Colm Keane

Colm Keane is an Irish author, broadcaster and journalist who has published 28 books,[1] including eight No.1 Irish best-sellers.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Colm Keane
Born	Youghal, County Cork
Occupation	Author, broadcaster, journalist
Nationality	Irish
Education	B.A. (Mod.), M.A., M.A.
Alma mater	Trinity College, Dublin; Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

Keane was born in Youghal, County Cork, in 1951.[10][11] He attended Trinity College Dublin, where he graduated with a B.A. Mod., M.A. in Economics and Political Science.[12][13] Further postgraduate studies were undertaken at Georgetown University, Washington D.C., where he received an M.A. in Economics.[14]

Keane joined the Irish national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, in 1977, where he initially worked as a television journalist.[15] He co-presented the weekly investigative series Public Account with Pat Kenny,[16][17] and he worked as a reporter on the current affairs programme Today Tonight.[18] While in television, Keane won a Glaxo Fellowship for European Science Writers for his scripting and presentation of the science series A Future in Mind.[19] [20]

In the early 1980s, Keane moved to RTÉ Radio 1, where he worked as a reporter, presenter, producer and series producer.[21] He won a Jacob's Award in 1988 for American Profiles, which featured a visit to a prison death row in Texas, a profile of an Auschwitz survivor living in New York and a feature documentary on NASA astronaut James Irwin.[22]

As a radio producer, Keane compiled and presented documentaries based on interviews with musical figures including Burt Bacharach, Cat Stevens, Davy Jones of the Monkees, Dave Davies of the Kinks, Chubby Checker, Engelbert Humperdinck, Pete Seeger, Val Doonican, Glen Campbell, Neil Sedaka and more than 140 other performers and musicians.[23]

Among his documentary subjects was former Manchester United footballer George Best.[24][25] He also produced and presented A Belfast Game, profiling the Troubles in Northern Ireland through the experiences of the Ardoyne Kickhams Under-16 football team. A Belfast Game would later inspire the Andrew Lloyd Webber West End theatre production, The Beautiful Game.[26]

Colm's radio presentation work included Studio 10, which he co-presented with future President of Ireland, Mary McAleese.[27][28]

Retiring from broadcasting in 2003, Keane embarked on a career as a full-time author. He was responsible for the Irish national best-sellers Going Home (No.1),[29] We'll Meet Again (No.1),[30] Heading for the Light (No.1),[31] The Distant Shore and Forewarned. Most of the content of these books was based on research with survivors of near-death experiences.

Keane also wrote three national No.1 best-sellers on the Italian saint Padre Pio – Padre Pio: The Irish Connection,[32] Padre Pio: The Scent of Roses[33] and Padre Pio: Irish Encounters with the Saint.[8] He published a further No.1 bestseller, co-authored with Una O'Hagan, titled The Little Flower, St. Thérèse of Lisieux: The Irish Connection.[34]

Married to former RTÉ newsreader [35][36] Úna O'Hagan,[37] the couple's only son Seán Keane died in 2007.[38] Together, they collaborated on the best-selling book Animal Crackers: Irish Pet Stories, published in June 2016.[39] Their most recent co-written book is The Village of Bernadette: Lourdes, Stories, Miracles and Cures - The Irish Connection, published in September 2019.[40]

In 2008, Keane set up the publishing company Capel Island Press.[41] The company's first book was written by Colm and called The Beatles Irish Concerts.[42] Since its inception, Capel Island Press has published six No.1 best-sellers.[43][44][45][46][34][8]