Life
1961- ; b. London, of Irish parents; son of actor Eamon Keane and Muarea Hassett,
who emigrated from Kerry to Colchester; his mother returned to Ireland, settling in working-class Finglas, Co. Dublin;
ed. Dublin & Cork; commenced journalism as reporter on Limerick Leader and Chronicle [var. Cork Examiner], 1979; proceeded to The Irish Press, and RTE as reporter and presenter in Dublin and later in Belfast, 1984-87; moved to London and joined BBC, 1989; covered N. Ireland; South Africa correspondent, Aug. 1990; during last days of apartheid and
the formation of the Republic, reporting on township unrest, and Rwanda elections, 1990-94; appt. Asia correspondent, in Hong Kong, 1995-97; BBC World Affairs Unit, London; awarded OBE in 1996 for humanitarian reportage; issued Letters to Daniel
(1996), addressed to his son, a warm effusion on the experiences as ‘war
correspondent’ informed by his own familial background; gave Huw
Weldon Memorial Lecture (BBC 1997); issued A Stranger’s Eye
(2000), which with damaged lives and devastated landscapes of Britain
from down-and-out London and Cornwall to Castlederg in Co. Tyrone.
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Works
The Bondage of Fear: A Journey through the Last White Empire (London:
Viking Press 1994; Penguin 1995), 242pp.; Season of Blood: A Rwandan
Journey (London: Viking Press 1995; Penguin 1996), 198pp.; Tony Grant,
ed., Letters to Daniel: Dispatches from the Heart (BBC/Penguin
1996), 238pp.; A Stranger’s Eye (Penguin 2000), 217pp. Miscellaneous,
with Shane Kenny, with Shane McElhatton & Linda Sherlock, Irish Politics
Now: “This Week” Guide to the 25th Dáil (Dingle: Brandon Press/
RTÉ 1987), 224pp. [also incls. Michael Yeats and Brendan Walsh];
The Art of the reporter [Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture 1997] (BBC
1997), video-cassette [50 mins.]
See information at www.newsworld.co.uk/Rsf/fergalkeane.html.
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Criticism
Terry Eagleton, review of Fergal Keane, A Stranger’s Eye
(Penguin), in The Irish Times [Weekend] (27 May 2000).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)