novel of an Irish terrorist, a teenage volunteer in the IRA. A fanatical believer, Behan was arrested with explosives at the age of 17 and spent three years locked in a British juvenile borstal. There he begins to wonder, who's really the enemy?
Borstal Boy is both a riveting self-portrait and a window into the problems, passions, and heartbreak of Ireland's past. It is also a record of a change of heart. Inside the borstal (reform school), Behan meets British Protestants who are there for reasons of their own. He begins to see that class creates more common ground than he ever believed while religion and nationality are much more superficial divisions between people than he'd ever been taught. Released, Behan returned to Ireland changed though still and a rebel-and became one of that country's most important dramatists with the plays The Quare Fellow, The Hostage, and Richard's Cork Leg.
Celebrated for its dialogue and masterful characterization, Borstal Boy has endured as an important document of a time and an artist.

Brendan Behan was an author and playwright-and also a member the Irish Republican Army. Born in Dublin into a staunchly republican family, he became a member of the IRA's youth organization Fianna Éireann at the age of fourteen. Behan eventually joined the IRA which led to his serving time in a Borstal youth prison in the United Kingdom and he was also imprisoned in Ireland. Subsequently released from prison as part of a general amnesty given by the Fianna Fáil government in 1946, Behan moved between homes in Dublin, Kerry and Connemara, and also resided in Paris for a time.
In 1956, Behan's first play, The Quare Fellow gained him a wide reputation. This was helped by a famous drunken interview on BBC television. In 1958, Behan's play in the Irish language An Giall had its debut at Dublin's Damer Theatre. Later, The Hostage, Behan's English-language adaptation of An Giall, met with great success internationally. Behan's autobiographical novel, Borstal Boy, was published the same year and became a worldwide best-seller.