Keenan, Donal (1919–90), Gaelic footballer and sports administrator, was born 10 March 1919 at Elphin, Co. Roscommon, son of John Keenan, bookmaker, and Hannah Keenan (née O'Reardon). After attending the local national school, Keenan briefly studied at Summerhill College, Sligo, before completing his secondary education at Clongowes Wood College. He then studied medicine at UCD. His home club, Elphin, was one of Roscommon's strongest GAA clubs, and it was at their famous ground, the Orchard, that he received his football education. Owing to his attendance at Clongowes Wood, where he played rugby in the school senior cup team, he never played minor football with Elphin. Indeed, he first played football in Roscommon in the junior football championship in 1936, representing a parish, Tully, that had split from Elphin. They were beaten in the county final. The following year he made a winning debut for Elphin when he played corner forward in the senior county final in which Elphin beat Roscommon town.
In 1938 the Roscommon county board chairman, Dan O'Rourke, invited Keenan for a trial with the Roscommon seniors, in a match at the Orchard against Leitrim. He was picked at left half forward, a position he made his own for the following twelve years. When Keenan was drafted to the senior squad Roscommon were in the doldrums, yet within five years they had beaten Kerry, the kingpins of GAA football, to record their second All-Ireland success. It was a remarkable rise to prominence in the GAA world, which began in 1939 with a defeat at the hands of Dublin in the junior All-Ireland final. But the following year they won that competition, beating Westmeath in the final; this victory, allied with the county's minor All-Ireland victory of 1941, gave a group of young talented footballers belief and confidence in themselves, and explains their victory over a fancied Galway side in the Connacht final of 1943. Success in the All-Ireland semi-final over Louth set up a meeting with the reigning All-Ireland champions, Cavan. Roscommon triumphed after a dour and physically taxing replay, recording their first All-Ireland victory. The following year (1944) they beat Mayo in the Connacht final, accounted for Cavan in the semi-final, and laid claim to greatness when in the final they defeated Kerry to record their second All-Ireland in a row. In 1946 they again emerged from Connacht, before beating Laois in the semi-final, but then losing to Kerry, after a replay, in the final. The replay is considered one of the finest games of that era.
Keenan was an integral part of Roscommon's success in the 1940s. He was a fast skilful player, who was particularly noted for his exceptional accuracy from placed balls. Indeed in the 1946 final he had a one hundred percent record, with a perfect six frees converted. A Connacht Railway Cup team panellist for five years in the 1940s, he also captained UCD to a Dublin senior championship in 1944, won two Sigerson Cup medals, 1944 and 1945, and a further two Roscommon senior championships, before he retired in 1951 to take up an appointment as a medical practitioner in England.
After his return from England he was persuaded to run for the Roscommon county chairmanship in 1957 by Dan O'Rourke, the county chairman and a past president of the GAA, who had a profound impact on Keenan's career. He was elected unanimously and remained chairman of the county board until 1973. In 1967 he was elected vice-chairman of the Connacht council, a position he held until 1970, when he was elected its chairman and vice-president of the GAA. In 1973 he was awarded the highest honour of the association when, at the annual congress in Waterford, he was elected president of the GAA. His term as president ended in 1976 but he remained heavily involved in the GAA in Roscommon, and in particular in the development of Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon town.
Keenan was married to Kitty, with whom he had five children, including Donal, who became a noted sports journalist with the Irish Press and the Sunday Times. He died 19 September 1990 on a visit to Cork, while playing golf.