The piece below was passed me by Manus O’Riordan, probably one of the best informed men in these islands and a worthy son of the late Michael O’Riordan. It seems that Brendan Behan repaid, on Ireland’s behalf, some of the debt we all owe for the Greek contribution to our civilisation! Years hence in Grecian plays, song, composed to right an Ireland wronged?
BEHAN AND KILMICHAEL – AND THE GREEK ANTI-FASCIST ADAPTATION OF “EASTER WEEK”
Brendan Behan mistakenly gave the date of Kilmichael as the 18th of November, instead of the 28th, and this transferred to his use of the song in his play, “The Hostage”. The incorrect date, in turn, transferred to the Greek production of “The Hostage”, for which the communist and anti-fascist activist Mikis Theodarakis composed new music for translations of Behan’s lyrics.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RG_-ghy1LTA and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ML7iNLZqRIY for both versions.
The latter recording features the music Theodorakis wrote for Behan’s song in memory of Michael Collins, “The Laughing Boy”, translated as “To Yelasto Pedi”. But, as the complexities of the Irish Civil War (Cogadh na gCarad) would have been incomprehensible to a Greek audience, only the first verse of Behan’s original lyrics survived in translation, and the remaining verses of the song in the Greek production of “The Hostage” had “The Laughing Boy” shot by the British. During the tyranny of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, the Greek version of “The Laughing Boy” become a symbol of underground resistance, and its lyrics underwent further anti-fascist transformation.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NLgerQJo7zM for for a particularly emotional performance of “Kilmichael” and “The Laughing Boy” by Marina Farantouri, at the first concert in Athens to be conducted by Theodorakis himself following the fall of the junta in 1974. Farantouri gave a no less emotional performance of the music that Theodorakis had written for a Greek translation of “Who Fears To Speak Of Easter Week”. Indeed, that tune became the underlying theme of “Z”, the 1969 film by Costa-Gavras based on the 1963 fascist assassination of the Greek left politician Grigoris Lambrakis, with Theodorakis providing the whole of his musical suite for “The Hostage” to now constitute the soundtrack for “Z”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=09h68DkKsW4 and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7inqyaTe77I for “Who Fears To Speak Of Easter Week” and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kUyyqNXuANA for the full soundtrack of “Z”.
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