Fergal Patrick Keane was born on 6 January 1961 and is an Irish foreign correspondent with BBC News, and an author.
21 Facts About Fergal Keane
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For some time, Keane was the BBC's correspondent in South Africa.
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Fergal Keane is a nephew of the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist John B Keane.
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Fergal Keane's mother is Maura Hassett, a teacher and actress.
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Fergal Keane attended three primary schools in Dublin: Scoil Bhride, a gaelscoil, St Mary's College and Terenure College, and, later, one primary school in Cork, St Joseph's.
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Today, Fergal Keane continues to draw on this experience acting as a public speaker, event chair and after dinner speaker.
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On finishing school in 1979, Fergal Keane started his career as a journalist with the Limerick Leader.
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Fergal 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.
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From 1990 to 1994 Fergal 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.
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Fergal Keane was named as overall winner of the Amnesty International Press Awards in 1993 and won an Amnesty television prize in 1994 for his investigation of the Rwandan genocide, Journey into Darkness.
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Fergal Keane 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, addressed to his newborn son, and a One World Television Award in 1999.
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Fergal Keane won a BAFTA award for his documentary on Rwanda, Valentina's Story.
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Fergal Keane 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 1995 Orwell Prize for his book Season of Blood.
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Fergal Keane won a Peabody Award and an Emmy Award for his reporting as part of the BBC team covering the 2015 refugee crisis.
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Fergal Keane was a patron of the UK-based development agency Msaada, which assisted survivors of the Rwandan genocide.
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Fergal Keane has been awarded honorary degrees in literature from the University of Strathclyde, Bournemouth University and Staffordshire University.
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Fergal Keane was appointed an OBE for services to journalism in the 1997 New Year's Honours list.
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In November 2018, Fergal Keane provided the commentary for the Westminster Abbey service marking the centenary of the Armistice.
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The BBC revealed in January 2020 that Fergal Keane had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for several years, and consequently moved out of his role as Africa editor in order to aid his recovery.
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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.
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In 2024, Fergal Keane was elected as an honorary fellow of the British Academy.