Among our writers for the stage, John B. Keane was, in a sense, the people's choice. From the word go, he achieved wide popular acclaim. The raw power and rich language of such early plays as Many Young Men of Twenty, Sive and Sharon's Grave established a rapport with an audience that transcended the normal theatre-going public.
From that room above his pub in Listowel, Keane gave to his local community, our national stage and the world stage an enduring body of work. The reception abroad accorded to the film version of The Field best exemplifies his ability to turn the local into the universal.
While the man and his work were much-loved by the public, the theatre establishment took its time in catching on - Sive was initially disdainfully rejected by the National Theatre. The amateur drama movement proved to be an ideal collaborator in bringing many of the plays to an audience-in-waiting. The role of directors like Joe Dowling and Ben Barnes in bringing about a rediscovery of Keane in the mid-80s must be acknowledged: their newly-polished productions imposed a coherence that the work previously lacked. Dramatists like Martin McDonagh and Marina Carr show the influence of Keane's style and themes on a younger generation.
With justification, John B Keane prided himself on being a writer with a keen ear for the spoken language of the people. This became a hallmark of his work, and along with the memorable cast of characters which he created, gave rise to the instant popularity of his work. This popularity was of course helped along by his being a writer who carried to the Irish stage the melodious tradition of storytelling with which he grew up in his native Kerry. He was, essentially, a folk-dramatist with a unique touch that lifted the best of his work out of the ordinary. He drew from the community and in turn gave back to the community. In an interview in this newspaper a few months ago, Keane spoke of his writing as being an act of "recording faithfully a life that would disappear forever. The characters are true of their time and place. I was one of them." He truly was.