February 1923 into an educated working-class family. His mother, Kathleen Behan , née Kearney, had two sons, Sean Furlong and Rory (Roger Casement Furlong), from her first marriage to compositor Jack Furlong; after Brendan
7956-601: The trenches of the Western Front . Father Doyle was killed in action while running to the aid of wounded soldiers from his regiment during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Behan expressed his affection for Father Doyle's memory in the memoir Borstal Boy . Alfred O'Rahilly 's 1920 biography of the fallen chaplain was one of Behan's favorite books. In February 1955, Behan married horticultural illustrator for The Irish Times , Beatrice Ffrench Salkeld , daughter of
8058-726: The vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3). In 2016, the university faced controversy when it announced the planned appointment of a president who did not speak Irish. Misneach staged protests against this decision. The following year the university announced that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh , a fluent Irish speaker, would be its 13th president. He assumed office in January 2018; in June 2024, he announced he would be stepping down as president at
8160-472: The vivid memoir of his time in St Andrews House, Hollesley Bay Colony Borstal, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. (The site of St Andrews House is now a Category D men's prison and Young Offenders Institution). An original voice in Irish literature boomed out from its pages. The language is both acerbic and delicate, the portrayal of inmates and "screws" cerebral. For a Republican, though, it is not
8262-594: The work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating , is said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on. From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors: The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By
8364-486: The working classes were being sent "To Hell or to Kimmage" a parody of Oliver Cromwell 's demand that the Irish be sent "To Hell or to Connacht". At this stage, Behan left school at 13 to enter apprenticeship to follow in his father's and both grandfathers' footsteps as a house painter. Behan became a member of Fianna Éireann , the boy scout group of the Anti-Treaty IRA . He published his first poems and prose in
8466-402: The works of Zola , Galsworthy , and Maupassant ; their mother Kathleen took them on literary tours of the city. She remained politically active all her life and was a personal friend of the Irish leader Michael Collins . Kathleen published her autobiography, Mother of All The Behans , a collaboration with her son Brian, in 1984. Brendan Behan wrote a lament to Collins, The Laughing Boy , at
8568-469: The writer: Brendan Behan's laughter rings / For what he had or hadn’t done / For he knew then as I know now / That for each and every one of us / We all lose / Rich or poor, / We all lose / Rich or poor, they all lose . In 1959, on the Album Songs for Swingin' Sellers , Peter Sellers parodies Behan's TV interviews in the sketch 'In a Free State' - an interview with Mr Bedham, an Irish playwright who
8670-405: Was Ernest Hemingway's personal assistant and later married his son, Dr Gregory Hemingway. Nine months later, Valerie gave birth to a son she named Brendan. Brendan Behan died two years later, having never met his son. Behan is frequently mentioned in works of popular culture. His work has been a significant influence in the writings of Shane MacGowan , and he is the subject of Streams of Whiskey ,
8772-526: Was a literary magazine called Envoy (A Review of Literature and Art), founded by John Ryan , that first published Behan's short stories and his first poem. Some of his early work was also published in The Bell , the leading Irish literary magazine of the time. He learned Irish in prison and, after his release in 1946, he spent some time in the Gaeltacht areas of counties Galway and Kerry , where he started writing poetry in Irish. During this period he
8874-531: Was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish; as well as Scottish Gaelic. Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish . These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from
8976-562: Was an Irish republican soldier who was father of writers Brendan , Brian and Dominic Behan . Behan was born on 26 December 1891 to James Behan, a foreman house-painter, and his wife Christina (née Corr; she married secondly Patrick English), a folder and gilder at a printing firm, and daughter of a middle-class law clerk. They lived in a house in Russell Street on the Northside of Dublin which belonged to Christina, who owned
9078-498: Was arrested by the Garda Síochána following a protest of the execution of IRA man George Plant Later that same year Behan was arrested at another commemoration - which the IRA had planned to take place during a Dublin commemoration ceremony for Theobald Wolfe Tone . When the group of IRA men were confronted by the police one member pointed his revolver at them but did not fire. Behan urged him to "use it use it", when no shot
9180-449: Was born she had three more sons and a daughter: Seamus, Brian, Dominic and Carmel. They first lived in a house on Russell Street near Mountjoy Square owned by his grandmother, Christine English, who owned a number of properties in the area. Brendan's father Stephen Behan , a house painter who had fought in the War of Independence , read classic literature to the children at bedtime including
9282-502: Was described by several newspapers as the biggest Irish funeral of all time after those of Michael Collins and Charles Stewart Parnell . Acclaimed Irish sculptor James Power sculpted Brendan Behan's death mask. Following his death, his widow had a son, Paudge Behan , with Cathal Goulding , Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA . Behan had a one-night stand in 1961 with Valerie Danby-Smith, who
9384-554: Was employed by the Commissioners of Irish Lights , where the lighthouse keeper of Saint John's Point, County Down , recommending his dismissal, described him as “the worst specimen” he had met in 30 years of service, adding that he showed "careless indifference" and "no respect for property". He left Ireland and all its perceived social pressures to live in Paris in the early 1950s. There, he felt he could lose himself and release
9486-668: Was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003 . The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build
9588-626: Was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them. Stephen Behan Stephen (christened Francis) Behan ( / ˈ b iː ə n / BEE -ən ; Irish : Stiofán Ó Beacháin ; 26 December 1891 – 1967),
9690-508: Was fired Behan shouted: "Give it to me and I will shoot the bastards". When Behan received the gun he fired two shots at police and escaped the scene but was later arrested (10 April 1942). ” He was put on trial for conspiracy to murder and the attempted murder of two Garda detectives, Behan was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. He was first incarcerated in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin where he sketched out his play
9792-500: Was instrumental in bringing Donleavy in contact with M. Girodios of Olympia Press (Paris) to help Donleavy's first novel, The Ginger Man , be published despite its having been ostracised by the world literature community for its "filth" and "obscenity". In the season 4 Mad Men episode Blowing Smoke , which premiered on 10 October 2010, Midge Daniels introduces Don to her playwright husband, Perry, and says, "When we met, I said he looked like Brendan Behan." In May 2011, Brendan at
9894-474: Was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the number and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in
9996-600: Was produced in Dublin . It was well received; however, it was the 1956 production at Joan Littlewood 's Theatre Workshop in Stratford, London, that gained Behan a wider reputation. This was helped by a famous drunken interview on BBC television with Malcolm Muggeridge . In 1958, Behan's play in the Irish language, An Giall had its debut at Dublin's Damer Theatre . Later, The Hostage , Behan's English-language adaptation of An Giall , met with great success internationally. Behan's autobiographical novel , Borstal Boy ,
10098-471: Was published the same year and became a worldwide best-seller. By the early 1960s, Behan reached the peak of his fame. He spent increasing amounts of time in New York City , famously declaring, "To America , my new found land: The man that hates you hates the human race." By this point, Behan began spending time with various prominent people such as Harpo Marx and Arthur Miller and was followed by
10200-516: Was returning home with his granny and a friend from a pub. A passer-by remarked, "Oh, my! Isn't it terrible, ma'am, to see such a beautiful child deformed?" "How dare you," joked his granny. "He's not deformed; he's just drunk!" In 1937, the Behan family moved to a newly-built local council housing scheme in Kildare Road, Crumlin , then seen by Dubliners as the countryside – Stephen muttered that
10302-693: Was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland . It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle . From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man . Early Modern Irish , dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, sometimes called Late Modern Irish, as attested in
10404-442: Was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla . There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction. Such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools report some better outcomes for students than English-medium schools. In 2009,
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