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Geoghegan (Irish:Mag Eochagáin) is a surname ofIrish origin.
Often spelled without the prefix "Mac", the name has many variants, including Gehegan, Geoghan, Geohegan, Gahagan, Gagan, and Gagon which approximate the most common pronunciations of the name. It is usually pronounced/ˈɡeɪɡən/GAY-gən,/ˈɡɛhəɡən/GEH-hə-gən or/ˈɡoʊhɪɡən/GOH-hig-ən. In Irish it is Mag Eochagáin, from "Eochaidh," a popular medieval Irish and Scottish Gaelic name deriving fromOld Irishech, meaning "horse." The initial "G" of Geoghegan comes from the prefix Mag, a variant of Mac and the anglicised form Mageoghegan or McGeoghegan was formerly much used.
The sept of the MacGeoghegans is of the southernUí Néill, and said to be descended fromNiall of the Nine Hostages. Niall was alive from the mid 4th century into the early 5th century. His father wasEochaid Mugmedón, of the line of Erimhon, one of the sons of Esbain who it is said took Ireland from theTuatha de Danann.
Niall's mother was Carthann Cas Dubh, daughter of the king of Britain. Niall's first wife was Inné, mother of his sonFiachu mac Néill, from who the Geoghegan family are said to be descended. He also had seven other sons with his second wife,Roighnech. Niall's ancestry is claimed by Irish myth to trace back toMiledh ofEsbain,King of Spain, whose wifeScota was the daughter of theEgyptian PharaohNectanebo II. From there the line is sometimes traced to Niul who was married to the daughter of Pharaoh Cingris.
NiallNoígíallach (Old Irish for "having ninehostages"),[1] or in English,Niall of the Nine Hostages, was a prehistoric Irish king, the ancestor of theUí Néill dynasties that dominated the northern half of Ireland from the 6th to the 10th century. Irish annalistic and chronicle sources place his reign in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, although modern scholars, through critical study of the annals, date him about half a century later. He is presumed by some to have been a real person, or at the very least semi-historical but most of the information about him that has come down to us is regarded as legendary. There are various versions of how Niall gained his epithetNoígíallach. The saga "The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages" says that he received five hostages from the five provinces of Ireland (Ulster,Connacht,Leinster,Munster andMeath), and one each fromScotland, theSaxons, theBritons and theFranks.[2] Keating says that he received five from the five provinces of Ireland, and four from Scotland.[3] O'Rahilly suggests that the nine hostages were from the kingdom of theAirgialla (literally "hostage-givers"), a satellite state founded by the Ui Néill's conquests in Ulster, noting that theearly Irish legal textLebor na gCeart ("The Book of Rights") says that the only duty of the Airgialla to the King of Ireland was to give him nine hostages.[4]: 222–232
His sonFiachu mac Néill is said to be the ancestor of theCenél Fiachach, a clan which included several well known sub-clans or septs such as Geoghegan andO'Higgins, whose lands extended fromBirr to Uisnech in southern Westmeath and part of northOffaly and their southern territory became known as Fir Cell (land of the churches), and later the Barony of Moycashel.[5] His son Túathal established a northern branch and his son Úathnemgenn a southern branch. Another son Crimthann was great-grandfather of a local saintÁed mac Bricc (died 589).[6]
On the other hand, it is claimed in the early 15th-century manuscript calledLeabhar Breac that the Geoghegans are descended, not from Fiachu, son of Niall, but from a plebeian, Fiachu, son of Aedh. This claim so enraged the descendants of Fiachu, that they killed the author of the passage, even though he was under the protection of Suanach, the abbot of the monastery of Rahin.[7]
A branch of the MacGeoghegan sept settled in Bunowen, County Galway, and the name is found in that county as well as in their original territory. In the West it has been often shortened to Geoghan and even Gegan. In 1807, John Geoghegan of Bunowen Castle, CountyGalway assumed by royal licence the surname of O'Neill in lieu of Geoghegan and so his descendants.
There have been several notable Geoghegans including:[citation needed]
The bookIrish Pedigrees: Or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation byJohn O'Hart[8] lists the direct lineage fromNiall of the Nine Hostages to the ancestors of the modern day Geoghegans and Gahagans. This lineage also includes the MacGuigan's and McGuigan's of North America and Australia.
