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Brendan Behan

1923–1964·Wrote in Irish & English

Mid-century · Modernists, mid-century and the long shadow of Yeats (1930s–1960s) · Irish · English

Better known for Borstal Boy and The Quare Fellow, but his Irish-language poems — a small handful, including Uaigneas and Jackeen ag Caoineadh na mBlascaod — are genuinely fine. Biographers and Behan's own remarks establish relationships with men alongside his marriage; the bisexuality is well documented rather than speculative.

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