He is the worst specimen I have met in 30 years’ service
A letter of complaint of note
Before The Quare Fellow hit the stage, before Borstal Boy made him a household name, Brendan Behan was a house painter. Briefly. In 1950, the young Dublin-born writer was hired to paint the inside of St John’s Point Lighthouse in County Down—a task that proved entirely beyond him. A self-proclaimed “drinker with a writing problem,” Behan left behind more destruction than decoration. Paint was spilled, walls were somehow burned, and judging by the now-famous letter you are soon to read, at least one principal lighthouse keeper was pushed to breaking point.
Blakely’s plea fell on deaf ears. Behan was kept on for another stint, though his talents lay elsewhere. Soon after, he left for Paris to write, setting himself on the path to literary infamy.
St. John’s Point Lighthouse,
Co. Down.9th August, 1950.
Engineer,
Irish Lights Office,
DUBLIN.Sir,
I have to report the painter B. Behan absent from his work all day yesterday and not returning to station until 1.25 a.m. this morning. No work has been carried out by him yesterday (Tuesday). I also have to report that his attitude here is one of careless indifference and no respect for Commissioners' property or stores. He is wilfully wasting materials, opening drums and paint tins by blows from a heavy hammer, spilling the contents which is now running out of the paint store door. Drums of water-wash opened and exposed to the weather – paint brushes dirty and lying all round the station – no cleaning up of any mess but he tramps through everything. His language is filthy and he is not amenable to any law or order.
He has ruined the wall surface of one wall in No. 1 Dwelling by burning. He mixes putty, paint, etc. with his bare hands and wipes off nothing. The spare house which was clean and ready for painters has been turned into a filthy shambles inside a week. Empty stinking milk bottles, articles of food, coal, ashes and other debris litter the floor of the place which is now in a scandalous condition of dirt.
I invite any official of the Irish Lights to inspect this station and verify these statements.
He is the worst specimen I have met in 30 years service. I urge his dismissal from the job now before good material is rendered useless and the place ruined.
Yours obedient Servant,
D. Blakely
Principal Keeper.
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He’d be a good addition to our president’s cabinet.
This snippet of a complaint letter is as relevant to Donald Trump and his imminent wrecking of American democracy as it was to a drunken painter and his tumultuous "work" upon an Irish lighthouse in 1950. History repeats.