Behan applied for and was posthumously awarded damages for the abuse – though he never fully recovered and would never return permanently to Ireland after leaving, as was the case with many victims of similar mistreatment.

Having long considered himself an anarcho-syndicalist, he became a prominent trade union activist[6] and was imprisoned in Brixton Prison for leading a go-slow on the Festival of Britain construction site.

In 1956, he left the CPGB in protest at the Soviet invasion of Hungary,[6] instead joining the Trotskyist group The Club, who were active in the Labour Party.

Forced to give up building work due to an arm injury, he moved to live on a boat in Shoreham-by-Sea and studied history and English at Sussex University.

In 1989, he retired from teaching and moved to Brighton, where he frequented the local naturist beach, and worked on a number of plays, most of which were staged in the town.

In the years before his death, his then-burgeoning acting career expanded to include a number of television commercials, and a short skit for MTV, where he portrayed an aged Keith Flint (frontman for electronic band The Prodigy).