John B Keane On Drink

Born Listowel, County Kerry, 1928. Playwright, poet, fiction and short story writer, Aosdana member. Among his forty-six works, all of which were well-received both at home in Ireland and abroad, are the plays Sive (rejected at first by the Abbey Theatre but accepted so widely by the public that it has become a classic, with a touring production performance every year), Sharon's Grave, The Man from Clare, The Year of the Hiker, The Field (which was adapted as a film of the same name), Many Young Men of Twenty, Big Maggie (which became a Broadway success in 1982), Moll, The Crazy Wall, The Buds of Ballybunion, The Chastitute and Faoiseamh. His other works include the novels The Bodhran Makers, Durango, The Contractors, A High Meadowthe essay-collections, Letters of a T.D., Love Bites and Owl Sandwiches, and the Irish-language Dan Pheadí Aíndí. Among his accolades, this former president of Irish P.E.N was awarded the title of Honorary Life Member of the Royal Dublin Society, and Hon. Doc. Fine Arts, Marymount Manhattan College. A founder member of the Society of Irish Playwrights, and an influential voice in Irish literary culture, Keane died in Listowel on May 30th, 2002.