Brian Behan

Brian Behan (10 November 1926 – 2 November 2002) was an Irish writer, public speaker, lecturer, and trade unionist.

Behan was born in Dublin, the son of Stephen Behan & Kathleen Behan (née Kearney), nephew pf Peadar Kearney (author of Amhrán na bhFiann, the Irish National Anthem), younger brother of Brendan Behan and older brother of Dominic Behan. He is the father of the playwright & actress Janet Behan. After being caught stealing money from the gas meter of a neighbour (an act he later tended to gloss over – describing it as "some minor trouble"), he was sent to what was effectively a penal institution, the Artane Industrial School, which could be described as a reformatory. Behan later claimed he was systematically abused at Artane; investigations into the school later found widespread instances of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Behan applied for and was posthumously awarded damages for the abuse – though he never fully recovered and would never return permanently to Ireland after leaving, as was the case with many victims of similar mistreatment.

After Behan was released from Artane School he joined the Irish Army's construction corps.

In 1950 Behan moved to London to work as a labourer. Having long considered himself an anarcho-syndicalist, he became a prominent trade union activist and was imprisoned in Brixton Prison for leading a go-slow on the Festival of Britain construction site.

Behan then joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and soon became a member of its executive committee. He was taken on a tour of Eastern Europe, Russia and China, meeting Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, but was unimpressed. In 1956, he left the CPGB in protest at the Soviet invasion of Hungary, instead joining the Trotskyist group The Club, who were active in the Labour Party. He quickly became the group's secretary, and in 1958, he wrote his first work, Socialists and the Trade Unions.

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