PATRICK KAVANAGH – TARRY FLYNN WITH AN INSCRIPTION TO BRENDAN BEHAN MADE €18,000 AT HAMMER
An historic 1949 edition of Tarry Flynn by Patrick Kavanagh made a hammer price of €18,000 at a two day book sale by Purcell Auctioneers in Birr today. Published in New York by Devin Adair it is the actual copy used in an infamous court case involving Patrick Kavanagh and Brendan Behan. Kavanagh brought a libel case against The Leader magazine in 1952, and Behan was a key figure in his downfall. During the 1954 trial, Kavanagh, under oath, denied knowing Behan, but this was disproven when the defense produced this copy of Tarry Flynn inscribed by Kavanagh to Behan. Kavanagh lost the case. The inscription on the inside cover reads: “For Brendan, the poet and painter, on the day he decorated my flat, Sunday 12th, 1950.”
A first edition of At Swim Two Birds by Flann O’Brien published in 1939 by Longmans made a hammer price of €8,800.
