Dominic Behan
1928 - 1989
Younger brother of Brendan, Dominic Behan was born in Dublin in 1928 and worked as a house painter before becoming a novelist, songwriter and dramatist. His prose work includes 'Teems of Times' (1961),'My Brother Brendan' (1965) and 'Milligan: The Life and Times of Spike Milligan'(1987). Dramatic works not listed here include 'Posterity Be Damned' (1959), 'The Folk Singer' (1972) and 'Ireland Mother Ireland' (1969). A committed socialist and republican, Behan wrote in both English and Irish. He is considered by many to have been the greatest Irish songwriter of the twentieth century and was responsible for such classics as 'McAlpine's Fusiliers' and 'Liverpool Lou'. Dominic Behan died in Glasgow in 1989.