Volume 6 1939~1941


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 122  NAI DFA 244/12

Letter from John W. Dulanty to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)

LONDON, 27 August 1941

Further to our telephone talk today I send herewith copy of a letter received from the Dominions Office about the case of Brendan Behan1 who was sentenced in February 1940 at the age of 16 to three years Borstal detention on a charge of being found in possession of explosives in suspicious circumstances. I think we agreed over the telephone that we should tell the British that our Government would approve of the young man's release from Borstal and his return to Ireland, but I await your reply before communicating with the D.O2.

[signed] J. W. DULANTY

1 Brendan Behan (1923-64), writer, member of the IRA. Most famous for his book Borstal Boy (1958).

2 The portion in italics is a handwritten insertion by Dulanty.