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The Field is John B. Keane's fierce and tender study of the love a man can have for the land and the lengths of ruthlessness he will go to in order to obtain the object of his desire. It is dominated by the Bull McCabe, one of the most famous characters in Irish writing today.
An Oscar-nominated adaptation of The Field proved highly successful and popular worldwide, and starred Richard Harris, John Hurt, Brenda Fricker and Tom Berenger.
John B. Keane was one of Ireland's most humorous authors and is still recognised as one of Ireland's greatest playwrights. He wrote many best-sellers, including Letters of a Successful TD, Letters of an Irish Parish Priest, Letters of an Irish Publican, Letters of a Matchmaker, Letters of a Love-Hungry Farmer, The Gentle Art of Matchmaking, Irish Short Stories, More Irish Short Stories, The Bodhrán Makers and Man of the Triple Name. His plays include The Year of the Hiker, Big Maggie, Sive, Sharon's Grave, Many Young Men of Twenty, The Man from Clare, Moll, The Change in Mame Fadden, Values, The Crazy Wall and The Buds of Ballybunion.
John B. Keane was a spirited, charismatic and generous man who will forever occupy a special niche in the hearts and minds of Irish people everywhere. This is a fascinating collection of many well-known John B. Keane poems and, for the first time, his songs, selected and edited by his daughter Joanna Keane-O'Flynn. It includes; The Street, My Father, The Sive Song, Sweet Listowel, Many Young Men of Twenty, Kitty Curley and If I Were the Rose of Tralee - a must for all Keane fans.
All human life is here, and Keane tells its story in an astonishing procession of remarkable characters and in rare humorous glimpses of his own career. There are more shades to John B. Keane's humour than there are colours in the rainbow. Compassion, shrewdness and a glorious sense of fun and roguery are evident in this collection, which brings together John B. Keane's tales. A fitting tribute to John B. Keane, for decades Ireland's favourite storyteller, this winning short story collection typifies the late author's folkloric imagination and storytelling arts.
John B. Keane is known nationally and internationally as a successful playwright, handling tragedy and comedy with equal art, and as a prose fiction writer of great invention and skill. Yet an equal claim to fame is made by the hundreds of short pieces which have been published in more than a dozen highly popular collections, their titles ranging from the polemical to the surreal, from Inlaws and Outlaws to Is the Holy Ghost Really a Kerryman? Now harvested into a single volume, they represent the distillation of the experience of a funny, witty, wise and passionate observer of the bright tapestry of Irish life. John B. Keane's topics naturally include his lifetime love affair with his native county of Kerry. Yet even the Kingdom must give way to his fealty to his remarkable home town of Listowel. All human life is there, and he tells its story in a remarkable procession of remarkable characters and in rare humorous glimpses of his own career. There are mouth-watering disquisitions on food and paeans of drink, and since Kerry people do not live by bread alone, there is much about their two other preoccupations - love and words. The Best of John B. Keane is a collection to prize and an ideal bedside book or travelling companion.
Tull MacAdoo TD is kept busy procuring jobs and IRA pensions for deserving voters and keeping his spendthrift son under control. Somehow he must also contest an election and save his reputation while holding fast to his personal philosophy and forage between honesty and crookedness and do the best you can'. Martin O'Mora, the Parish Priest of Lochnanane dispenses justice in his own inimitable way. While battling for the souls of his parishioners, he must also deal with his nephew's shaky vocation, a sex-crazed curate and an uncontrollable outbreak of inflatable dolls. The clients of Dicky Mick Dicky O'Connor require spouses who are willing, wealthy and in perfect working order - difficult to find in the underpopulated hinterlands of Ballybarra, but anything is possible for a gifted matchmaker.
Featuring new notes written by English teacher and daughter of John B. Keane, Joanna Keane O'Flynn. Suitable for both Senior and Junior cycle classes.
Sive is a young and beautiful orphan who lives with her uncle Mike, his wife Mena and his mother Nanna. A local matchmaker, Thomasheen Sean Rua, wants Sive to marry an old man called Sean Dóta. Thomasheen convinces Mike and Mena to organise the marriage. They will receive a sum of two hundred pounds as soon as she marries him. However, Sive is in love with a young man, Liam Scuab. But Liam is not suitable and is refused permission to marry Sive. Sive is distraught but is forced to do the will of her uncle and his bitter wife. Faced with an unthinkable future she takes the only choice left to her.
