INSPIRATION comes in many ways. As a teenager growing up in Sinn Féin, it was through Brian Keenan that inspiration came to me. He had an air of legend about him, a man with massive presence and a glowing persistent temperament. For me he personified the age-old Irish struggle for national liberation and reunification. When Brian Keenan spoke, you listened. Not because he was one for using the latest buzzword and not because he spoke as someone at the cutting edge of the struggle ‘to keep the troops happy’. You listened because he had a remarkable talent for imparting knowledge. He was a revolutionary teacher in so many ways. Premium service article