Dominic Behan

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Dominic Behan , Irish : Doiminic Ó Beacháin (born October 22, 1928 in Dublin , † August 3, 1989 in Glasgow ), was one of the most important Irish songwriters of the 20th century, singer and author.

Life

Behan comes from a socially committed Dublin working class family. His father Stephen Behan fought on the side of the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence ; his older brother Brendan Behan was an eminent playwright. His maternal uncle, Peadar Kearney , wrote the model for the Irish national anthem with A Soldier's Song . At the age of 13, Behan left school to support his father as a house painter.

In 1937 Behan joined the youth organization of the IRA Fianna Éireann , in whose newspaper Fianna: the Voice of Young Ireland he published his first poems and prose. In 1952 he was arrested in Dublin for civil disobedience after protesting the government and criticizing its failure to cope with the difficult economic situation of the population. He was serving a prison sentence as a result of this and other protests in which he attacked the treatment of the working class in Ireland.

After his release he married Josephine Quinn, daughter of a carpenter in Glasgow. His wife's family was active in the Communist Party and other left-wing movements. The couple emigrated to England.

Domin Behan died of pancreatic cancer in Glasgow at the age of 60, shortly after the publication of his novel The Public World of Parable Jones . He left behind his widow and two sons, Fintan and Stephen. His ashes were scattered in the Royal Canal in Dublin near the house where he was born.

Writer and songwriter

In England, Behan wrote for the BBC radio program. His play Posterity be damned , premiered in 1959, dealt with the Irish Civil War of 1922-23. The autobiographical, critically acclaimed novel Teems of Time followed in 1961 . With My brother Brendan in 1965 a biography published his young deceased brother. During the 1960s and 1970s, Behan wrote several television plays for the BBC.

However, he achieved his greatest importance as a songwriter. With pieces such as The Patriot Game , McAlpine's Fusilers , Avondale , The Merry Plowboy and Liverpool Lou , he not only inspired exiles in England, but also made a significant contribution to the Irish Folk Revival in the 1950s and 1960s. In his pieces, Behan thematized his inner conflict between the Irish striving for independence on the one hand and the instrumentalization of the youth by the IRA on the other. Over 450 songs from Behan's work have been published.

The song Come out Ye Black and Tans, on the other hand, relates directly to the IRA and the Anglo-Irish War in which his father fought on the side of the IRA. The piece tended to become an important hymn for later republican freedom movements in Ireland.

Works (selection)

Plays

  • Posterity Be Damned (1959)
  • The Folk Singer (1969)
  • Tell Dublin I Miss Her (1998)
  • Ireland Mother Ireland (1969)

Books

  • Teems of Times (1961)
  • My Brother Brendan (1965)
  • The Life and Times of Spike Milligan (1987)
  • The Public World of Parable Jones (1988)
  • The Catacombs (1989)
  • Ireland Sings! (1966)
  • The Singing Irish (1969)

Songs (selection)

Secondary literature

  • Brian Behan and Aubrey Dillon-Malone: The Brothers Behan . Ashfield Press, Dublin 1998. ISBN 1901658163

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Behan, Dominic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ó Beacháin, Doiminic
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish songwriter and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH 3rd August 1989
Place of death Glasgow