On The Town: Of all his roles, Des Keogh has most enjoyed playing the solitary John Bosco McLane, the character created by John B Keane in Letters of a Love-Hungry Farmer.
"He's the bottle of whiskey in front of him and he's very lonely. He's failed in every attempt to get a woman and finally he gives in to despair," said Keogh, who celebrated his 70th birthday at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, this week. He has adapted Keane's book into a one-man show.
Actor Anna Manahan, who has played opposite Keogh in another Keane work, The Matchmaker, recalled "a lovely section" in the play when the character, played by Keogh, talks about his wife who has died.
"It would bring tears to a stone," she said. Keogh, she added, "is a multi-talented actor. He has several strings to his bow . . . There are two sides to Des. There's this wonderful comic side and then there's the serious actor".
Actor Barbara Brennan, who is currently rehearsing in The Wiremen, the new musical by Shay Healy, which opens at the Gaiety next Wednesday recalled playing opposite Keogh in a recent episode of the television series, The Clinic. Keogh played a man dealing with the early onset of Alzheimer's.
"He can do both serious and comic roles; he's versatile," Brennan said simply.
Rosaleen Linehan, Keogh's long-time partner on stage, was unable to attend the party as she is playing in London's West End in Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding. However, her husband, writer Fergus Linehan, and their son, composer Conor Linehan, were both at the party.
Others who gathered upstairs in the Gaiety to celebrate the actor's career in theatre were Gay Byrne and his wife, Kathleen Watkins; Tom Hardiman, chair of the Chester Beatty Library; actor Laurie Morton; Pat Moylan, owner of Andrews Lane Theatre; and Keogh's wife, violinist Geraldine O'Grady, with their daughter, Oonagh Keogh, and her children, Ruadhán (aged five) and Aoibhín Keogh Daly (two).
Des Keogh performs at Andrews Lane Theatre, Dublin, in his one-man show, The Love-Hungry Farmer, from Mon, May 2, to Sat, Jun 11. He and Rosaleen Linehan open at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on Mon, Sept 5, in Des and Rosie on the Luas