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16th century Russian icon of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Easter Week is the period of seven days from Easter Sunday through the Saturday following.

Western Church[link]

In the Latin Rite of Catholicism, Anglican and other Western churches, Easter Week is the week beginning with the Christian feast of Easter and ending a week later on Easter Saturday.^[1] The term is sometimes inaccurately used to mean the week before Easter, which is properly known as Holy Week, and particularly confusing in this context is the secular usage of the term Easter Saturday to refer to the day known liturgically as Holy Saturday or Easter Eve (the day before Easter), rather than the Saturday following Easter.

While the first day of Easter Week is called Easter Day or Easter Sunday, the other days in the week may be designated according to any of the following patterns: (1) Monday of Easter Week (e.g. in the Church of England's Common Worship calendar^[1]), (2) Monday in Easter Week (e.g. in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer calendar), or (3) Easter Monday. In former years, Easter, as the most important celebration in Christianity, was observed for a week, and it still is celebrated in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church and Anglicanism with an octave. The Te Deum is sung at the conclusion of Matins/Office of Readings and the Gloria in excelsis Deo is sung at Mass each day of the Octave. The paschal sequence, Victimae Paschali Laudes, may be sung before the Gospel reading on each of these days as well and the gospel readings for each of these days is a scriptural account of the resurrection of Christ (Monday--Matthew 28:8-15; Tuesday--John 20:11-18; Wednesday--Luke 24:13-35; Thursday--Luke 24:35-48; Friday--John 21:1-14; Saturday--Mark 16:9-15).

Owing to modern working patterns, many Easter celebrations now occur only on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (the latter known in some places, especially those under Polish and Bohemian influence, as "Dyngus Day"). Easter Tuesday is a public holiday in Tasmania.^[2] Easter Monday is also a national holiday in the Scandinavian countries which have Lutheran state churches.

Eastern Church[link]

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and in Eastern Catholic Churches, the days of Bright Week are named: Bright Monday, Bright Tuesday, etc. Each day repeats the joyful hymns of Pascha (Easter), with only a few variations, taken from the Octoechos, according to the Eight Tones of the Orthodox liturgy. One tone (with the exception of the Seventh Tone—known as the "Grave Tone") is assigned to each day:

• Sunday of Pascha (Tone One)
• Bright Monday (Tone Two)
• Bright Tuesday (Tone Three)
• Bright Wednesday (Tone Four)
• Bright Thursday (Tone Five)
• Bright Friday (Tone Six)
• Bright Saturday (Tone Eight)

Bright Week is considered to be one single joyful day, although the celebrations on the Sunday of Pascha are the most solemn. The Divine Services are completely different during this time than any other time of the year. Everything during the service is sung joyfully, rather than read. There is no reading from the Psalter, and the services are much shorter than usual. There is no fasting during Bright Week. The Holy Doors in the iconostasis remain open throughout the entire week, and the Artos (a leavened loaf of bread that was blessed during the Paschal Vigil) remains in the church and is venerated by everyone as they enter the temple as a way of "greeting the Resurrected Christ".

Bright Friday is the annual feast day of the Theotokos (Mother of God), as the "Life-giving Spring", and there are optional hymns which may be chanted in honor of the feast in addition to the paschal hymns. If any other feasts on the fixed cycle occur during Bright Week, they are transferred to a convenient day after Thomas Sunday.

Just before the beginning of the Ninth Hour on Bright Saturday, the Holy Doors are closed, and the services begin to return to their more normal form, although the chanting of the Troparion of Pascha, "Christ is risen from the dead...", as well as certain other paschal hymns, continue to be chanted until Ascension.

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

Dominic Behan (22 October 1928 – 3 August 1989; Irish: Doiminic Ó Beacháin) was an Irish songwriter, short story writer, novelist and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also a committed socialist and Irish Republican. Born into a literary family, Dominic Behan was one of the most influential Irish songwriters of the 20th century.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Behan was born in inner-city Dublin into an educated working class family. His father, Stephen Behan, fought for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Anglo-Irish War. Dominic was the brother of Brendan Behan. His mother, Kathleen, a collector of songs and stories, took the boys on literary tours of the city. Behan's maternal uncle, Peadar Kearney, wrote "A Soldier's Song", the song the Irish National Anthem was based on. Another brother, Brian was also a playwright and writer.

At the age of thirteen, Dominic left school to follow in his father's footsteps in the housepainting business. The family house in which Behan lived was the property of Christine English, Dominic's grandmother, who owned several properties in the city. His father Stephen, was a member of the IRA and had been one of Michael Collins' "Twelve Apostles", who were responsible for the deaths of several officers from the British Army during the Irish War of Independence. He was banned from a professional future career for refusing to swear allegiance to the British Crown after the Irish civil war.

