“Gael an Taobh Thuaidh”: The Irish Language in Brendan Behan’s Journalistic Writing
“Gael an Taobh Thuaidh”: The Irish Language in Brendan Behan’s Journalistic Writing

Summary/Abstract: The article explores Behan’s journalistic output in Irish as well as the role of Irish in his English articles for The Irish Press, published between 1951 and 1957. It pays attention to instances of multilingualism, heteroglossia, and hybridity in the corpus, further corroborating the idea of Behan as a fundamentally multilingual writer, who did not entirely abandon Irish even after choosing English as his main artistic medium. This can be also seen from the range of literary references to Irish-language works made in the articles. Behan’s ideological positions are highlighted, including his mistrust of the official use of Irish, his admiration for the Aran Islands, and his keen effort to connect Irish to working-class Dublin and the province of Leinster in general. In a bold move, Behan uses Irish to build bridges not only between Ireland and France, but also between Irish Catholics and Protestants, and ultimately between Ireland and England. The language emerges not merely as a marker of national identity or a remnant of a precolonial past, but as a hybrid interface enabling the author to reach out across various cultural divides.

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