{{Short description|Irish journalist (born 1961)}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Fergal Keane | image = File:Fergal Keane.jpg | caption = Keane in May 2016 | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|HonFBA}} | birth_name = Fergal Patrick Keane | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1961|01|06}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = | death_place = | education = Presentation Brothers College, Cork<br/>St Mary's College, Dublin<br />Terenure College | occupation = Journalist and author | title = On Air Editor at BBC News {{small|(?–2020)}} | family = | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = John B. Keane (uncle) | credits = }} '''Fergal Patrick Keane''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE|HonFBA}} (born 6 January 1961) is an Irish foreign correspondent with BBC News, and an author.<ref name=limerickleader-20141006/> For some time, Keane was the BBC's correspondent in South Africa. He is a nephew of the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist John B. Keane.
==Early life== Born in London, England, Keane grew up in Dublin and later in Cork. His father was the Listowel-born actor, Eamonn Keane.<ref>''The Irish Times'', "A journalist with his own story to tell", 4 January 1997</ref> His mother is Maura Hassett, a teacher and actress. He attended three primary schools in Dublin: Scoil Bhride, a gaelscoil (Irish-language school), St. Mary's College and Terenure College, and, later, one primary school in Cork, St. Joseph's.<ref name=Independent>{{cite news|title=Passed/Failed: Fergal Keane – Profiles – People|newspaper=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/passedfailed-fergal-keane-1126789.html|access-date=1 May 2015}}</ref>
In a 1999 interview with ''The Independent'', Keane said that his Gaelscoil education proved useful in later life: "The grounding in the Irish language I had at Scoil Bhride has never left me. In a foreign country when I'm on the phone and don't wish people to understand what I'm saying, I speak Irish and no Serb listening in is going to crack the code."<ref name=Independent />
His secondary education was at Presentation Brothers College in Cork, where Keane says he was encouraged to join the school debating society, and where he won the Provincial Gold Medal for Public Speaking (on the subject of police brutality in Ireland).<ref name=Independent /> Today, Keane continues to draw on this experience acting as a public speaker, event chair and after dinner speaker.<ref name=personallyspeaking>{{cite web|url=http://www.personallyspeakingbureau.com/speaker/fergal-keane/|title=Fergal Keane – Personally Speaking Bureau|website=Personallyspeakingbureau.com|access-date=1 May 2015}}</ref>
==Career== ===Early career=== On finishing school in 1979, Keane started his career as a journalist with the ''Limerick Leader''.<ref name=limerickleader-20141006>{{cite news|last1=Keane|first1=Fergal|title=Fergal Keane: Early days at the Leader made me the journalist I am|url=http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/business/business-news/fergal-keane-early-days-at-the-leader-made-me-the-journalist-i-am-1-6340572|access-date=7 October 2014|publisher=Limerick Leader|date=6 October 2014|archive-date=1 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201005903/http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/business/business-news/fergal-keane-early-days-at-the-leader-made-me-the-journalist-i-am-1-6340572|url-status=dead}}</ref> Subsequently, he worked for ''The Irish Press''. Later, he moved into broadcast journalism with {{lang|ga|Raidió Teilifís Éireann|italic=no}} (RTÉ).{{cn|date=February 2024}}
===BBC=== Keane joined the BBC in 1989 as Northern Ireland Correspondent, but in August 1990 he was appointed their Southern African Correspondent, having covered the region during the early 1980s. From 1990 to 1994 Keane's reports covered the township unrest in South Africa, the first multi-racial elections following the end of apartheid, and the genocide in Rwanda. In 1994, he was appointed Asia Correspondent based in Hong Kong and two years later, after the handover, he returned to be based in the BBC's World Affairs Unit in London.
In the three-part documentary ''Forgotten Britain'', serialised on the BBC in May 2000, Keane travelled across the country meeting people living on the edge in affluent societies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dfgdocs.com/Directory/Titles/622.aspx|website=dfgdocs.com|title=Fergal Keane's Forgotten Britain|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927164346/http://www.dfgdocs.com/Directory/Titles/622.aspx|archive-date=27 September 2007}}</ref> Keane was a patron of the UK-based development agency Msaada, which assisted survivors of the Rwandan genocide.{{cn|date=February 2024}} In 2009, he stepped down as a patron of charities he supported when the BBC revised its guidelines for all presenters, citing a desire to protect impartiality.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
One of his projects is the five-part series ''The Story of Ireland'', a 2011 documentary co-produced by BBC Northern Ireland and Raidió Teilifís Éireann.