Republican and political activities[link]

In 1937, the family moved to a new local authority housing scheme in Crumlin. Here, Behan became a member of Fianna Éireann, the youth organization of the IRA and published his first poems and prose in the organization's magazine Fianna: the Voice of Young Ireland. In 1952, Behan was arrested in Dublin for leading a civil disobedience campaign in protest against the ruling government's failure to tackle unemployment and other critical economic issues. Behan was subsequently jailed for his part in other campaigns protesting the government's treatment of the working class in Ireland.

Behan, the writer[link]

On release from jail, Dominic Behan married Josephine Quinn, the daughter of John Quinn, a cabinet maker from Glasgow. The Quinns were active in the Communist Party and other left-wing organisations in Glasgow. They emigrated to Britain where Behan had been working for the BBC, writing radio scripts, mainly for the Third Programme. His play Posterity Be Damned, produced in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, in 1959, dealt with republican activity after the Civil War of 1922–23. An autobiographical novel Teems of Times (1961) was received to critical acclaim, particularly by Kenneth Tynan, and dramatized on television in 1977 by RTÉ. His autobiography, Tell Dublin I Miss Her, was also published in 1961. A biography of his brother, Brendan Behan, appeared in 1965, My Brother Brendan.

During the 1960s and 1970s Behan wrote a number of television plays for British television in showcases such as Play for Today and Armchair Theatre. One of these plays, The Folk Singer (1972), was restructured for the theatre and presented during the height of the Troubles at Belfast's Lyric Theatre starring a young Ken Stott.

Arguably, it was as a songwriter that Behan excelled. He was a prolific composer and had more than 450 songs published during his lifetime. His songs were very popular in Ireland and also among the Irish living in Britain, especially "The Patriot Game", "McAlpine's Fusiliers", "Avondale", and "Liverpool Lou". In 1958, he released The Singing Streets: Childhood Memories of Ireland and Scotland on Folkways Records along with fellow folksinger Ewan MacColl.

Some of his songs have been translated into Norwegian. Liverpool Lou is known in the city of Bergen as Jenter fra Bergen. Surrounded by Water is also known in Bergen as Omgitt av fjeller. The Norwegian translations were done by singer-songwriter Fred Ove Reksten, a friend of Behan, who gave permission for the Norwegian versions to be recorded by the folk group The Bergeners. Musicians Björn Alling and Conny Olsson from Linköping, Sweden are currently working on a translation of "Patriot Game" into their native tongue.

Contrary to rumours posted previously to this page, Behan did not at any time attend any seat of higher learning. He was a largely self educated man whose intellect was such that he numbered many respected thinkers among his friends including the likes of Hugh MacDiarmid the Scots poet with whom he lived for three years, Louis MacNeice who became for a time a writing partner – mostly for the BBC overseas program and H.A.L. Craig the screen writer who produced the script for the film of Waterloo.

Pop culture references[link]

Dave Cousins wrote his song "Josephine, For Better Or For Worse" in honour of Josephine and Dominic Behan. This song has been recorded several times, the best known version is on the album "Dragonfly" by Strawbs in 1970.

In a well publicised interview, John Lennon dismissed the folk scene in his own country, England, yet praised Behan, from neighbouring Ireland, whom he said he liked. ^[1] On a recent Desert Island Discs, Yoko Ono selected Behan's "Liverpool Lou" as her husband had sung it to their son as a lullaby. ^[2]

Behan's death[link]

Dominic died at home in Glasgow, aged 60, on 3 August 1989 of pancreatic cancer, shortly after the publication of his critically acclaimed novel The Public World of Parable Jones. He was survived by his widow and two sons, Fintan and Stephen. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at the Royal Canal, Dublin near his birthplace by May MacGiolla the wife of the Workers' Party of Ireland Dublin West TD Tomas MacGiolla. His oration was given by his longtime friend Seán Garland, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of which Behan had been a staunch supporter for many years.

Works[link]

Plays[link]

• Posterity Be Damned (1959)
• The Folk Singer (1969)
• Ireland Mother Ireland (1969)
• Tell Dublin I Miss Her (1998)

Books[link]

• Teems of Times (1961)
• Tell Dublin I Miss Her (1961)
• My Brother Brendan (1965)
• Ireland Sings! (1966)
• The Singing Irish (1969)
• The Life and Times of Spike Milligan (1987)
• The Public World of Parable Jones (1988)
• The Catacombs (1989)

Songs[link]

• "The Auld Triangle"
• "Avondale"
• "Come Out Ye Black and Tans"
• "Connolly Will Be There"
• "Liverpool Lou"
• "McAlpine's Fusiliers"
• "The Merry Ploughboy"
• "The Patriot Game"
• "Take It Down from the Mast"
• "Paddy On The Road"
• "Our last hope"

Standalone Poems[link]

