John Sheehy from Killynon, near Cloughan, Mullingar was a farmer with his roots firmly in rural Westmeath. John was a well known poet and published his first volume of poetry in 1982. John was one of the last water and metal diviners in Mullingar, and also enjoyed telling stories, mostly of the ghostly variety. In this Matt Nolan shot, John is photographed with Westmeath county librarian Marian Keaney, who launched his book in 1982.

Tributes paid to librarian and author, Marian Keaney, RIP

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John Sheehy from Killynon, near Cloughan, Mullingar was a farmer with his roots firmly in rural Westmeath. John was a well known poet and published his first volume of poetry in 1982. John was one of the last water and metal diviners in Mullingar, and also enjoyed telling stories, mostly of the ghostly variety. In this Matt Nolan shot, John is photographed with Westmeath county librarian Marian Keaney, who launched his book in 1982.

Published: Wed 8 Apr 2026, 1:00 PM

Tributes were paid to the late Marian Keaney, former county librarian and custodian of the literary legacy of the midlands, at a celebration of her life in Mullingar last week. Historians Ruth Illingworth and Seamus O’Brien, along with local Gaeilgeoir, photographer and author Matt Nolan, led the tributes.

Marian was born in Ballinadoon, County Sligo, on March 26, 1944. She won a scholarship to the Convent of Mercy Secondary School in Longford, and subsequently came to Mullingar as an 18-year-old library assistant in the early 1960s.

One of the most significant events in her life was meeting the colourful, flamboyant owner of Belvedere House, Rex Beaumont, friend and companion of Col Charles Howard-Bury since 1940. Col Howard-Bury was leader of the 1942 Everest expedition and a World War I veteran, linguist, photographer and botanist.

Having been given access to the Howard-Bury diaries and photographs, Marian compiled The Mountains of Heaven, published in 1990, and Everest Reconnaissance, published in 1991. She also wrote Westmeath Authors, a guide to Westmeath Local History sources, The Bridges of Athlone, which she co-wrote with Gearóid O’Brien, and many other publications, as well as contributing to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004.

She also loved photography and her main collections are in the National Library.

Seamus O’Brien said Marian was “a voracious reader, so much so that she was barred from her local library for commandeering all the books”.

She made the library in Mullingar “the beating heart of our community where cultural events are facilitated, books borrowed and vital research on who we are, and were, is carried out on a daily basis”, he said.

Seamus said that Marian’s Magnum Opus – Westmeath Authors, A Bibliographical and Biographical Study, which was published when she was just 25 – was the first guide to the literature of Westmeath. It featured 140 authors from or living in the county, including her cousin, the Athlone novelist John Broderick. That was followed in 1982 by her guide to the sources for Westmeath Local Studies.

Seamus said: “Both of these widely acclaimed publications formed the theoretical framework within which the now much-loved and well-resourced local studies department thrived.”

Marian also brought Belvedere deeply into the consciousness of Westmeath County Council and, as a result, it is now the greatest heritage asset in the county and the midlands, Seamus added.

Matt Nolan first met Marian Keaney, by accident, at the Mullingar Steak Festival 53 years ago. She inspired him to take up writing and photography, using the lakes of Westmeath as his subject matter. He spoke of Marian’s quiet, almost shy, personality, which masked her fierce determination to get things done.

Another whose literary career was kick-started by Marian Keaney is Ruth Illingworth. Ruth recalled that Marian encouraged her in the first piece of writing that she did for the Irish Family History journal. “I will always be very grateful for her interest and encouragement,” she said.

Ruth met Marian more than a half a century ago, through her (Ruth’s) aunt May Raleigh, artist and art teacher. Marian and May shared a love of nature, art and photography, Ruth remarked.

She spoke of the “soirées” held at her aunt’s house in Bishopsgate Street, Mullingar, and attended by the likes of Leo Daly, whom Marian “encouraged in his writing and in his Joycean scholarship”.

“I’d like to think that she is now in some perhaps parallel universe, continuing the soirées with my aunt, with Leo Daly, with Jim and Mariam O’Donnell (of Days Bazaar book shop), and all the others who have passed on, and, of course, her great friend Olive Sharkey, who died just a few weeks ago,” Ruth said.

She referred to Marian’s Westmeath Authors as a work of deep scholarship and spoke of the important part she played in bringing back into the public memory the extraordinary achievements of Col Howard-Bury.

Marian was also instrumental in reviving public awareness of the huge contribution made by some of the Anglo Irish to the cultural life of Ireland and the midlands – the great literary scholars and authors from places like Charleville Castle – the ancestral home of Col Howard-Bury, Tullynally Castle, Maria Edgeworth and others, and their friendships with literary giants like Byron and Shelley, Ruth pointed out.

“Marian Keaney was a person of great honour, of great decency, great charm, hardworking, immensely committed to the literary history of this county and this country,” Ruth stated. Her legacy is her writings and the memories we have of her, she remarked.

Marian Keaney of Newlands, Mullingar, formerly of Ballinadoon, County Sligo, died on March 26. She will be forever remembered and deeply missed by her sisters Teresa and Úna (Australia), nieces Ursula and Vivienne, grandnephews Jack and William, Ursula’s husband Adam, relatives, former colleagues and a wide circle of friends.

Following the celebration of her life at Shaws Funeral Home, Mullingar, Marian was laid to rest in Ballyglass Cemetery.