![]() ![]() The case went to court in September, with the hotelier charged with a breach of the licensing laws and Francis Harvey with "aiding and abetting". And so ended Brendan Behan's Donegal dinner party. Noticing a glass of wine in front of him, Solan asked if he was drinking it Harvey replied that he was. Harvey, however, lived closer to the hotel. Eight of them were bona fide, that is, either residents or living more than five miles from the premises. Unfortunately for the diners, Garda Sergeant Dudley Solan raided the party at 12.30am on Monday morning, that is, three and a half hours after closing time (then 9pm on Sundays in the summer, 8pm in winter), and he found nine people at a table in an upstairs room. Indeed, on Sunday, July 24, Behan gave a seven-course dinner in the Highlands in honour of Francis Harvey, for having had a play broadcast "in a number of languages". The accompanying photo shows him swimming at Narin.īehan had befriended Harvey and another bank official cum writer, Patrick Boyle, who a few years later won international acclaim for his short stories and a novel. And on Wednesday, June 8, he attended the Irish Countrywomen's Association Dance in the local hall at the interval, he drew the winning ticket in a draw - the prize was a holiday in Glenties - and he sang songs, in Irish and English. Shortly after his arrival in Glenties, the Democrat had reported that "Mr and Mrs Brendan Behan, the noted playwright, from Dublin", had been the "guest artistes" at the monthly meeting of the Ardara and Glenties branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Johnny Boyle, the popular proprietor, shared the Behans' left-wing republicanism and, not unlike the playwright, enjoyed a tall tale well told.” Brendan and Beatrice booked into the Highlands Hotel, which boasted a grocery shop, a petrol pump and a beer-bottling business. …Glenties, then, was a chance to get things back on an even keel. In London in March, for the opening of his brother Dominic's play Posterity be Damned, he had careered off the rails, drinking not simply heavily but constantly, almost catastrophically. There is a photograph of him with a glass of tomato juice in Gildea's, now the Beehive, in Ardara in 1960.įrom the third week of May 1960, Brendan Behan, aged 37 and at the height of his celebrity, spent over two months with his wife Beatrice in Glenties, Co Donegal. Still, the man was drawn to bars like a moth to flame. Not only did the legendary Dylan Thomas drink in Gildea’s Ardara pub, but as Breandán Mac Suibhne reminds us…”it is possible that, whatever of subsequent visits to the north-west, he (Behan) may have avoided alcohol in Donegal in May-July 1960.Ĭertainly, he looks a lot healthier in photographs taken in those months than in London in March of that year. The programme for the August Carrick Carnival in 1955 In the attached photo, included in the programme for the August Carrick Carnival in 1955, Mona is listed as a sponsor. Mona had a popular pub and grocery business there, and her brother Patrick owned Gildea’s (now the Beehive) in Ardara. My own curiosity was whetted at an early age as my grandmother Bridget (McGinley) Byrne used to take me with her to visit Mona Gildea, her cousin, when she visited her in Carrick. One of the most memorable lines was Behan telling Francis that “Everybody outside Dublin is a bleedin’ culchie…but I’ll make an exception for Donegal!” Francis also remembered that the Dubliner would keep the lounge of the Highlands "entranced for hours, with excruciatingly funny stories, accompanied by much dramatic posturing and miming, about his various escapades in Ireland and abroad". ![]() Francis had told me many stories about that visit and had introduced me to writer Patrick Boyle, whom I visited in Portmarnock over 40 years ago. Breandán had a brilliant article in the Indo almost three years ago about Behan’s ‘staycation’ in Donegal in May 1960. I was thinking of Francis a lot recently, as press, radio and TV celebrated the 100th birthday of the late Brendan Behan, and in particular his friendship with Brendan and his wife Beatrice.Īnother Brendan is the renowned author and Professor of History, Breandán MacSuibhne, a native of Dungloe to whom I was introduced in Ardara a few years ago. We would have been there since had we indulged in all the wonderful memories we shared with this most gentle of poets and playwrights. Gerry Moriarty (formerly of this parish!) and I were asked to say a few words at our dear friend’s graveside. ![]() On Monday November 10th, 2014, Francis Harvey was buried in the Convent Graveyard in Enniskillen after his funeral mass in Donegal Town. ![]()
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