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University Daily Kansan Monday, Dec. 10, 1963
BRELLS HOMESLL
Behan Regarded as Finished By Critics, But Vows Comeback
United Press International
DUBLIN—(UPI)—It's been a bad year for Brendan Behan, playwright, author, story-teller, prodigious drinker and international "bad boy." He hasn't written a thing and, what's more, Ireland's leading critics don't think he can.
He won't be 40 until next February, but Behan is regarded as finished by some Irish men of letters who once praised him.
"He no longer has the stamina to produce a major work," is their verdict. "He is a spent force, living on his past performance."
BEHAN HAS BEEN consistently predicting more plays. One, "Richard's Cork Leg," has been promised since 1959 and recently he went on a "cure" to France to finish it.
"We'll never see it," said one of Dublin's top critics, "because it hasn't even been started yet."
To all of which Behan answers:
"I'll beat the gargle and surprise them all."
"Gargle" is Behan's word for drink whether it be beer, whisky or champagne.
Behan's life has been a remarkable one whether he ever writes another play or book or doesn't.
THE KEY to it has been Behan's rebellion, his refusal to conform. Some of it is heritage. He comes from a long line of rebels.
His uncle Peader Kearny, wrote the Irish national anthem known as "A Soldier's Song," a defiant rallying cry against the British who occupied Ireland for some seven centuries. His father Stephen, a house-painter by trade, was interned by the British and later by the native Irish government during the bitter civil war that followed signing of a treaty with Britain.
Behan's grandfather was one of the Irish "invincibles" who killed Lord Cavendish, then chief secretary of the British government, in 1882.
BEHAN HIMSELF was a member of the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA) which carried the fight to British soil. He saw the inside of several British jails and gathered the material for his first book, "The Borstal Boy" in them. The book is still banned in Eire.
"There is a certain snobbery about bombs," Behan said once. "The pilots who killed hundreds of thousands at Hiroshima and Hamburg were decorated. But I got three years in a Liverpool jail for having a few sticks of dynamite in my pocket."
LONG BEFORE he attained international stature with his "Borstal Boy" and his plays "The Quare Fellow" and "The Hostage." Behan began writing articles for leftist papers at the age of 13. A Catholic, he nevertheless once expressed the ambition of becoming "a rich Red."
As one who came up the hard way Behan also has had a soft spot for the underdog. He knows what it is to be down and out.
This reporter first met Behan in 1947 when he was fresh out of an English jail. Dressed in rags, with a piece of twine holding a tattered overcoat together, he shuffled up to
Man First Smoked at 3
VICTORVILLE, Calif. — (UPI) — Hubert T. Miller, recalling on his 104th birthday that he smoked his first cigarette when he was 3 years old:
"I remember it all right. I saw my father coming and I stuffed the lighted cigarette into a bunghole of a whiskey keg. The explosion threw me 30 feet."
STUDENTS
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me and asked for a loan of "ten bob" (about $1.40). The money was written off until, surprisingly, Behan strode into my office some weeks later, threw a ten shilling note on my desk, muttered a few curses and said:
"YOU SAVED MY LIFE that day. If I didn't get a few bob for an early gargle it would have been the finish of me."
Today Behan presents a different front even if the inner man may not have changed much. Neatly dressed and always carrying a fat roll of
bills, he now prefers champagne to the humble pint of stout. His manner has changed, too, and he is not as easy to approach. With other notables he shares a private telephone number: he is seldom "at home" to callers.
This comparative affluence in the opinion of those who know Behan best is at least partly responsible for his condition. Most of his time nowadays is spent between drinking and "curing" himself from sprees in Dublin, Europe, the United States or Canada.
KU and Colorado University Schedule Language Program
Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Polish language students and professors will be exchanged by KU and the University of Colorado next summer.
Chinese, Japanese and related subjects will be taught at KU and Russian and Polish will be taught at CU. Ten-week intensive study courses are planned.
The programs are being supported by the U.S. Health, Education and Welfare Department as part of its Language Development Project.
A contract is being negotiated by both the universities with the department now in which the combined expenditure will be about $58.000.
KU will receive support for about 35 students of Chinese and Japanese and CU will receive support for about 45 students of Russian and 15 students of elementary Polish.
Three professors will be exchanged by each university. After the ten-week course the students should be able to carry on basic conversations.
KU planners of the project have been Thomas Smith, professor of geography and chairman of the East Asian Language and Area program, and Oswald Backus, professor of history and Soviet and Slavic area studies.
BILLIARDS
TOURNAMENT
BILLIARDS, POCKET BILLIARDS, SNOOKER AT JAY BOWL
Tues., Dec. 11 — Pool
Wed., Dec. 12 — 3 Cushion Billiards
Thurs., Dec. 13 — Snooker
REGISTER AT JAY BOWL
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Ten Foreign Students Denied Permission to Enter Mexico
The Mexican government has denied ten foreign students permission to cross the border with the International Club during Christmas vacation.
Helmut Reichelt, German graduate student, called the Ministry of Immigration in Mexico City from the Mexican consulate in Kansas City Thursday.
The minister gave no reason for
the denial. He said he wrote the club 15 days ago informing them of the decision.
"I'm very upset about the decision," Reichelt said. "We should have applied last year. Many people had to change their plans at the last minute." Reichelt said.
Reichelt said one vacancy was left. Thirty-three students are now making the trip.
S. U. A. ART FORUM WILL SPONSOR BUS TRIP TO NELSON ART GALLERY
Thurs., Dec. 13 at 1 p.m.
Tickets $1.00 On sale at information counter at Union
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PRE-CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
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Just in time for Christmas giving we make this special price on all of our regular brands of sportshirts. These are not special purchases.
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