by RoddyRuddy Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:25 pm
Sadly I did not know who it was in the photo but asked on PRS & got the below response :
Quote >>>>>>>>................................."
Peter
Shane found the picture in Dominic Behan's book, Teems of Times and Happy Returns (1961), where it's captioned ''Brendan Behan at the time of his arrest in 1942'' credited to The People - so not from Dominic. Here Shane would also have read:
''I decided to write poetry. Of course I needed to start somewhere, so I searched for inspiration among poets who were already known to the public and began:
A man's ambition must be small,
To write his name on a shitehouse wall.
I got that one from the lavatory on the North Circular and rubbed the inscription off when I noted it, in case Charlie Mac and all would realise that I was not completely original.''
27.01.2007 - 04:49
Peter
roddyruddy, there's an interesting story about that photograph, which Behan's editor, Rae Jeffs, tells in her brilliant memoir of the man:
''While he was still in the Balaeric Isles...Behan had the idea that it would be a good thing if Borstal Boy carried a photograph of himself in his teens, as this would match the book better than an up-to-date portrait. But he did not possess one of himself during the period concerned, and could scarcely ask the Home Secretary for an official photograph, so he persuaded a Spaniard, who resembled him closely at the same age, to stand in for him wearing a large placard around his neck with the words BRENDAND BEHAN 4738501 written in block capitals underneath it...''
27.01.2007 - 03:29
................." End Quote
Sadly I did not know who it was in the photo but asked on PRS & got the below response :
Quote >>>>>>>>................................."
Peter
Shane found the picture in Dominic Behan's book, Teems of Times and Happy Returns (1961), where it's captioned ''Brendan Behan at the time of his arrest in 1942'' credited to The People - so not from Dominic. Here Shane would also have read:
''I decided to write poetry. Of course I needed to start somewhere, so I searched for inspiration among poets who were already known to the public and began:
A man's ambition must be small,
To write his name on a shitehouse wall.
I got that one from the lavatory on the North Circular and rubbed the inscription off when I noted it, in case Charlie Mac and all would realise that I was not completely original.''
27.01.2007 - 04:49
Peter
roddyruddy, there's an interesting story about that photograph, which Behan's editor, Rae Jeffs, tells in her brilliant memoir of the man:
''While he was still in the Balaeric Isles...Behan had the idea that it would be a good thing if Borstal Boy carried a photograph of himself in his teens, as this would match the book better than an up-to-date portrait. But he did not possess one of himself during the period concerned, and could scarcely ask the Home Secretary for an official photograph, so he persuaded a Spaniard, who resembled him closely at the same age, to stand in for him wearing a large placard around his neck with the words BRENDAND BEHAN 4738501 written in block capitals underneath it...''
27.01.2007 - 03:29
................." End Quote
