Lemass’s concerns about the representation of Ireland abroad were shared in wider government circles. Behan drily observed that the taoiseach “must now be as expert on emigration as he is in dramatic criticism, so, marrying his dual talents, he may produce an answer to this question – why Irish playwrights leave home”. The playwright and novelist reminded Lemass about the mass exodus of young people to Britain and beyond over the previous decade in search of employment. Behan, whose works had by this time achieved critical and commercial success internationally, did not take the taoiseach’s criticism lightly. Set in Dublin, the play features an IRA veteran turned brothel-keeper and much “bawdy singing and dancing”. Behan’s play The Hostage had opened to box-office success in Dublin in 1958 before transferring to London and New York. “Even the BBC television service rarely, if ever, presents a play about Ireland without characters moving around in clouds of alcoholic vapour,” Lemass complained, before proceeding to cite international alcohol consumption rates to prove his case that the Irish were not a nation of drinkers.īrendan Behan was one of Lemass’s main targets. In the summer of 1960, taoiseach Seán Lemass attacked “Irish journalists, playwrights and novelists” for sustaining “anti-Irish propaganda” through representations of “the stage-Irishman” in their work.
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