In November 2018, Keane provided the commentary for the Westminster Abbey service marking the centenary of the Armistice.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0brzcbh|title=BBC One – World War One Remembered: Westminster Abbey|website=BBC|access-date=15 June 2019}}</ref>
The BBC revealed in January 2020 that Keane had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for several years, and consequently moved out of his role as Africa editor in order to aid his recovery.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/24/bbc-fergal-keane-to-step-down-after-revealing-he-has-ptsd|title=BBC's Fergal Keane to step down after revealing he has PTSD {{!}} Veteran war reporter will leave role as broadcaster's Africa correspondent to aid recovery|first=Alexandra |last=Topping|newspaper=The Guardian|date=14 January 2020|access-date=24 January 2020}}</ref> In May 2022, he presented a documentary ''Fergal Keane: Living with PTSD'' on BBC Two, in which he discussed the impact of PTSD and considered the most recent medical thinking on the condition and its treatment, explaining that his disorder had led him to consider withdrawing from conflict reporting.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017795|title=BBC Two - Fergal Keane: Living with PTSD|website=BBC}}</ref>
In 2022, Keane and the French Oscar winning director Alice Doyard collaborated to make the Ukraine war crimes documentary ''I call him by his name'' which won Feature Story of the Year from the Foreign Press Association.<ref>{{cite web|title=FPA Media Awards|url=https://www.fpalondon-awards.org/old-home|publisher=Foreign Press Association|access-date=25 November 2024}}</ref> In July 2023, he revisited the people and locations from the series ''Forgotten Britain'' for a second time in the BBC One programme ''Brave Britain with Fergal Keane''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nqg5 | title=Brave Britain with Fergal Keane |publisher=BBC iPlayer|date=11 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nqg5 | title=BBC One - Brave Britain with Fergal Keane|date=July 2023 }}</ref> This new documentary was a one-off programme by Alice Doyard and featured new footage of Keane in Cornwall, Glasgow and on the Lincoln Green estate in Leeds, with archive footage taken from programmes made in 2000 and 2012.
In February 2026, Keane announced his retirement from the BBC and is writing his first novel. He also intends to continue working with the BBC on a freelance basis.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hennessy |first1=Mark |title=Fergal Keane: veteran Irish foreign correspondent leaves BBC after 37 years |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2026/02/13/fergal-keane-veteran-irish-foreign-correspondent-leaves-bbc-after-37-years/ |access-date=13 February 2026 |work=Irish Times |date=13 February 2026}}</ref>
===Other work=== In 2010 he published his first history work, ''Road of Bones: the Siege of Kohima 1944'', an account of the epic battle that halted the Japanese invasion of India in 1944.
In 2022 he published a memoir, ''The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD'', reflecting on his BBC career and the mental health struggles it caused as well as his battles with alcoholism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Machell |first=Ben |date=2022-10-31 |title=Fergal Keane on his PTSD: 'Within seconds, I'm shaking and crying' |url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/fergal-keane-on-his-ptsd-within-seconds-im-shaking-and-crying-mj6xzfzqb |access-date=2026-04-17 |website=www.thetimes.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>
===Recognition=== Keane was named as overall winner of the Amnesty International Press Awards in 1993<ref name="National Gallery of Ireland">{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalgallery.ie/what-we-do/press-room/press-releases/portrait-fergal-keane-irish-photographer-enda-bowe-unveiled|title=Portrait of Fergal Keane by Irish photographer Enda Bowe unveiled at National Gallery of Ireland|publisher=National Gallery of Ireland|access-date=31 May 2024}}</ref> and won an Amnesty television prize in 1994 for his investigation of the Rwandan genocide, ''Journey into Darkness''. He is the only journalist to have won both the Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year award and the Sony Radio Reporter of the Year in the same year – 1994.<ref name=UL>{{cite web|url=http://www.ul.ie/artsoc/content/lecture-bbc-foreign-correspondent-fergal-keane|title=Lecture: BBC Foreign Correspondent Fergal Keane Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences|access-date=1 May 2015|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201182120/https://www.ul.ie/artsoc/content/lecture-bbc-foreign-correspondent-fergal-keane|url-status=dead}}</ref> He won The Voice of The Viewer award and a Listener Award for his 1996 BBC Radio 4 From Our Own Correspondent despatch ''Letter to Daniel'',<ref name=daniel>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/41784.stm |title=Letter to Daniel |author=Fergal Keane |work=From Our Own Correspondent |publisher=BBC |date=27 January 1998 |access-date=28 October 2014}}</ref> addressed to his newborn son, and a One World Television Award in 1999. He won a BAFTA award for his documentary on Rwanda, ''Valentina's Story''. He has won the James Cameron Prize for war reporting, the Edward R. Murrow Award for foreign reporting, the Index on Censorship prize for journalistic integrity, and the 1996 Orwell Prize for his book ''Season of Blood''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/august96/keane_bio.html|title=PBS Online NewsHour: Fergal Keane|website=Pbs.org|access-date=15 June 2019|archive-date=13 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113185533/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/august96/keane_bio.