• "Bás, Fás, Blás"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Dominic Behan discography at MusicBrainz
• [1]
• Dominic Behan sings "Liverpool Lou" (YouTube)
• "Our last hope" by Dominic Behan (YouTube)
• The Singing Streets: Childhood Memories of Ireland and Scotland Album Details at Smithsonian Folkways

Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black in November 2011
Background information
Birth name	Rebecca Renee Black
Born	(1997-06-21) June 21, 1997 (age 15) Irvine, California, U.S.[1]
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2011–present
Labels	RB Records
Website	www.rebeccablackonline.com

Rebecca Renee Black^[2] (born June 21, 1997) is an American pop singer and dancer who gained extensive media attention with the 2011 single "Friday". Her mother paid $4,000 to have the single and an accompanying music video put out as a vanity release^[3] through the record label ARK Music Factory.^[4] The song was co-written and produced by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson of Ark Music Factory. After the video went viral on YouTube and other social media sites, "Friday" was derided by many music critics and viewers, who dubbed it "the worst song ever."^[5][6][7] The music video received around 167 million views, causing Black to gain international attention as a "viral star", before being removed from the site on June 16. Black re-uploaded it in her own channel three months later.

Biography[link]

Personal life[link]

Rebecca Black was born on June 21, 1997,^[8] in Irvine, California.^[1] She is the daughter of John Jeffery Black and Georgina Marquez Kelly, both veterinarians.^[4][9] She is of Mexican, Spanish, Italian, English, and Polish descent.^[10][11] An honor student, Black studied dance, auditioned for school shows, attended music summer camps, and began singing publicly in 2008 after joining the patriotic group Celebration USA.^{[citation needed]} In 2011 Black left public school in favor of homeschooling, both in response to constant verbal bullying at school and in order to focus more of her time on her career.^[12] Black later said that her main reason for the move to homeschooling was more for career reasons rather than the bullying.^[13]

Career[link]

Ark Music Factory and "Friday" (2010–2011)[link]

In late 2010, a classmate of Black and music-video client of ARK Music Factory, a Los Angeles label, told her about the company.^[14] Black's mother paid $4,000 for Ark Music to produce the music video while the Blacks retained ownership of both the master and the video.^[4][15] The single, "Friday", written entirely by Ark, was released on YouTube and iTunes. The song's video was uploaded to YouTube on February 10, 2011, and received approximately 1,000 views in the first month. The video went viral on March 11, 2011, acquiring millions of views on YouTube in a matter of days, becoming the most-talked-about topic on social networking site Twitter,^[16] and garnering mostly negative media coverage.^[17] As of June 14, 2011, the video had received more than 3,190,000 "dislikes" on YouTube compared to more than 451,000 "likes".^[18] As of March 22, 2011, first-week sales of her digital single were estimated to be around 40,000 by Billboard.^[19] On March 22, 2011, Black appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, during which she performed the single and discussed the negative reaction to it.^[20] The song has peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 and the New Zealand Singles Chart at number 58 and 33, respectively.^[21][22] In the UK, the song debuted at number 61 on the UK Singles Chart.^[23]

Black teamed up with Funny or Die on April Fool's Day (the site was renamed Friday or Die) for a series of videos, including one which addresses the controversy about the driving kids in her music video, stating "We so excited about safety."^[24]

She has stated that she is a fan of Justin Bieber, and expressed interest in performing a duet with him.^[25]

In response to the YouTube video of "Friday", Black began to receive death threats in late February 2011, specifically by phone and email.^[26] These threats are being investigated by the Anaheim Police Department.^[27]

In March 2011, Ryan Seacrest reportedly helped sign Rebecca to manager Debra Baum's DB Entertainment.^[28]

MTV selected Rebecca to host its first online awards show, the O Music Awards Fan Army Party in April 2011.^[29] As an homage to "Friday", Black appears in the music video for Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)",^[30] in which Black plays alongside Perry as the hostess of a party Perry attends. "Friday" was also performed on the second season of Glee in the episode, "Prom Queen", which originally aired May 10, 2011. When asked about why the song was covered on Glee, show creator Ryan Murphy replied, "The show pays tribute to pop culture and, love it or hate it, that song is pop culture."^[31]

RB Records and upcoming album (2011–present)[link]

After the fallout with Ark Music Factory, Black announced she would start an independent record label named RB Records. Black released a self-produced single titled "My Moment" on July 18 by her own label RB Records, with an accompanying music video, publishing it to her YouTube channel; the video as of November 27 has received, approximately, 590,000 "dislikes" against 340,000 "likes."^[32] In the "My Moment" music video, director Morgan Lawley features real life video of Black's life from both before and after her fame.^[33]

Black is planning to release her official debut album around 2012, which she said will include "a bunch of different kinds of stuff."^[34] It is being recorded at a studio belonging to music producer Charlton Pettus.^[35] In an interview with The Sun, Black said that the songs will be "appropriate and clean".

