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Posts Tagged ‘Brendan Behan’

Who Fears To Wear The Blood Red Badge?

Posted in Dublin History, Music, Politics, Social History, tagged , , , , , , , on October 1, 2010| 1 Comment »

I’ve never heard this song sung, though it is sung to the same air as ‘Who Fears To Speak Of 98’ and ‘Who Fears To Speak Of Easter Week’. I picked it up from the excellent 1913:Jim Larkin and the Dublin Lockout book (1964), the hard work of the Workers Union of Ireland.

“It is appropriate that the Workers Union of Ireland should sponsor such a book as Jim Larkin was its founder and first general secretary as he had been the founder of and the first general secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union”

If you’re wondering about the air, here is a version sung by Brendan Behan in relation to the 1916 rising that has been uploaded onto YouTube.

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Jingle Bloody Jangle.

Posted in Dublin History, Music, tagged , , , , , , , on August 23, 2010| 3 Comments »

It only dawned on me recently how many versions of The Auld Triangle I have in my collection. By ‘my collection’, I mean Windows Media Player. Anyway, I thought a few were worth posting in case you haven’t heard them. I love some of these.

Cat Power: No doubt inspired by Bob Dylan, this cover from Cat Power is more than decent. I enjoy her cover records as much as her own material in all truth.

Jeff Tweedy from Wilco has covered the song live, and it is one of my favourite versions. This sounds excellent.

Christy Moore recorded an excellent rendition of the song, which can be heard on his Box Set.

This Pogues version comes from a Peel Session.

All great, and this is before taking other versions like Ewan MacColl’s into account, not to mention the numerous versions of bands like The Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers. Enjoy.

The song was of course written by Brendan Behan and features in The Quare Fellow, a play currently running at The New Theatre on Essex Street, at the back of Connolly Books.

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Brendan Behan’s Dublin (1966)

Posted in Dublin History, tagged , , , , , , on January 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

A nice little find on Youtube. A 27 mins documentary in which “Brendan Behan acts as guide to Dublin as he tells tales about the city”. The programme, which was made two years after Behan’s death, was made up of ‘reconstructed’ commentary and interviews with relatives.

There are conversations with Brendan Behan’s father Stephen, his mother Kathleen and his widow Beatrice as well as beautiful old footage of O’Connell Street and the ‘Little Jerusalem’ area of Clanbrassil Street. The soundtrack is by The Dubliners.

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