Yes Greg; I think the Behan song is kind of symptomatic of the ambivalence of many people towards MC. After all, Behan joined the IRA in the 30s, basically to fight against the Treaty that MC signed, yet he wrote this moving tribute to him. Incidentally, I have just learned from the "definitive" Behan biog quoted above that there was in fact no such person as Brendan Behan! He was christened Francis Behan.

No harm in adding that Donagh MacDonagh (1912-68), author of one of the above songs, was the son of the executed 1916 revolutionary Thomas MacDonagh.