Co-director Judy Kelly writes for Culture about her documentary Keelin Shanley: Faraway, Still Close - an intimate look back at the life and death of the RTÉ broadcaster.
Watch Keelin Shanley: Faraway, Still Close here, via RTÉ Player.
As I drove towards Keelin Shanley's house with my camera in the boot, I was nervous. It was January 2020, and I was going to interview her for a documentary on her life, her career in journalism, and her cancer diagnosis.
Keelin and I were close friends. We had made a documentary together in the past - about other people’s stories. But this time, it was different. I was going to ask her some incredibly difficult and emotional questions about how cancer had impacted her life, and her family, as she faced the terminal stage of her diagnosis.
But then I remembered what Keelin herself had taught me some years before. I saw her talent in making people feel comfortable to reveal the most painful parts of their lives. I asked her how she did it. Keelin’s view was that first, you have to listen and respect people’s boundaries but you have to be brave enough to ask difficult questions. Because most of the time, people want to tell their stories and have a chance to share their experiences.
I remembered this as we sat down, just the two of us. I needn’t have worried. In typical Keelin style, she put me at ease immediately. Over the next few hours, we covered some really tough territory. Keelin was facing the reality of death at the age of 51. She talked about what it was like to have to tell her young children, Lucy and Ben that she would not be getting better. But no conversation with Keelin Shanley could stay sad for long. And my overwhelming memory of that time was laughter. She had a wry, infectious sense of humour, and we had as many giggles as we had tough moments in the conversation.
Keelin was never the story and she didn’t want to be. But when she was just weeks from dying, she knew she had something to say. She hoped that this documentary, co-directed by myself and Keelin’s husband Conor Ferguson, would tell her story in a sensitive but clear-eyed way.
Before she died, Keelin took stock of the documentaries she had made for over many years, and she was rightly proud. She was one of the first reporters to really shine a light on the lives of people living in the most difficult conditions – the flip side of the Celtic Tiger. Her many documentaries for Prime Time Investigates looked at Juvenile Crime, Alcohol and Cocaine use, Sex trafficking, Poverty – she was determined to tell the stories of real lives that many of us don’t know - or don’t want to know. And when it came to asking why these situations endured, she could be as tough with politicians and policymakers as she could be gentle with the people impacted by those decisions.
The way Keelin faced her cancer was incredible to witness. She continued to work in a high-pressure and high-profile role as co-anchor of the RTÉ Six One News, which she loved. And when she heard about an experimental cancer trial in the US, she was determined to get on that trial. The chance that it would cure her cancer was very small but that hope still drove her on. She was someone who could focus on a sliver of possibility and push out most of the negative thoughts. She was determined to try everything to be there for her children and they kept her going. And then, when all hope was lost, she seemed to pivot to thinking and planning for the kids and Conor, without anger or bitterness.
There’s no 'right way’ to have cancer or to face unspeakable loss. Over the course of the production of the documentary, I also lost another close friend, Isolda Bennett, and my wonderful Dad, Peter Kelly. So, to be making a documentary where cancer has cruelly taken away another friend wasn’t easy. But our job was to do justice to Keelin. To reflect what a special person she was, what drove her, and how she faced her illness. We wanted a record to be there for Keelin’s children and family for the future. And we really hope that we have achieved that.
Watch: Keelin Shanley: Faraway, Still Close on Monday 8th November at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
