This book offers a major reassessment of the work of Brendan Behan (1923-64), author of ‘The quare fellow’, ‘The hostage’ and ‘Borstal Boy’. It charts Behan’s intellectual journey from his early imitations of Republican verse and song to his formulation of a literature which could articulate a thoroughly postcolonial, critical nationalism. ‘Brendan Behan’ moves beyond the popular image of Behan as a stage-Irish rebel and presents his writings as complex representations of the construction and negotiation of identity and culture. This book argues that Behan’s work expands the anti-colonial project of Irish revival writings to articulate a revisionist critique of post-independence Irish nationalism.