BOOKS: Brendan Behan’s grandmother introduced him to drink as a child

Dublin Review of Books, Issue 152, Newsletter 1

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Essays and Reviews

Hold Your Hour
Maurice Earls writes: Brendan Behan’s formidable grandmother, who introduced him to drink as a child, was not the only one in the family to take to the bed. He also tells of a great aunt who caught a chill at Parnell’s funeral and was at death’s door for forty years thereafter. She would, however, sit up several times a day to demand of her family: ‘Will one of yous in the name of God give us a drain of tay.