An Appreciation: ONE OF nature's true gentleman and a real Dub, Colum McKeown left this Earth on June 30th to join his much-loved brother Jimmy and his honoured parents, Felix and Theresa.
Colum never sought either attention or recognition, yet he touched, in a very simple way, the lives of many people by those very qualities.
Born in 1934, he was an accountant and part owner of Ross’s Hotel in Dún Laoghaire. But he decided to change profession and commenced study as a solicitor in 1969 at Earlsfort Terrace, UCD.
The friends he made during this time would be added to the lifelong friends who recently bade him farewell.
He set up his own practice, Colum McKeown Co, having left the old George J Colley Co firm in 1975. He was a very well respected defence litigation lawyer, including among his clients some of the top insurance companies in the country.
He acted for many years for a number of defendant clients including Bruno Tassin Din, then managing director of the newspaper Corriere della Sera in the famous Banco Ambrosiano case, where he succeeded in securing for his clients, following two High Court actions and a trip to the Supreme Court, an ultimate settlement in Luxembourg, making legal history because it was the first time that the High Court left Ireland to hear legal evidence abroad.
He was for many years the secretary of the Dublin Theatre Festival and in its embryonic days worked with such luminaries as the late Michael Scott, Tim O’Driscoll, Kevin McCourt together with the current director of the Gate, Michael Colgan, and helped to create a foothold in Irish Theatre, the steps of which are now traced from Dublin to Broadway and literally created the “stage” for opportunities for many people in Irish Theatre.
In the 1970s and the 1980s he was a director of a national charity for deaf people, continuously supporting the cause in various levels of society. He also gave his advice freely to the management of many Dominican schools.
The love of his life, Eileen, was never far away from Colum and he often opined that he must have done something good in another life to be rewarded with such a beautiful and loving wife in this life.
Colum made friends easily and in the last years of his life some of his friends became known as his Guardian Angels. Because of his Alzheimer’s, they collected Colum every day and brought him to lunch in his beloved Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club.
His family were everything to him and the true blue that he was, his wife, his family and his friends were all that really counted. He would see everything else as a bottle of smoke.
He will be sadly and dearly missed by his beloved Eileen, his devoted sisters, Patty, Ursula and Antoinette, his family and by his many friends especially those in Fitzwilliam.
– NS