Life
1950- ; b. Belfast; ed. NUU [now UUC], Coleraine; MA in English; taught
in Beirut, and kidnapped by Hesbollah and held in darkness with John McCarthy, Terry Waite
and others in the Balbac Valley; released after strenuous campaign and
protest by his sisters on account of his Irish passport; author of An
Evil Cradling (1992) an account of his confinement with other hostages,
winner of Irish Times Literature award for non-fiction (1993),
writer in residence, TCD, 1992- ; Keenan has produced a series of programmes
on the Troubles and the communities in the North, conducting interviews
with Gerald Dawe, Jonathan Bardon and Maggie O’Kane in The Long
War series (C4 TV); a horse-back journey in the middle-east with John
McCarthy was written up as Between Extremes (1999); Turlough: A
Novel (2000), was conceived as a debt to Toirbhdeallach Ó Cearbhalláin
[Turlough Carolan] from whose spirit in the face of blindness he took
comfort during his imprisonment;
wrote a film of his experience, Blind Flight (premiered 9 April 2004).
[ top ]
Works
An Evil Cradling (London: Hutchinson 1992; Arrow Vintage edn. [Random
House] rep. 1993), 296pp.; Turlough (London; Jonathan Cape 2000),
333pp.; with John McCarthy, Between Extremes (London: Bantam 1999),
344pp.+16pp. pls. & col. ports., and Do. [rep.] rep. (London: Black
Swan 2000), 392pp. [16 of pls.].
Miscellaneous, Cry freedom: When Brian Keenan began writing a film about his experiences as a hostage in Lebanon , he found he hadn't forgotten a single detail', in The Guardian (Sat., 20 March 2004) [infra].
[ top ]
Criticism
Paul O’Mahony, ‘The Irish psyche imprisoned’, in
A. Halliday and K. Coyle, eds., The Irish Journal of Psychology,
‘The Irish Psyche’ [Special Issue], Vol. 15, Nos. 2 & 3
(1994), pp.456-68.
[Q.auth.], review of An Evil Cradling, in Times Literary Supplement (12 March 1993).
Derek Hand, reviewing Turlough (Jonathan Cape), in Irish Times (30 Sept. 2000).
Samir Al Khalil, ‘The Silence Broken', in Times Literary Supplement (12 March 1993).
[ top ]
Notes
Ann Owens Weekes, ed., Attic Guide to Published Works of Irish
Women Literary Writers, notes that Irish Times journalist Ann
Maguire (1964-1992) wrote For Brian's Sake (1992) on behalf of the sisters of Keenan.
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)