By John McCusker
Benedict Kiely was born on
August 15, 1919 near Dromore and grew up in Omagh, initially for a short spell in Castle Street and Drumragh, before his family moved to St Patrick's Terrace where a plaque was erected in his memory some years ago.
He was the youngest of six, his father Thomas being a Boer War veteran and his mother, Sara Alice Gormley, a native of Dromore.
During his formative years Ben attended the Christian Brothers School in Omagh. Following a short spell as a Post Office sorter, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1938 before leaving the order 18 months later. Turning to writing, he soon found his vocation as a novelist, critic and short-story writer. By the 1940s he had based himself in Dublin and enjoyed spells with the Irish Independent and Irish Press. He was also friend and companion to leading literary figures of the time including Brendan Behan, Brian O'Nolan and Patrick Kavanagh.
His first work, Counties of Contention, about the partition of Northern Ireland, appeared in 1945 and was followed by his first novel, Land Without Stars. Other novels include The Cards of the Gambler (1953), Dogs Enjoy the Morning (1968), Proxopera (1977) and Nothing Happens in Carmincross (1985). His short story collections included A Journey to the Seven Streams (1963), A Ball of Malt and Madame Butterfly (1973), A Cow in the House (1978) and A Letter to Peachtree (1987).
Two memoirs - Drink to the Bird: An Omagh Boyhood (1992), and The Waves Behind Us (1999) – recalled his earlier life growing up in west Tyrone.
A number of his earlier works – In a Harbour Green, Honey Seems Bitter and There was an Ancient House - fell foul of the Irish government's censorship laws and were banned at the time of publication.
In 1964, Ben brought his works to a wider audience when he moved to the USA, taking up posts as writer in residence and lecturer in a number of colleges and universities. Four years later he was to return to Dublin to concentrate on a career as a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, leaning heavily on his childhood memories to provide humorous contributions to the long-running RTE Radio 1 programme, Sunday Miscellany.
His short novel Proxopera, published at the height of the Troubles, dealt with a car bomb being driven into the centre of Omagh. He was later to roundly criticise and grieve the loss of life in the 1998 Omagh bombing which ironically occurred on his birthday, August 15.
In a personal article published a decade ago to mark the closure of Omagh Town Hall, Ben recalled, with fondness, his part as "one of the Wise Guys from the East" in a stage performance of The Coming of the Magi. He also reminisced over the many performers and artistes who visited the town in the earlier part of the 1900s and also his own ability, until recently, to recite in its entirety, The Man from God Knows Where.
Ben was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1996, an honour bestowed by the Arts Council of Ireland on an elite number of writers and artists, joining luminaries that include the likes of Brian Friel and Seamus Heaney.
