Life

He married Mary O'Connor and had four children. 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

• 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)
• Seven Irish Plays (1967)
• The Year of the Hiker
• The Field (adapted later as a film of the same name starring actor Richard Harris)
• Big Maggie
• Moll
• The Crazy Wall
• The Buds of Ballybunion
• The Chastitute
• Faoiseamh
• The Matchmaker

Novels

• The Bodhran Makers
• Durango
• The Contractors
• A High Meadow
• Letters of a successful T.D

Essays

• Love Bites
• Owl Sandwiches

References

• Irish Writers Online: John B Keane
• Play Information
• About the Matchmaker
• BBC Report of his death
• RTE Report of his death