Brendan Behan decided to go to Spain- and you must remember this was General Franco’s Spain- on his holidays one time. Now Brendan was high spirited enough when he was working, but when he was on his holidays- well! In any case he arrived at Madrid Airport and the police had obviously been advised and were waiting for him when he went to the passport place.
‘What is the purpose of your visit to Spain, Mr. Behan?’
I have come to attend General Franco’s funeral.
‘But the Generalissimo is not yet dead.
‘In that case’ says Brendan, I’ll wait’
From ‘Sez He’,Part 5 on Ronnie Drews autobiography.
Finally getting around to this book thanks to some good old Aer Lingus time in the air, and felt the above was most worthy of sharing. Now, lets see if I can get around this and An Béal Bocht in a few days!
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
It’s a great read- I got it for the Ma for her birthday. But in honesty, I got it more for myself than anything!
I have heard a slightly different version:
“Then Behan told me that he’d been to Spain, he’d gone to Majorca. It was at the height of his fame when Borstal Boy had just come out. And at the same time, “The Hostage” was on in London at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre in London…
And when he got off the plane, he was met by a bevy of reporters because there’s a nice link between Catholic Ireland and Catholic Spain, at that time. And so, they were delighted to have him. They said, “Mr. Behan, what would you like to see most in Spain?” And he just looked up at them, and he said, “Franco’s funeral.” [Laughter] And so, there was absolute dismay. And then he got sent back as soon as they could. I think they kept him overnight and sent him back. [Laughter] So he didn’t see anything in Spain.”
My Life with the Hemingways, p.24