Half-Glaswegian, but all Irishman

“COME all ye young rebels and list while I sing, for love of one’s country is a terrible thing…” who reading this has not heard or indeed sang these words? The lyrics and tune of The Patriot Game are so potent in their melodiously melancholy that the Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan, borrowed or stole the tune depending on your interpretation, for his anthemic With God on Our Side.

The Patriot Game was penned by a writer and songsmith who was covered by the Beatles, wrote number one hits, was close friends with Jimi Hendrix as a well as collaborating with one of Scotland’s most important poets Hugh MacDiarmid.

This mercurial Irishman was courted by international artists and could have lived in any of the world’s capitals, yet he chose to live in the southside of Glasgow among his fellow Irish. Moreover, he passed up many international career opportunities and instead became Writer in Residence for Strathclyde Regional Council and brought literature, poetry and song to the weans of the West of Scotland. His name was Dominic Behan.

Dominic in Dublin

Dominic’s writing talent is often in the shadow cast by riotous older brother Brendan. However, Dominic’s artistic legacy, in many respects, has outshone Brendan’s.

Dominic was born in Dublin on October 22, 1928, into a staunchly Republican family. His maternal uncle, Peadar Kearney, wrote The Soldier’s Song and his father, Stephen, was one of Michael Collins’ legendary Twelve Apostles. During the War of Independence, this elite military organisation was responsible for the deaths of numerous British intelligence officers. The audacious acts of the Twelve Apostles—combined with the guerilla warfare of the Flying Columns—were crucial in forcing the British Empire from the field of conflict to the negotiating table. Dominic would write a fitting tribute to his father’s bravery during the period by penning Come Out, Ye Black and Tans.

The military bravery of Behan’s father was matched by the literary talent of his mother. His mother, Kathleen, who was a close friend of Michael Collins and a supporter of independence, also found time to ensure that her children had a first-class education. She was a collector of songs and stories and took her family on literary tours of Dublin.

It was hardly surprising that not only Dominic and Brendan, but also Brian, all became writers. Indeed, such was the international renown of the Behan brothers, that when their father was asked by a reporter, when he himself would produce a play owing to the success of his sons, Stephen Behan quipped: “Why should I produce plays when I produce playwrights?”

The road to literary prominence began in the 1940s when Dominic, still a teenager, began to pen his first poems in the IRA’s youth organisation’s magazine Fianna: The Voice of Youth Ireland. However, the young Behan was no romantic Republican, but sang from the same socialist hymn sheet as James Connolly—for him lyrics and social activism were different verses of the same song. In 1952, he was arrested and jailed for leading a civil disobedience campaign to protest against Éamon de Valeria’s Fianna Fáil Government’s unwillingness to tackle unemployment. Upon his release he headed for Glasgow.

In the Dear Green Place

On his arrival in Glasgow, he became close friends with Hugh MacDiarmid. The Scottish poet gave the young Dominic lodgings as well as creatively mentoring him and introducing him to his future wife, Josephine.

What is remarkable is that arguably the most influential Scottish poet since Burns, a man who was hailed as being the leader of the Scottish literary renaissance and one of the founders of the SNP, lived under the same roof as one of Ireland’s greatest songsmiths and writers.

It was during this creative three-year period Behan began to work on his first play the acclaimed Posterity Be Damned, which deals with IRA activism after the civil war. When the play premiered in Dublin in 1959, it was met with great acclaim, much to the chagrin of his elder brother Brendan. However, Dominic was not subject to such petty jealousies and credited MacDiarmid with much of his early development as a writer.

Playwright

Although, Glasgow would always be his home, during the 1960s he spent time in London writing for the BBC. Whilst working for the corporation he worked with his fellow Irishman, the poet Louis MacNeice on BBC World services programmes. Again, the self-educated Dubliner was able to collaborate across social boundaries and worked successfully on many broadcasts with the Oxford-educated Ulsterman MacNeice.

It was during this time that Behan wrote a score of plays for television including screenplays for the BBC flagship programme Play for Today. His drama The Folk Singer focused on the sectarian roots of the conflict in the North of Ireland and was a critical success. So much so, that it was taken out on tour, premiering in Belfast’s Lyric Theatre in 1972, during one of the bloodiest years of the conflict. Starring the young Ken Stott, the play never shied away from the issues facing the North of Ireland.