Black appears as herself in the music video of Katy Perry's single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". She appears as the host of a party in the house next door to that of "Kathy Beth Terry". At the end of the video Perry attempts to blame the excesses of the party (which had subsequently moved to her own house) on Black, only for her parents (Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson) to disbelieve her.^[36] Later on, Perry (in character as Kathy Beth Terry) and Black hosted a livestream on Tinychat.com after weeks of Black being mentioned on Terry's Twitter.^[37] Perry, who performs Friday routinely on stage as part of California Dreams Tour, also brought Black on stage to perform the song as a duet during her show at the Nokia Theater on August 5, 2011.^[38]

On August 10, 2011, Black was featured in an ABC Primetime Nightline: Celebrity Secrets special entitled Underage and Famous: Inside Child Stars' Lives.^[39]

On Friday, September 16, Black re-uploaded "Friday" on YouTube.^[40] In late September 2011, she was brought to Australia by Telstra to promote the launch of their 4G service.^[41]

On October 25, Black announced she started filming her upcoming music video which she first identified as 'POI' and later identified as "Person of Interest".^[42] Black said, "The basis of it is that it's a love song but it's not a love song. It's about almost teenage crushes — when you're not in love yet but you really like a guy — which I'm really excited about because I don't think there are too many out like that. It's very much a dance type song. It will make you get up and dance and sing along in your car."^[43] A teaser of the official music video was posted on November 3, 2011.^[44] Black released another teaser including a snippet of the song on November 10, 2011 on her YouTube channel. The single and its accompanying music video were released on November 15, 2011.^[45]

On December 20, 2011, "Friday" was revealed as the #1 video of the year by YouTube and Black hosted a short video called "YouTube Rewind".^[46]

Zeitgeist sorted billions of Google searches to capture the year's 10 fastest-rising global queries and the rest of the spirit of 2011. Rebecca Black #1 Most Searched Google. The searches for the teen singer topped even those of pop icon Lady Gaga and Adele.^[47]

On May 8, 2012, Black released her fourth official single, "Sing It".^[48] The music video premiered on Black's YouTube the same day.

Philanthropy[link]

Black features NOH8 Campaign a silent protest photo project against California Proposition 8. It features photographs portraying people in front of a white backdrop wearing white t-shirts, their mouths taped shut and "NOH8" painted on their cheek.

Rebecca has pledged to donate profits from the sales of her song "Friday" towards her school, El Rancho Charter, and shortly after the 2011 Japan Earthquake, to emergency relief in the country.^[49]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Music videos[link]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• In April 2011, the MTV O Music Awards, one of the annual awards established by MTV to honor the art, creativity, personality and technology of music into the digital space nominated "Which Seat Can I Take?" for "Favorite Animated GIF" that included footage by Rebecca Black featuring 50 Cent and Bert.^[55]
• Black was named "Choice Web Star" at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards in August 2011.^[56]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official YouTube Channel
• Rebecca Black at the Internet Movie Database

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010)

Brendan Francis Behan
Brendan Behan (on left) with Jackie Gleason (1960)
Born	(1923-02-09)9 February 1923 Dublin, Ireland
Died	20 March 1964(1964-03-20) (aged 41) Meath Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	Irish
Period	1942–1964
Genres	Poet, novelist, playwright
Subjects	Irish Republican struggle, often autobiographical
Notable work(s)	The Quare Fellow, The Hostage, Borstal Boy
Influences James Joyce
Influenced Shane MacGowan

Brendan Francis Behan ( /ˈbiːən/ BEE-ən; 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.

Behan was portrayed from life by two Irish artists, Sean O'Sullivan and Reginald Gray.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Study from life of Brendan Behan by Reginald Gray 1961.(egg tempera on wood panel)

Behan was born in the inner city of Dublin on 9 February 1923 into an educated working class family. He lived in a house on Russell Street near Mountjoy Square owned by his grandmother, Christine English, who owned a number of properties in the area. Also living in the area was his uncle Peadar Kearney, song writer and author of the Irish national anthem. Brendan's father Stephen Behan, a house painter who had been active in the Irish War of Independence, read classic literature to the children at bedtime from sources such as Zola, Galsworthy, and Maupassant; his mother, Kathleen, took them on literary tours of the city. If Behan's interest in literature came from his father, his political beliefs were by his mother. She remained politically active all her life and was a personal friend of the Irish republican Michael Collins. Brendan Behan wrote a lament to Collins, "The Laughing Boy", at the age of thirteen. The title was from the affectionate nickname Mrs. Behan gave to Collins. Kathleen published her autobiography, "Mother of All The Behans," a collaboration with her son Brian, in 1984.

