Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Brendan Behan (1923 – 1964).

Brendan Behan’s prison play The Quare Fellow, a passionate polemic against the death penalty, premiered in Ireland in 1954 and established his name abroad. In 1962, the play was adapted for the screen by German-born American director Arthur Dreifuss. Filmed in stark black and white on location inside Kilmainham Gaol, and outside Mountjoy Prison (where Behan’s play was set), Dreifuss’s adaptation tones down much of the original salty dialogue and focuses on two characters: a naïve young prison officer, Crimmin (Patrick McGoohan), and a senior warder (Walter Macken). Crimmin arrives from his home in Inisbofin full of enthusiasm for the death penalty. He soon reconsiders his position when he befriends Kathleen (Sylvia Syms), the wife of a condemned man, and is faced with the realities of taking a man’s life in retribution for murder. The film will be introduced by Professor John Brannigan (UCD).

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn