A family view of literary Dublin

Mother of All the Behans by Brian Behan (Hutchinson, £7.95).
J M BARRIE, the author of Peter Pan used to say that there was no more gruesome sight than a Scotsman on the make in London. Well, there could be, and, that is an Irishman on the make, in the literary scene in London, and Brian Behan has joined this merry throng of Celtic scribblers.
His book is the autobiography of Kathleen Behan, "as told to Brian Behan" on tapes recorded at her home in the Residence of the Sacred Heart in Dublin. The result is predictable: it is not literature, although it endeavours to associate her with literary Dublin.
The real Brendan, the writer of exquisite verse in Irish, does not emerge in these pages. However, a family which produced members of the IRA, the RAF and the Free State Army does make for entertaining reading. In real life the Behan family were well off, despite their presentation as a working class family. Quite the most extraordinary character recorded in this book is a Behan aunt, a Red Revolutionary who read the Catholic Herald, and apparently took part in the IRA bombing campaign in this country in 1939, for which she was sentenced to three years in jail.
If you want to see a real portrait of Kathleen Behan you can see this in her picture by
Sarah Pursei, in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.
Terence Sheehy