Behan's uncle Peadar Kearney wrote the Irish national anthem Amhrán na bhFiann. His brother, Dominic Behan, was also a renowned songwriter best known for the song "The Patriot Game"; another sibling, Brian Behan, was a prominent radical political activist and public speaker, actor, author, and playwright. Brendan and Brian did not share the same views, especially when the question of politics or nationalism arose. Brendan on his deathbed (presumably in jest) asked Cathal Goulding, then the Chief of Staff of the IRA, to 'have that bastard Brian shot—we've had all sorts in our family, but never a traitor!'.

A biographer Ulick O'Connor, recounts that one day, at the age of eight, Brendan was returning home with his granny and a crony from a drinking session. A passer-by remarked, "Oh, my! Isn't it terrible ma'am to see such a beautiful child deformed?" "How dare you", said his granny. "He's not deformed, he's just drunk!"

Behan left school at 13 to follow in his father's footsteps as a house painter.

Republican activities[link]

In 1937, the family moved to a new local authority housing scheme in Crumlin. Behan became a member of Fianna Éireann, the youth organization of the IRA. He published his first poems and prose in the organisation's magazine, Fianna: the Voice of Young Ireland. In 1931 he also became the youngest contributor to be published in the Irish Press with his poem "Reply of Young Boy to Pro-English verses".

At sixteen, Behan joined the IRA and embarked on an unauthorised solo mission to England to blow up the Liverpool docks. He was arrested and found in possession of explosives. Behan was sentenced to three years in a borstal and did not return to Ireland until 1941. He wrote about these years in his autobiography, Borstal Boy. In 1942, during the timeframe leading to the IRA's Northern Campaign, Behan was tried for the attempted murder of two Detectives of the Garda Siochana. The assassinations were to take place in Dublin while at a commemoration ceremony for Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish Republicanism. Sentenced to fourteen years in prison, he was incarcerated in Mountjoy Prison and the Curragh Camp. These experiences were relayed in "Confessions of an Irish Rebel." Released under a general amnesty for IRA prisoners and internees in 1946, his activist career was over by the age of twenty-three. Aside from a short prison sentence he received in 1947 for his part in trying to break a fellow IRA member out of a Manchester jail, he effectively left the IRA, though he remained great friends with Cathal Goulding.^[1]

Behan the writer[link]

Behan's prison experiences were central to his future writing career. In Mountjoy he wrote his first play, The Landlady, and also began to write short stories and other prose. It was a literary magazine called Envoy (A Review of Literature and Art), founded by John Ryan, that first published Behan's short stories and his first poem. Some of his early work was also published in The Bell, the leading Irish literary magazine of the time. He also learned Irish in prison and, after his release in 1946, he spent some time in the Gaeltacht areas of Galway and Kerry, where he started writing poetry in Irish. He left Ireland and all its perceived social pressures to live in Paris in the early 1950s. There he felt he could lose himself and release the artist within. Although he still drank heavily, he managed to earn a living, supposedly by writing pornography. By the time he returned to Ireland, he had become a writer who drank too much, rather than a drinker who talked about what he was going to write. He had also developed the knowledge that in order to succeed, he would have to discipline himself. Throughout the rest of his writing career, he would rise at seven in the morning and work until noon—when the pubs opened. He began to write for various newspapers, such as The Irish Times, and also for radio, where a play entitled "The Leaving Party" was broadcast. Additionally, he cultivated a reputation as carouser-in-chief and swayed shoulder-to-shoulder with other literati of the day that he had got to know through Envoy and who used the pub, McDaid's, as their base: Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh, Patrick Swift, Anthony Cronin, and J. P. Donleavy. For unknown reasons he had a major falling-out with Kavanagh, who reportedly would visibly shudder at the mention of Behan's name and who referred to Behan as "evil incarnate".^[2]

Behan's fortunes changed in 1954 with the appearance of his play The Quare Fellow—his major breakthrough at last. Originally called The Twisting of Another Rope and influenced by his time spent in jail, it chronicles the vicissitudes of prison life leading up to the execution of "the quare fellow"—a character who is never seen. The prison dialogue is vivid and laced with satire, but reveals to the reader the human detritus that surrounds capital punishment. It was produced in the Pike Theatre in Dublin. The play ran for six months. In May, 1956, The Quare Fellow opened in the Theatre Royal Stratford East, in a production by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. Subsequently it transferred to the West End. Behan generated immense publicity for The Quare Fellow as a result of a drunken appearance on the Malcolm Muggeridge TV show. The English, relatively unaccustomed to public drunkenness in authors, took him to their hearts. A fellow guest on the show, Irish-American actor Jackie Gleason, reportedly said about the incident: "It wasn't an act of God, but an act of Guinness!" Behan and Gleason went on to forge a friendship. Brendan loved the story of how, walking along the street in London shortly after this episode, a Cockney approached him and exclaimed that he understood every word he had said—drunk or not—but hadn't a clue what "that bugger Muggeridge was on about!" While addled, Brendan would clamber on stage and recite the play's signature song "The Auld Triangle". The transfer of the play to Broadway provided Behan with international recognition. Rumours still abound that Littlewood's hand was all over The Quare Fellow and led to the saying, "Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood, Brendan Behan wrote under Littlewood". She remained a supporter, visiting him in Dublin in 1960.^[3]

