Bench It Like Behan

Bench It Like Behan

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David Keenan is a young singer with an old poet’s soul and wardrobe. His acoustic guitar is adorned with pieces of poems, love letters and photographs. On our recent trip to Dublin, we asked David to pick a meeting spot that felt important to him and were not at all surprised that he chose a spot commemorating beloved Irish writer and poet Brendan Behan. A life-like sculpture of Behan sits on a bench along the banks of the Royal Canal, inspired by a lyric in his famous piece “The Auld Triangle.” When David first moved to Dublin, he would often sit on this very bench beside Behan, confiding in him and drawing inspiration from his spirit. We grab a seat by the water to hear David perform a gorgeous song on acoustic guitar from his latest EP, ‘Evidence of Living’, and he tells the story of spitting in his own hand to make a pact with himself before opening for Glen Hansard.