Remarks by President McAleese for Video-recording of Tribute to John B. Keane 12 February 1999
Remarks by President McAleese for Video-recording of Tribute to John B. Keane 12 February 1999
I am very sorry that I cannot join you in person this evening in Tralee, because I’ve no doubt that it will be a wonderfully enjoyable evening, full of wit and good humour, a fitting celebration to John B. Keane.
However I can’t complain too much, because just a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of presenting the Irish Pen/AT Cross Literary Award to John B., and the even greater pleasure of his company and conversation that evening.
I commented that evening that we were lucky he had ever got around to writing at all, given that his previous careers had ranged across acting, farming, fowl-buying, apprentice chemist, amateur politician, instigator of the one and only issue of the Listowel Leader, scavenger and publican.
I am glad he did find time to up his pen. For he has given me, and so many others the length and breadth of the country, the great pleasure of his writing down through the years. His works have always had the clear note of truth about them. They have shown that the local truly is universal, for John B. himself has told the story of how a farmer in Hamburg wrote to him, informing him that he had robbed the story from his local district in Germany.
His plays have been brought to life by every amateur drama group in the country. They have brought so many into the theatre that would never see themselves as theatre-goers. Yet there is nothing tame or cosy about his writing. He portrayed the reality that lay behind the pretty postcard image of rural Ireland – the reality of bitterness, greed, frustration and antagonism - at a time when to be outspoken required courage.
His writing deserves our applause, but it is the man himself who is his own greatest work. He is a man of wit and humour, decency and kindness, a raconteur of great stories, generous with his time – in short, he is a Kerryman, a man of Listowel.
I hope, John, that yourself and Mary have a wonderful evening amid family, friends and your many genuine admirers.