Born at Gordon, north of Quorn, SA, Daniel Keneally went to school in what he called a 'little tin box' at Castle Springs, then worked on the family farm and as a farm labourer on neighbouring properties until the late 1920s. Forced off the land by the desperate conditions of the time, he went to work for the Stanley wine company in Clare.
In about 1931 he left there and returned to the farm at Gordon as a subsistence farmer, but was unable to make ends meet. He worked on the railways until he was diagnosed with a heart disorder, after which he worked, among other things, as a cobbler mending boots and shoes. He found that as he hammered the shoes, verses came into his head and he would write them down. He also wrote down the verses that came into his head during the night, particularly writing about the Flinders Ranges and the people who lived and died there. His verses show a great love of the countryside.
For his first publication Keneally adopted the writing name Daniel O'Connell, after the old Irish patriot, later publishing under his own name. He contributed poems to the Quorn Mercury and an undated extract from that newspaper included in the first issue of his book Hills of Longing described him as 'one of our most valued contributors'. In his later years he lived at Port Augusta.
He had seven children, one of whom was Gavin Keneally, who served as a Minister in the Bannon government in South Australia.