During early 1970’s, when the violence was at its height, Behan—never an armchair Republican—put his money where his clever mouth was. He was pivotal in setting up and funding a summer school in Meath with the aim of to bringing Catholic and Protestant youths together in an adventure setting with the intent of breaking down sectarian barriers by fostering teamwork and greater understanding.

Dominic’s commitment to children’s education extended beyond his native land. During the 1980s, he became the Writer in Residence for Strathclyde Regional Council and toured the region’s schools to promote literature and song. By all accounts he was successful in his teaching role and many West of Scotland weans listened to recitals from the Dublin Bard.

Songsmith

When the mercurial Dubliner was not busy writing plays and books, he found a wee bit of time to write the occasional song—to be precise, he published 450 songs in his lifetime. Dominic worked closely with the Dubliners, adapting and writing folk classics such as MacAlpine’s Fusiliers and Avondale.

These standards crossed musical boundaries, at the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon, praised the Irish folk scene in general but also singled out Behan for his songwriting talent. Indeed, Dominic’s Liverpool Lou was a song chosen by Yoko Ono as one of her Desert Island Discs, because it was the lullaby that John would sing every bedtime to his son Sean. It was Paul McCartney’s brother’s band Scaffold who covered Liverpool Lou and Macca was involved in the production of the song. In 1974, the song became a hit in the UK and across Europe.

Dom and Dylan

As well as being an influence on the Beatles, Behan was friends with other Rock icons including The Animals’ Eric Burden, Jimi Hendrix and Chas Chandler. However, it was folk music that was his original passion and where his lyrical imagination could be best expressed. He worked closely with the Dubliners and the young Christy Moore to develop their songwriting and stage craft. His long-term collaboration with Ewan MacColl—writer of Dirty Old Town—produced many memorable folk recordings including The Singing Streets (1958).

His folk sentiment did not detract from his sense of justice both for himself as an artist and to wider political issues. He publicly accused the uncrowned king of folk Bob Dylan of copyright infringement for plagiarising The Patriot Game in using its tune for With God on Our Side. However, Behan was not all about the half-crown, he also rebuked the Clancy Brothers for removing a verse from their rendition of The Patriot Game, which criticised Éamon de Valera and the Garda. For Dominic, the anthemic The Patriot Game, was a time when the Punt and the principle collided.

Throughout the 1960s, Behan’s writing was able to reach a mass audience beyond the boundaries of the folk genre. In 1966, the Irish folk group The Ludlows were at number one in the UK charts for four weeks with The Sea Around Us. The song did not pull its punches with regards to British involvement in Ireland, its lyrics included the lines: “Two foreign old monarchs in battle did join, each wanting each head on the back of a coin, if the Irish had sense, they’d drowned both in the Boyne and partition throw into the ocean.” Again, Behan was able to merge melody and message to shine a light on the history of British involvement in Ireland.

Dom belongs to Glasgow

Dominic Behan was a Renaissance man, whose talent was internationally recognised, yet he chose to live in the southside of Glasgow. He was as much at ease having a pint with regulars in Heraghty’s as jamming with Jimi Hendrix. Moreover, his commitment to education was such that that he travelled the length of Strathclyde to educate the weans of the west in music and literature.

He died in 1989 of pancreatic cancer, aged just 60. Fittingly, his ashes were scattered on the banks of the Royal Canal in Dublin. Clearly, the Royal Canal meant much to the Behan family as it was to subject of Brendan’s haunting prison lament The Auld Triangle. Dominic left behind a wife and two sons and a legacy that included plays, books, poems, and some of the most iconic songs of the 20th century.

Behan, was best described by his fellow writer and regular in Heraghty’s, Jack McLean: “He was half-Glaswegian and all Irishman.”

Dr David McKinstry is a teacher and poet whose poems are widely published and broadcast across Ireland and in the UK. If any readers wish to share their literary output with him, they can contact him at: davmick38h@yahoo.co.uk