Set against the harsh poverty and difficult times of 1950s Ireland, Sive caused considerable controversy on its debut in February 1959. Since then it has become an established part of Ireland's theatrical canon.
Leo Molair is a member of the guards and here we find him writing to his nephew who is also a guard but of a mere two years standing. Guard Molair is a mine of information about his people and knows more about them than they know themselves. After all he has been their guardian day and night for twenty-five years.
Since his job has been created by the follies and weaknesses of his fellows, consequently folly and weakness dominate the greater part of this book. As his tale unfolds we discover that there are not as many innocent people as one would like to believe and we meet such characters as the Widow Hansel who is accused of indulging in black magic and other forms of witchcraft; Flash Maldook the greatest ladies man since Casanova, and having a guard's uniform was no disadvantage to him. There is the sergeant who thought he was a super and there are others with the odd names of 'Itchybum', 'Catsfoot' and 'Tiptoe through the Tulips'.
This is the story of Dan Murray, who emigrated to England in 1952. He finds work as a building labourer and in time he becomes a building contractor. John B. Keane captures the turbulent, bawdy, anarchic life of Irish contractors and labourers as they try to make it big in England. Told in his usual hilarious and bulls-eye accurate style.
Sharon's Grave is a play that deals with a man's ruthless lust for land, which overrides all family loyalties, and can ultimately lead to tragedy. The action takes place in a small farmhouse on an isolated headland on the south-western seaboard of Ireland.
A High Meadow is full of comedy, tragedy and melodrama, all centred around the village of Ballybobawn and Eddie Drannaghy, the Ram of God (a former trainee priest who was cynically seduced by the American wife of his cousin, fathered a child and was forced to leave the seminary), and his brothers Murt and Will.
John B. Keane weaves an inimitable tapestry of rural life: people good and bad, weak and powerful - garda , priests, and travellers, and towering above them all the personality of the Ram of God.
According to the irrepressible John B Keane, When Christmas came to our street it came with a loud laugh and an expansive humour that healed old wounds and lifted the hearts of young and old.
In this collection of Christmas tales, he gives us stories of romance, love, fairies and wise men from the East to entertain and enlighten during the festive season. In these accounts of the heart-warming, the funny, the dramatic and the sad, the traditions and culture of a disappearing rural Irish Christmas are brought to life with a magic that will warm winter days and delight anyone who believes in the spirit of Christmas.
The Highest House on the Mountain examines the tension between brothers, fathers and sons. When Mikey's son Patrick comes to visit with his new wife, he is quickly followed by his brother Connie, a scheming ne'er-do-well who sets out to destroy Patrick's marriage and Mikey's bond with his brother Sonny. The only escape from the final tragedy is to the highest house on the mountain, where those who've had enough bitterness can take refuge. This play explores the strained family relations when a son returns from England on a visit, bringing his new bride with him.
John B. Keane was born in Listowel in 1928. Having worked in a variety of jobs in Ireland and England, he married and settled down to run a pub in his native town. Now he is recognised as a major Irish writer, who has written many successful plays - Sive, Sharon's Grave, The Highest House on the Mountain, The Man from Clare, The Year of the Hiker, Many Young Men of Twenty, Big Maggie, Moll and Self-Portrait, is his own story.
This book follows his bestseller Letters of a Successful T.D. There is a riot of laughter in every page and its theme is the correspondence between a country parish priest and his nephew who is studying to be a priest.
Fr. O'Mora has been referred to by one of his parishioner's as one who is suffering from an overdose of racial memory aggravated by religious bigotry. J.B. Keane's humour is neatly pointed, racy of the soil and never forced. This book gives a picture of a way of life which though is in great part vanishing is still familiar to many of our country-men who still believe that priests could turn them into goats. It brings out all the humour and pathos of Irish life. It is hilariously funny and will entertain and amuse everybody. This is definitely a must book for all.
Set during World War II, this gripping novel tells the story of a group of soldiers stationed in a remote village in Ireland. With vivid characters and a richly imagined setting, Keane explores themes of loyalty, love, and the struggle for survival in a time of war. This book is a must-read for anyone who loves historical fiction or wants to learn more about Ireland's complex history.
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Durango is an adventure story about the great October cattle drive of Tubberlick. Set in rural Ireland during the Second World War, this novel features the themes of love, sex, money and betrayal.
Durango has been made into a film starring Brenda Fricker, Patrick Bergin and Pat Laffin.