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CULTURE SHOCK:Brendan Behan’s plays were a breath of fresh air for English theatre, but the writer was not quite so innovative in an Irish context, writes FINTAN O'TOOLE

BRENDAN BEHAN is commemorated with, among other things, a statue in Dublin, a pub named in his honour in Boston, a brilliant Shane MacGowan song ( Streams of Whiskey) and an appearance in the cult comic series Preacher. In terms of fame beyond the literary world, he was probably the most successful Irish self-promoter since George Bernard Shaw. Along with James Dean, the beats and Dylan Thomas he helped to initiate the live-fast-die-young cult that helped many a rock star to an early death. And yet the revival of The Quare Fellowat the New Theatre in Dublin is a reminder that Behan’s plays are rarely staged. (The last production of The Quare FellowI can remember was at the Abbey in 1984.) Which raises an impertinent question: was Behan actually a great playwright?