Ronan Keating makes rare admission about brother's death as singer shares 'I struggled a lot with it'

Lauren Williams
Sat, 11 Apr 2026 03:00:02 +0000

Boyzone singer Ronan Keating has opened up about his brother, Ciarán’s death which occured in 2023 after a car crash.

The star's brother and his wife, Annemarie, were travelling to watch their son play football when their car collided with another, which was driven by Dean Harte in July 2023 in County Mayo.

Mr Harte was given a 17-month suspended sentence in February 2025 after he pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death.

Speaking about the sentencing, Mr Keating told RTÉ's Drivetime: “What happened to Ciarán, the injustice, the heartbreak, the devastating impact it has, and not just on Ciarán's siblings, but on his children, his grandchildren, his wife - the ripples, it's overwhelming.”

He admitted: "As a family you find it hard to breathe sometimes,” before adding he was "floored" and "disappointed" by the sentencing, describing the judicial system as "broken".

"We don't want to see some kid go to jail, whose life is going to be thrown away, we don't want that, that's not what we're looking for.

"But what we're looking for is to make sure somebody else doesn't die because of carelessness. That someone else's family is not ripped apart."

Now the singer has opened up about the impact his brother’s death had on his life and his mental health in his new BBC series - Ronan Keating’s Wild Atlantic.

The programme stands as a travelogue of the west coast of Ireland, but evolved into the singer delving deeper into his childhood, his family and his brothers passing as he rediscovered the place where they grew up.

Discussing how it made him feel to open up on camera, Mr Keating stated: “ You know, I got a lot of therapy after my brother was killed. I struggled a lot with it.

“And to be honest, I still don't think I've unboxed a lot of it. But it was a very natural thing to speak about.

“I was just talking while making the show and it just came out, and while we were out on the road, we adapted, and we changed the plan.

“I invited my brother's elder children out and to come on the journey with me and speak about my brother, to almost help them to understand and help them deal with the loss of their dad.”

He added that it felt “cathartic” to openly discuss the heavy toll it took on himself and his family, noting: “You know, I feel very grounded on the West Coast.

“There's definitely a draw, which I feel is what happened with Ciarán, why he chose there. He felt that we spent great summers as kids on the west coast of Ireland as a family.

“And, you know, there were great memories and there was just a real magnetic pull to bring me back there.”

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The No Matter What singer explained he and his brother had a “very tight bond” and after spending a lot of time in the music industry together, his brother ultimately decided to leave the scene.

Mr Keating’s sister-in-law is suing a man who was given a suspended sentence for careless driving, causing his death.