Anglo-Saxon Swine!While working in Paris in 1949, Brendan Behan - a housepainter by trade - was asked to paint a sign on the window of a cafe to attract English tourists. Behan kindly complied, composing a short poem:
Come in, you Anglo-Saxon swine
And drink of my Algerian wine!
'Twill turn your eyeballs black and blue,
And damn well good enough for you!
Having received payment for the job, Behan fled before the cafe's proprietor had time to have the rhyme translated.
[Perhaps unsurprisingly, Behan was later imprisoned (twice) for IRA-related political offenses.]
Behan, Brendan (1923-1964) Irish playwright
[noted for his affiliation with the Irish Republican Army (from 1937), and for such works as The Quare Fellow (1956), The Hostage (a song and dance farce set in a brothel, 1958), Brendan Behan’s Island: an Irish Sketch-Book (1962) and his autobiographical Borstal Boy (1958)]
[Sources: B. Behan, My Life With Brendan]More Brendan Behan anecdotesRelated Anecdote Keywords:
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