Kiely, Benedict (1919–2007)

Irish journalist and novelist. He successfully married modern fiction methods with the oral conversational methods of the traditional folk story. While working for a succession of Irish newspapers as a journalist and literary editor, Kiely wrote Land Without Stars (1946), concerning the fate of two brothers living on the Irish border, and In a Harbour Green (1949), dealing with the seduction of a woman by one man and the loyalty of another. He also wrote Modern Irish Fiction: A Critique (1950), the first study of its kind, as well as several volumes of short stories.

Later novels deal with more political issues: Proxopera (1977), based on the notorious kidnapping of a Dutch industrialist in Ireland, registered his disgust at the violent methods of the modern IRA, while Nothing Happens in Carmincross (1985) deals with sectarianism and extremism in Ulster. Kiely worked in the USA as writer-in-residence and lecturer from the early 1960s. He was also a radio broadcaster who found natural expression in local stories and reminiscences.

Born and educated in County Tyrone, Kiely entered the Jesuit novitiate but soon left with spinal tuberculosis.