Brendan Behan

From the collection of

Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive
Launched in 2000, Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive spans from 1897 to the present day and currently contains an ever-expanding catalogue of 13,000 items. It comprises material from a variety of depositors including feature films, sport, documentaries, animation, amateur footage, light entertainment, and a significant proportion of broadcast material from the UTV Archive.

Brendan Behan


The writer and talker from North Dublin makes one of his final TV appearances in both an interview and scenes from his funeral.

An opening joke takes on an eerie significance as this was filmed in a Belfast pub less than a month before he died aged 41 on 20th March 1964. His slow responses hint at the effects of drinking and diabetes, emphasised by the unedited footage. The interview then fades into crowded scenes of Behan's funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin. He was escorted by an IRA guard of honour at reportedly the largest funeral in Ireland since Michael Collins was buried in the same graveyard.

This material is courtesy of the UTV archive.


Tags