Keane, John B[rendan] (1928- ), playwright. Born in Listowel, he was educated by the Christian Brothers before going to Northampton, where he worked at various jobs and began to write. He returned to Listowel in 1954 and began managing a public house. His first play, Sive (1959), performed by the Listowel Drama Group, was then staged by the Southern Theatre Group, giving him a firm base in Cork when the Abbey Theatre rejected his work. Keane turned out stage successes all through the 1960s. His plays are set in the life of Co. Kerry, combining melodrama with realism. In some of them Keane manifests a strong social conscience, as in the musical Many Young Men of Twenty (1961) and Hut 42 (1962), both concerned with emigration. The Field (1965), probably his best play, depicts an obsession with the land. Big Maggie (1969) heralds a new emancipation in Irish society. Keane's nondramatic writings included The Streets and Other Poems (1961), and a series of fictional letters beginning with Letters of a Successful T.D. (1967), as well as short stories (Death Be Not Proud, 1976; Stories from a Kerry Fireside, 1980; and The Ram of God, 1991). The Bodhrán Makers (1986) concentrated his humour and independence into a best-selling novel; Durango (1992) continued in this mode. During the 1980s his plays were in new demand at the Abbey and elsewhere.
John B. Keane
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John Brendan Keane (21 July 1928 – 30 May 2002) was an Irish playwright, novelist and essayist from Listowel, County Kerry.
Life
A son of William B. Keane and Hannah Purtill, he was educated at Listowel National School and then at St. Michael's College, Listowel. He worked as a chemist's assistant for A.H Jones - a chemist who dabbled in buying antiques. Keane had various jobs in the UK between 1951 and 1955, and was a pub owner in Listowel from 1955.
He married Mary O'Connor and had four children their names were Billy,Conor,John and Joanna. He was an Honorary Life Member of the Royal Dublin Society from 1991, served as president of Irish PEN and was a founder member of the Society of Irish Playwrights and a member of Aosdána. He remained a prominent member of the Fine Gael party throughout his life, never being shy of political debate.
In his life John B. Keane published 46 works. He died at his home in Listowel - a popular public house - aged 73 from prostate cancer. In 2007 a lifesize bronze statue by Clare sculptor Seamus Connolly to Keane was erected in his beloved Listowel during Writers week.
His nephew is the award winning investigative journalist Fergal Keane. His son John is a journalist with the Kilkenny People.
Works
Plays
- Sive (first staged 1959)
- Sharon's Grave (1960)
- The Highest House on the Mountain (1961)
- No More in Dust (1961)
- Many Young Men of Twenty (1961)
- Hut 42 (1962)
- The Man from Clare (1962)
- The Year of the Hiker
- The Field (1965)
- Seven Irish Plays (1967)
- Big Maggie (1969)
- Moll
- [[The Crazy Wa'
- The Buds of Ballybunion
- The Chastitute
- Faoiseamh
- The Matchmaker
- The Good Thing
Novels
- The Bodhrán Makers (1986)
- Durango
- The Contractors
- A High Meadow
- Letters of a successful T.D
- Letters of a Love-Hungry Farmer" (1974)
Essays
References
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