brendan behan quotes

Brendan Francis Behan  Irish: Breandán Ó Beacháin; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army. Born in Dublin into a republican family, he became a member of the IRA's youth organisation Fianna Éireann at the age of fourteen. However, there was also a strong emphasis on Irish history and culture in the home, which meant he was steeped in literature and patriotic ballads from a tender age. Behan eventually joined the IRA at sixteen, which led to him serving time in a borstal youth prison in the United Kingdom and was also imprisoned in Republic of Ireland. During this time, he took it upon himself to study and he became a fluent speaker of the Irish language

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUsSfTP95-8

“It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.” 


a quote from his death bed to a visiting nun  “Ah, bless you, Sister, may all your sons be bishops.” 

“They took away our land, our language, and our religion; but they could never harness our tongues...”