In 1957, his Irish language play, An Ghiall (The Hostage) opened in the Damer Theatre, Dublin. Reminiscent of Frank O'Connor's Guests of the Nation, it portrays the detention, in a teeming Dublin house in the late 1950s, of a British conscript soldier seized by the IRA as a hostage pending the scheduled execution in Northern Ireland of an imprisoned IRA volunteer. The hostage falls in love with an Irish convent girl, Teresa, working as a maid in the house. Their innocent world of love is incongruous among their surroundings—the house also serves as a brothel. In the end, the hostage dies accidentally during a bungled police raid, revealing the human cost of war—a universal suffering. The subsequent English language version The Hostage (1958), reflecting Behan's own translation from the Irish, but also much influenced by Joan Littlewood during a troubled collaboration with Behan, is a bawdy, slapstick play that adds a number of flamboyantly gay characters and bears only a limited resemblance to the original Irish language version.

His autobiographical novel Borstal Boy followed in 1958. A vivid memoir of his time in Hollesley Bay Borstal, Suffolk, England, an original voice in Irish literature boomed out from its pages. The language is both acerbic and delicate, the portrayal of inmates and "screws" cerebral. For a Republican, though, it isn't a vitriolic attack on Britain; it delineates Behan's move away from violence. In one account an inmate strives to entice Brendan in chanting political slogans with him. Brendan curses and damns him in his mind, hoping he would cease his rantings-hardly the sign of a troublesome prisoner. By the end the idealistic boy rebel emerges as a realistic young man who recognises the truth: violence, especially political violence, is futile. Kenneth Tynan, the 1950s literary critic said: "While other writers hoard words like misers, Behan sends them out on a spree, ribald, flushed, and spoiling for a fight." He was now established as one of the leading Irish writers of his generation.

He learned to speak Irish at the home of the Nolan family in the Gaeltacht area of Galway in the late forties. Drs Sinead and Maureen Nolan (daughters of the house) never heard a disrespectful word or a hint of obscenity from him during that time. He was much loved and revered by their deeply religious parents, who recognized his genius for language early. They saw his theatrics for what it was: a cover up for an exquisitely sensitive nature.^{[citation needed]} In the end his favourite drink (a lethal combination for a diabetic) was Champagne and Sherry.

Decline and death[link]

Behan found fame difficult. He had long been a heavy drinker (describing himself, on one occasion, as "a drinker with a writing problem" and claiming "I only drink on two occasions—when I'm thirsty and when I'm not") and developed diabetes in the early 1960s. As his fame grew, so too did his alcohol consumption. This combination resulted in a series of famously drunken public appearances, on both stage and television.

Brendan saw that it paid to be drunk; the public wanted the witty, iconoclastic, genial "broth of a boy," and he gave that to them in abundance, exclaiming: "There's no bad publicity except an obituary." His health suffered terribly, with diabetic comas and seizures occurring regularly. Towards the end he became the caricature of the drunken Irishman. The public who once extended their arms now closed ranks against him; publicans flung him from their premises. Although Brendan cried out that he was a writer, inside he knew his fears had materialised—he was unable to generate another classic. His last two books, Brendan Behan's Island and Brendan Behan's New York, published in 1962 and 1964 respectively, were talk books and cannot be compared to his former works. They were littered with pretentiousness and sycophancy, neither of which he would have tolerated earlier: "As Norman Mailer said to me. ....." Arthur Miller came up to me. ..." "One day with Groucho Marx. ..." Both works were tape-recorded, which Brendan hated. He preferred to write longhand or to type.

Behan had married Beatrice Salkeld (the daughter of painter Cecil Salkeld) in 1955. A daughter, Blanaid, was born in 1963. Love, however, wasn't enough to bring Behan back from his alcoholic abyss. By early March 1964, the end was in sight. Collapsing at the Harbour Lights bar, he was transferred to the Meath Hospital in central Dublin, where he died, aged 41.

He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, where he received an Irish Republican Army funeral. En route to the graveyard, thousands lined the streets.

References in popular culture[link]

Behan is frequently mentioned in works of popular culture.

Behan's work has been a significant influence in the writings of Shane MacGowan, and he is the subject of "Streams Of Whiskey", a song by The Pogues. Behan is also mentioned in The Pogues's song "Thousands Are Sailing" (written by Philip Chevron), with reference to the experience of Irish immigrants in New York. The quote "Compliments pass when the quality meet", taken from Behan's book Borstal Boy, is used in The Pogues's song "Sea Shanty" (written by Shane McGowan).

