The playwright’s attachment to his native town and county is highly significant. In verse and song, he celebrated Listowel and its Feale river, and he was keenly aware of the remarkable literary heritage of the area. Listowel gave Keane rootedness, security, and continuity, strength and assurance: from the town and its hinterland, and indeed from the customers of his own public house, he drew affection, inspiration, and inexhaustible source-material for his work, writes Cyril McHale.

 

John B. That’s all you need to say, and anyone on these shores and many beyond, even, will know that you can only be referring to one of Kerry’s (and Ireland’s) favourite sons, the late, great playwright, John B. Keane.

Of course, John Brendan Keane was not just a superb playwright, but a novelist and prolific essayist, as well. The proud Kerryman was born and raised in his beloved native Listowel, Co. Kerry, on the 21st July, 1928, the fourth of nine children, five boys and four girls.

One of his brothers, Eamonn, became a distinguished actor. It was the inspirational dynamic of this town, with its intriguing, vibrant square, and lively population, that would further enable John B.’s natural talent for observation, and his incisive powers to convey those observations in his writings.

John attended Listowel National School, and afterwards, St. Michael’s College, Listowel, where he claimed to have suffered some rough times, including a brutal beating for reciting one of his own poems! He was embittered by this, and he never forgot it, but it didn’t prevent him from enjoying playing Gaelic football, writing, and becoming a fluent Irish speaker: though he would be against making Irish compulsory in schools.

His dad was a national school teacher, whose wide collection of books helped to instil John with a love of classical literature, with a special regard for Charles Dickens. His mother, Hannah, once a Cumann na mBan member, imbued him with a knowledge and love of traditional Irish culture.

John B.’s assimilation of these contrasting traditions culminated in a fascinating synergy that would pervade much of his work, further enhanced by his association with the people of Listowel and Castleisland, where he spent early summers; he embraced this quaint Hiberno-English, an eloquent blend of Gaelic and English.

He spent time, too, at his grandmother’s house in Ballydonoghue, one of whose neighbours was Maurice Walsh, author of ‘The Quiet Man,’ whom John B. befriended, and who proved to be very encouraging to him.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own