A SERIES of programmes marking the 100th anniversary of Brendan Behan's birth is to be broadcast on RTÉ.
To celebrate the acclaimed writer's birthday on Wednesday February 8, the national broadcaster has assembled themed content old and new to be hosted on television, radio, and online.
The author of Borstal Boy and The Quare Fellow served a prison sentence in England as a teenager for IRA activities before going on to have a successful literary career. He died in Dublin, aged 41, in 1964.
On Wednesday at 7pm, a special episode of Nationwide looks back on Behan's life and work, revisiting many of the locations in Dublin's north inner city where he grew up, including his Russell Street birthplace, Mountjoy Prison, the house he bought with his wife Beatrice, and his grave at Glasnevin Cemetery.
Presenter Anne Cassin also talks to Behan’s daughter Blanaid Behan, writer and director Peter Sheridan, historian Donal Fallon, and academic Deirdre McMahon.
Throughout the week on RTÉ Radio 1 John Bowman presents a timely selection of recordings of and about Behan.
On Monday February 6, RTÉ's arts programme Arena hosts an hour-long special looking at Behan’s entire career and legacy. Contributors include writer and director Peter Sheridan and writer and historian Donal Fallon, alongside musicians Daoirí Farrell, Anne Buckley and Macdara Yeates.
On Sunday February 12, 19 and 26, Behan Ó Beacháin on RTÉ Radio 1, focuses on Behan’s writing and spoken words, including recordings of his time in New York, a focus on the poetry, and concluding with his classic short story The Confirmation Suit, a coming-of-age story is set inner-city Dublin and narrated by a 12-year-old.
To mark this special occasion, RTÉ has created a dedicated Brendan Behan online themed index – www.rte.ie/brendan-behan/ – which also features on RTÉ Culture. It offers a rich variety of Behan-related material and features on the wider Behan family, including brothers Brian and Dominic, also writers, his mother Kathleen Behan, a renowned singer, and the author’s wife, painter Beatrice Behan (Salkeld).
RTÉ’s arts and culture head Ann-Marie Power said Behan was one of Dublin’s most recognizable citizens one of the West End’s and Broadway’s most famous playwrights and celebrities.
"Notably, he is among few Irish writers whose command of and flair for language found such fluency in Irish and in English," she said.
"The titles of Brendan Behan’s the The Quare Fellow, The Hostage and Borstal Boy and stand assuredly alongside other seminal works of 20th century Irish literature, including those of James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, and Mary Lavin, although Behan’s personal life and struggles sometimes overshadow his writing talent."
