Foul language lyrically intact, this tape-recorded autobiography
and last testament covers Behan from his release from Borstal
prison during WWII through his marriage in 1955. "And if these are
the confessions of an Irish rebel, they are indeed confessions," he
remarks, and proceeds with a classic of self-revelation. Abject,
singing, bitter, jailed or drunken, he is mercilessly honest,
insistently ribald, compassionate of others, very, very wise and
belching with spirit. A member of the IRA, his cry was "Up the
Republic! We defy you, and to hell with the British Empire!" That
he killed some men, he is sad. At fifteen, he was given a
seven-year sentence, served four. Again back in jail for political
activity, he was given 14 years, then released after a few years
under a general amnesty. (The second sentence provided him with the
story for his play The Quare Fellow.) Soon he was helping a fellow
IRA man escape prison in England, from which Behan had been
expelled. The man escaped back to Ireland, but Behan was captured
and given four months for being in England with false papers. When
released, he was 24 wild years old. He began writing for money. In
Paris he met Sartre, Camus and Beckett, took a turn at pimping,
wrote pornography. The story ends with the production of his first
play... A profanely joyous book and a welcome reappearance of the
Borstal Boy. (Kirkus Reviews)
Confessions of an Irish Rebel is an autobiography about Brendan Behan’s later life. A renowned poet and playwright, Brendan spent much of his life in and out of pubs and prisons - serving time for carrying explosives for the IRA (Irish Republican Army) or for involvement in a shooting in the early 1940s. While in prison he learned Irish and began to write poetry in Irish. After his release, he spent some time in Paris and back in Dublin he contributed to a weekly show on Radio Telefis Éireann. From 1953 he wrote a column in the Irish Press. Confessions of an Irish Rebel follows Borstal Boy, a memoir about his early years.
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