Behan's version of the third verse of "The Internationale", from Borstal Boy, was reproduced on the LP sleeve of Dexys Midnight Runners's debut album, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels. In Dexys Midnight Runners's first single, "Dance Stance" (a/k/a "Burn It Down"), a top 40 hit in the UK, Behan is named among other Irish writers in the song's chorus.

Behan and his work have also featured in the music of other artists. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones song "All Things Considered" features the lyric: "He swears that he was there the day that Brendan Behan died". The Thin Lizzy song "Black Rose" features the lyric: "Ah sure, Brendan where have you Behan?". Bob Geldof's song "Thinking Voyager 2 Type Things" features the lyric: "So rise up Brendan Behan like a drunken Lazarus". A House mention Behan in their song "Endless Art". Damien Dempsey mentions Behan in "Jar Song". Behan is mentioned in the Pete St John song about Dublin life made famous by The Dubliners, "The Mero": "It's Brendan Behan out walking, Sure he's a ginger man".

Chicago-based band The Tossers wrote the song "Breandan O Beachain", found on their 2008 album On A Fine Spring Evening. The Mahones mention Behan in the song "Draggin' the Days". The Mountain Goats song "Commandante" opens with the line: "I'm gonna drink more whiskey than Brendan Behan". The Mighty Mighty Bosstones song "All Things Considered" has a main character who claims "he was there the day Brendan Behan died". Shortly after Behan's death a young student, Fred Geis, wrote the song "Lament for Brendan Behan" and passed it on to the Clancy Brothers, who sang it on their album Recorded Live in Ireland! the same year. This song, which calls "bold Brendan" Ireland's "sweet angry singer", was later covered by the Australian trio The Doug Anthony All Stars, better known as a comedy band, on their album Blue. "Brendan" is Seamus Robinson's song-tribute to Behan. Behan's prisoner song "The Auld Triangle", (which was written by his brother Dominic and featured in his play The Quare Fellow -- this term being prison slang for a prisoner condemned to be hanged), has become something of a standard and has been recorded on numerous occasions, by folk musicians as well as popular bands such as The Pogues, the Dropkick Murphys and The Doug Anthony All Stars.

Behan's two poems from his work The Hostage, "On the eighteenth day of November" and "The laughing boy" have been translated to Swedish and recorded by Ann Sofi Nilsson on the album När kommer dagen. The same poems have been translated in 1966 to Greek and recorded by Maria Farantouri on the album "Ένας όμηρος" ( the hostage) by Mikis Theodorakis.

Behan is mentioned as an alcoholic muse in the film Divorcing Jack: "... as my artistic interests grew I found that many of my heros had had impassioned affairs with what my old dar would say was the devils vomit. Brendan Behan, Dylan Thomas, George Best, Pete Townshend... It had not adversely affected any of them, with the exception of the first two. 'em it killed." Also, one of his books, Confessions of an Irish Rebel, is burnt in the film version of Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451.

A pub named for Behan is located in the historically Irish Jamaica Plain section of Boston, MA. A bronze sculpture of the writer stands outside the Palace Bar on Dublin's Fleet Street.^[4] There are two stories associated with him (both of which were in the A Series of QI, in the episode entitled "Advertising".) One states that he was visiting Canada and he was asked by a reporter "What brings you to Canada, Mr Behan?" To which Behan is supposed to have replied "Well now, I was in a bar in Dublin and it had one of those coasters, and it said "Drink Canada Dry," so I thought I'd give it a shot." The second story states that he would write a slogan for Guinness if he were given a few crates of the product. The next day, the advertisers from Guinness returned to find the crates empty, surrounded by bits of crumpled paper, and he said "I've got it: 'Guinness makes you drunk.'"

According to J.P. Donleavy's History of The Ginger Man, Behan was instrumental in bringing Donleavy in contact with M. Girodios of Olympia Press (Paris) in order to help Donleavy's famous first novel, The Ginger Man be published despite its having been ostracized by the world literature community for its "filth" and "obscenity." Donleavy also alludes to the fact that Behan also lent assistance to the Russian Nabokov in getting Lolita published in a similar fashion. He was mentioned in the Preacher comics by Garth Ennis when the vampire Cassidy claimed to have known him in the '50s. Ennis also created a Behan analogue in Hellblazer.

