Domnic Behan Remenbered By John Carey

TWENTY years ago last August, Dominic Behan lost his long battle against cancer. For many years he was overshadowed by the success of his older brother Brendan, but Dominic still became a successful author, balladeer, broadcaster and journalist in his own right. We know look back at at the life of one of Dublin’s most famous sons.“ I gave up my boyhood to drill and to train,To play my own part in the patriot game”.Born in the city of Dublin, amongst the distinctive mark of Georgian architecture, Dominic was born into a family of completely two different backgrounds. His father Stephan was a well-educated and well-versed man who loved reading. His maternal grandfather John Kearney was a grocer who died at the young age of 43, leaving a family of six children one of which was Kathleen then only three years old.As they grew up Kathleen’s family continued the old family tradition of reading, poetry, telling stories, and singing ballads. Her brother Peadar wrote Amhran na bhfiann, the national anthem and later became the stage manager at Abbey Theatre.Before she met Stephan, Kathleen had been married to Jack Furlong a Belfast man who died during the influenza epidemic of 1917; they had two sons Rory, and Sean.As a young widow Kathleen obtained a clerkship in Dublin Corporation, it was there she met Stephan and they were married in 1922. The Behan brothers all began lives at 14 Russell Street, off the North Circular Road, on Dublin’s Northside.Russell St was situated on the perimeter of the Georgian slum area of Dublin. If you looked up along Fitzgibbon St, you could see a row of large tenement houses which led onto Mountjoy Square which in those days was on of the capital’s finest squares.On a sunny day the tenements looked stunning, with their neat classical doorways, eight pained windows and red brick facing.The only difference between the Behan household and that of gentry was that the Behans shared their abode with several other families. Russsell St, was also home to people of many professions, a civil servant lived opposite alongside a master baker’ and a fortune teller while at the end of the street stood a mansion which in all it’s glory lived the manager of the Phoenix Bottling Co. Even in the early days there was an awareness of culture in the Behan household. Most nights after tea, Stephan would sit down the family by a blazing fireside and read them extracts from some of his favourite books the Pick wick papers, the novels of Zola and Galsworthy.Following this Kathleen would sing to them not just Irish ballads but also Viennese operates, and slow airs, which were handed down to her by her gaelic speaking grandmother. And even at a young age the Behan lads showed a great interest in politics and could often be found sitting down listening to their elders discussing Lenin, Marx, and Wolfe Tone.When they left school both Dominic and Brendan took up a trade and became housepainters. Last year I met a man who is now in his nineties, who was a foreman who employed the two brothers as youngsters. When I asked him what is was like working with them he burst into a fit of laughter and said: ” They were the greatest pair of bastards I have ever had the good fortune to come across”, and when I asked him why he told me: “they were great painters but most of the time painting was the last thing on their minds, Dom would be trying to get the other workers to strike for more wages so that Brendan could take them down to the nearest pub to drink them”.As time moves on so did the Behan’s the family moved out to Crumlin village on the Southside of the Liffey. Dominic became a full time writer in 1957,and three years later he had one of his most famous plays ‘Posterity be dammed‘ premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, and following it’s success it was later staged at the Metropolitan in Edgare, in London to which it received much critical acclaim. Although a view not shared by elder brother Brendan who said at the time “Soon the cat in Kildare Road will be writing plays as well”. Despite this resentment it did not deter Dominic in the slightest in fact he went on to write several hit songs among them Liverpool Lou, The Patriot Game, McAllpine Fusiliers, and the Ballad of Reading jail.The Books he wrote included my Brother Brendan, Teems and Times and Happy Returns, an autobiography on Spike Milligan and his final work a novel called the Public life of Parable Jones.Like many of his fellow countrymen and women Dominic followed by brothers Brian and Seamus along with their sister Carmel were forced to take the boat to England in search of work it was here he would meet the woman who would later become his wife a Glaswegian called Josephine. After a couple of years Dominic’s new wife decided that she wanted to bring up their young sons north of the border so they bought a cottage in Douglas, in Lanarkshire.Dominic was now successful in his own right and was even asked to write the Queen’s speech to the Commonwealth but declined on the grounds that he was a Republican Socialist.Although he now lived in Scotland, Dominic never gave up missing the City of his birth and was considering moving back to Dublin when Scottish Television asked him to host a new music programme called ‘A Better Class of Folk’ so instead of moving back to Dublin he bought a house in Glasgow’s Southside following which the Behan and the Carey family became good friends. In fact to this day my father still acknowledges the inspiration Dominic gave him while he was writing his book ‘Farewell to Mayo’I have many memories on Dominic in fact on one occasion coming up to xmas when Dom’s granddaughter who was about ten at the time and was learning Latin at school when her teacher asked her to translate extract from the Nativity, of which she was finding extremely difficult but Dominic came to her rescue word for word for which she got ten out of ten.Even when most people would consider taking things a bit easier the thought never entered the Dubliner’s head, and for many years he worked successfully as a columnist for the Daily Express, and the Dublin Evening Herald as well as doing numerous television and radio shows but never gave up his love for songs and the short years before his death he composed hits for Elvis Costello, and Scots band the Bluebells.But sadly his health began to decline and he was diagnosed with cancer and even with this news he continued writing right up until the very end. Dominic Behan died in Glasgow, the city he adopted as his home but his final wish was carried out when his ashes were scattered over the Grand Canal.During his lifetime he was an inspiration to many people and a true reflection of this is that his songs are still sung in many pubs all over the world and although he may be gone his wisdom still lives on
“ Ni Feicimid a Letheird aris”
We shall not see his like again.

Domnic with Sean and Mary O'Ciarain in Glasgow 1973

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