Geoffrey Keating | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1569 |
| Died | c. 1644 (aged 74–75) |
| Burial place | Tubrid Graveyard,Ballylooby-Duhill,Munster |
| Education | University of Bordeaux |
| Occupation(s) | Catholic priest and poet |
| Notable work | Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (History of Ireland) |
Geoffrey Keating (Irish:Seathrún Céitinn;c. 1569 –c. 1644) was an Irish historian. He was born inCounty Tipperary, Ireland, and is buried inTubrid Graveyard in the parish ofBallylooby-Duhill. He became aCatholic priest and a poet.
It was generally believed until recently that Keating had been born in Burgess,County Tipperary; indeed, a monument to Keating was raised beside the bridge at Burgess, in 1990; but Diarmuid Ó Murchadha writes,
The presumption that Geoffrey Keating attended a bardic school at Burgess, County Tipperary, is attributable to Thomas O'Sullevane, a shadowy character from the fringes of literary circles in London. The same unreliable source names Burgess as Keating's place of birth, whereas recent work (Cunningham 2002) indicates thatMoorstown Castle in the parish ofInishlounaght [in Tipperary] was his probable birthplace.[1]
In November 1603, he was one of forty students who sailed forBordeaux under the charge of the Rev. Diarmaid MacCarthy to begin their studies at theIrish College which had just been founded in that city by CardinalFrançois de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux. On his arrival in France he wroteFarewell to Ireland, and upon hearing of theFlight of the Earls wroteLament on the Sad State of Ireland. After obtaining the degree of Doctor of Divinity at theUniversity of Bordeaux he returned about 1610 to Ireland and was appointed to thecure of souls at Uachtar Achaidh in the parish ofKnockgraffan, nearCahir, where he put a stop to the then-common practice of delaying Mass until the neighbouring gentry arrived.
His major works areForas Feasa ar Éirinn (Foundation of Knowledge on Ireland, more usually translatedHistory of Ireland), was written inEarly Modern Irish and completed c. 1634 andTrí bior-ghaoithe an bháis (The three shafts of death) c. 1631.[2]
TheForas Feasa traced the history of Ireland from the creation of the world to the invasion of theNormans in the 12th century, based on the rich native historical andmythological traditions (including that of theMilesians),Irish bardic poetry, monastic annals, and other ecclesiastical records. TheForas Feasa circulated inmanuscript, as Ireland's English administration would not give authority to have it printed because of its pro-Catholic arguments. It was still a time of repression; in 1634 a political campaign for a general reform ofanti-Catholicreligious persecution, known asthe Graces, was denied by the Viceroy.
HavingOld English ancestry, Keating held the political view that Ireland's nobility and natural leadership derived from the survivingIrish clanchiefs and Old English landed families who had remained Catholic. He also accepted theHouse of Stuart as lawful kings of Ireland, which had a long-term influence on both IrishConfederate andJacobites until Papal recognition of the Stuart claim finally ended in 1766. Keating continued to influence Irish genealogical writers such asJohn O'Hart into the 1800s.
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