Works[link]

Plays[link]

• The Quare Fellow (1954)
• An Ghiall (1958), The Hostage (1958)
  • Behan wrote the play in Irish, and translated it to English
• Richard's Cork Leg (1972)
• Moving Out (one act play, commissioned for radio)
• A Garden Party (one act play, commissioned for radio)
• The Big House (1957, one act play, commissioned for radio)

Books[link]

• Borstal Boy (1958)
• Brendan Behan's Island (1962)
• Hold Your Hour and Have Another (1963)
• Brendan Behan's New York (1964)
• Confessions of an Irish Rebel (1965)
• The Scarperer (1966)
• After The Wake: Twenty-One Prose Works Including Previously Unpublished Material (posthumous – 1981)

Songs[link]

• Brendan Behan Sings Irish Folksongs and Ballads Spoken Arts Records SAC760 (1985)
• "The Auld Triangle" appears on the 2006 Bert Jansch album, The Black Swan
• "The Auld Triangle" Performed live by The Bleeding Irish
• The Captain and the Kings

Biographies[link]

• Brendan Behan - A Life by Michael O'Sullivan
• My Brother Brendan by Dominic Behan
• Brendan Behan by Ulick O'Connor
• The Brothers Behan by Brian Behan
• With Brendan Behan by Peter Arthurs
• The Crazy Life of Brendan Behan: The Rise and Fall of Dublin's Laughing Boy by Frank Gray
• My Life with Brendan by Beatrice Behan
• Brendan Behan, Man and Showman by Rae Jeffs

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Brendan Behan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brendan Behan

• Biography and selected bibliography last accessed 1 June 2005
• Borstal Boy at the Internet Movie Database
• Brendan Behan discography at MusicBrainz
• Two portraits from life by Irish artist Reginald Gray

Matt Maher
Maher performing in 2011
Background information
Born	(1974-11-10) November 10, 1974 (age 37)[1] Newfoundland, Canada
Genres	Christian rock
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Essential
Website	www.mattmahermusic.com

Matthew "Matt" Guion Maher (born November 10, 1974)^[1] is a contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist, songwriter, and worship leader originally from Newfoundland, Canada, who later relocated to Tempe, Arizona. He has written and produced five solo albums to date. Three of his albums have reached the Top 25 Christian Albums Billboard chart and four of his singles have reached the Top 25 Christian Songs chart. He is a practising Catholic.^[2]

Biography[link]

Maher was born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada. His parents recognized his musical talent, and he grew up taking piano lessons and immersing himself in a broad variety of music and playing in concert and jazz ensembles, singing in a choir, and playing in a garage rock band.^[3]

Maher received a scholarship from the Jazz Department at Arizona State University, where he studied Jazz Piano and got his music degree. He paid for his first three years of college by playing piano in a hotel.

Matt currently lives in Tempe, Arizona. He is involved in building community at Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish. He married Kristin Fisher on September 10, 2010. Their son, Michael Conor, was born on August 1, 2011.

Career[link]

Early in 2007 Maher signed to Essential Records. He released his first big-label album (and his fourth album overall) Empty and Beautiful on April 8, 2008. His second album with Essential Records (and his fifth album overall), Alive Again, was released on September 22, 2009.^[4] In late 2009, Maher toured with Michael W. Smith on the "New Hallelujah Tour". Alive Again peaked at No. 6 on Billboard magazine's Top Christian Albums chart in 2009.^[5]

When Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States in April 2008, Maher was asked to lead worship for crowds of thousands at the Rally for Youth and Seminarians in Yonkers, New York, which also featured Kelly Pease, tobyMac and Third Day, among other musicians. He was subsequently interviewed on Fox News, where he played his title track from Empty and Beautiful on the secular airwaves.^[6]

Maher was a guest singer songwriter speaker at Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference at Baylor University in late 2010 put on by the David Crowder Band.^[7] In early 2011 he toured the United States on the Rock And Worship Roadshow headlined by MercyMe.^[8]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

¹ Currently active on the charts

Awards and recognition[link]

GMA Canada Covenant Awards

• 2008 Praise And Worship Album of the Year: Empty & Beautiful^[19]
• 2009 nominee, Male Vocalist of the Year
• 2009 nominee, Song of the Year: "As It Is In Heaven"
• 2009 nominee, Praise And Worship Song of the Year: "As It Is In Heaven"
• 2010 Album of the Year: Alive Again
• 2010 Praise And Worship Album of the Year: Alive Again
• 2010 Song of the Year: "Hold Us Together"
• 2010 Praise And Worship Song of the Year: "Alive Again"
• 2011 Male Vocalist of the Year

GMA Dove Awards

• 2010 nominee, Praise And Worship Song of the Year: Alive Again
• 2010 nominee, Song of the Year: "Alive Again"
• 2010 winner, Special Events Album of the Year: Glory Revealed II: The Word of God in Worship [Split win with Kari Jobe]

Unity Awards

• 2003 winner, Best New Artist of the Year
• 2004 winner, Praise & Worship Song of the Year: "I Love You, Lord"
• 2008 winner, Best Artist of the Year

Other

• 2008 Catholic Album of the Year: Empty & Beautiful

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official MySpace page
• Matt Maher at Essential Records
• Matt Maher at Spirit and Song