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=icrc-20060127>{{cite journal |url=https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_860_fergal.pdf |title=Interview with Fergal Keane, Special Correspondent for BBC News|first=Toni|last=Pfanner|journal=International Review of the Red Cross |volume=87 |issue=860 |date=December 2005 |access-date=28 October 2014}}</ref> In May 2009 he won a Sony Gold Award for his Radio 4 series ''Taking A Stand''. He also won a Peabody Award and an Emmy Award for his reporting as part of the BBC team covering the 2015 refugee crisis.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWde5PSq1Mg|title=Fergal Keane - BBC Migrant Crisis - 2015 Peabody Award Acceptance Speech|publisher=Peabody Awards|via=YouTube|date=25 July 2016|access-date=31 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release|url=https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/worldnews/2016/bbc-world-news-honored-emmy|title=BBC World News honored with an Emmy award at the 37th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards|publisher=BBC Media Centre|date=22 September 2016|access-date=31 May 2024}}</ref>
Keane has been awarded honorary degrees in literature from the University of Strathclyde, Bournemouth University and Staffordshire University. On 15 December 2011, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Liverpool. Keane was appointed an OBE for services to journalism in the 1997 New Year's Honours list.
In April 2018, he was awarded the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize for ''Wounds''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ewartbiggsprize.org.uk/past-winners/2015-2017|title=The 2015 – 2017 Prize – Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize|website=Ewartbiggsprize.org.uk|access-date=15 June 2019}}</ref>
In 2024, Keane was elected as an honorary fellow of the British Academy.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir Fergal Keane FBA|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/fergal-keane-fba/|publisher=British Academy|access-date=25 November 2024}}</ref>
==Published works== *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal and Shane Kenny | title=Irish Politics Now: "This Week" Guide to the 25th Dáil | publisher=Brandon | year=1987 | isbn=0-86322-095-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/irishpoliticsnow00kenn }} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=The Bondage of Fear: A Journey Through the Last White Empire | publisher=Penguin Books Ltd | year=1995 | isbn=0-14-023488-8}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=Season of Blood: Rwandan Journey | publisher=Penguin Books Ltd | year=1996 | isbn=0-14-024760-2}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=Letter to Daniel: Despatches from the Heart | publisher=Penguin Books Ltd | year=1996 | isbn=0-14-026289-X}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=Letters Home | publisher=Penguin Books Ltd | year=1999 | isbn=0-14-028979-8}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=Dispatches from the Heart | publisher=Penguin Books | year=1999 | isbn=0-14-027155-4}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=A Stranger's Eye (BBC Radio Collection) | publisher=BBC Audiobooks | year=2001 | isbn=0-563-47814-4}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=All of These People: A Memoir | publisher=HarperPerennial | year=2006 | isbn=0-00-717693-7}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944 | publisher=HarperPress | year=2010 | isbn=978-0-00-713240-9}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=Wounds: A Memoir of Love and War | publisher=HarperPress | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-00-818925-9}} *{{cite book | author=Keane, Fergal | title=The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2022 | isbn=9780008420420}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20030402042323/http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/news/fergalkeane.shtml BBC – Biography from the BBC Press Office] – 2006-11-04 *[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/fooc50/4181812.stm BBC News – The power of storytelling] – 2005-09-01 *[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/1381328.stm BBC Panorama – The Accused] – aired 2001-06-17 (transcript and comments) *[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/interviews/keane.html Frontline – Ghosts of Rwanda interview] *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0327wj8 Letter to Daniel], link to Audio
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Keane, Fergal}} Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists Category:Broadcasters from County Cork Category:Honorary Fellows of the British Academy Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork Category:People educated at Terenure College Category:People with post-traumatic stress disorder Category:RTÉ newsreaders and journalists Category:The Irish Press people Category:Writers from County Cork