Brendan Francis Aidan Behan, known in Irish as Breandán Ó Beacháin, was born in Dublin on 9 February 1923 and became an Irish writer, poet, playwright and Irish Republican. Raised in a working-class republican family, he learned the Irish language and was steeped in literature and patriotic ballads from an early age. After a turbulent youth marked by involvement with the Irish Republican Army and imprisonment, he returned to Dublin and began to write seriously, producing plays such as The Quare Fellow and The Hostage and the memoir Borstal Boy. A collection titled Brendan Behan Sings Irish Folksongs and Ballads was also issued under his name. Behan became one of the best-known literary figures of his day, and his heavy drinking, which damaged his health and curtailed his output, became part of his public reputation. His career was cut short by his death in Dublin on 20 March 1964 at the age of 41, and he is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest writers.
