Geoffrey Keating ( ga, Seathrún Céitinn; c. 1569 – c. 1644) was a 17th-century historian. He was born in
County Tipperary
County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after ...
, Ireland, and is buried in
Tubrid
Tubrid or Tubbrid (Irish: ''Tiobraid'') was formerly a civil and ecclesiastical parish situated between the towns of Cahir and Clogheen in County Tipperary, Ireland. A cluster of architectural remains at the old settlement still known as Tubr ...
Graveyard in the parish of
Ballylooby
Ballylooby () is a village in County Tipperary in Ireland.
It is in the barony of Iffa and Offa West, and is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore.
Location
Ballylooby is on the R668 regional road between Cahir ...
-Duhill. He became an Irish
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
priest and a poet.
Biography
It was generally believed until recently that Keating had been born in Burgess,
County Tipperary
County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after ...
; indeed, a monument to Keating was raised beside the bridge at Burgess, in 1990; but Diarmuid Ó Murchadha writes,
In November 1603, he was one of forty students who sailed for
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...
under the charge of the Rev. Diarmaid MacCarthy to begin their studies at the
Irish College
Irish Colleges is the collective name used for approximately 34 centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people opened on continental Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
History
The Colleges were set up to educate Ro ...
which had just been founded in that city by Cardinal
François de Sourdis
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King ...
, Archbishop of Bordeaux. On his arrival in France he wrote ''Farewell to Ireland'', and upon hearing of the
Flight of the Earls
The Flight of the Earls ( ir, Imeacht na nIarlaí)In Irish, the neutral term ''Imeacht'' is usually used i.e. the ''Departure of the Earls''. The term 'Flight' is translated 'Teitheadh na nIarlaí' and is sometimes seen. took place in Se ...
wrote ''Lament on the Sad State of Ireland''. After obtaining the degree of Doctor of Divinity at the
University of Bordeaux
The University of Bordeaux (French: ''Université de Bordeaux'') is a Lists of universities in France, public university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Southern France, southwestern France.
It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bor ...
he returned about 1610 to Ireland and was appointed to the
cure of souls at Uachtar Achaidh in the parish of
Knockgraffan, near
Cahir
Cahir (; ) is a town in County Tipperary in Ireland. It is also a civil parish in the barony of Iffa and Offa West.
Location and access
For much of the twentieth century, Cahir stood at an intersection of two busy national roadways: the Dubli ...
, where he put a stop to the then-common practice of delaying Mass until the neighbouring gentry arrived.
His major work, ''
Foras Feasa ar Éirinn'' (''Foundation of Knowledge on Ireland'', more usually translated ''History of Ireland''), was written in
Early Modern Irish
Early Modern Irish ( ga, Gaeilge Chlasaiceach, , Classical Irish) represented a transition between Middle Irish and Modern Irish. Its literary form, Classical Gaelic, was used in Ireland and Scotland from the 13th to the 18th century.
External ...
and completed ca. 1634.
The ''Foras Feasa'' traced the history of Ireland from the creation of the world to the invasion of the
Normans
The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
in the 12th century, based on the rich native historical and
mythological
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
traditions (including that of the
Milesians),
Irish bardic poetry
Bardic poetry is the writings produced by a class of poets trained in the bardic schools of Ireland and the Gaelic parts of Scotland, as they existed down to about the middle of the 17th century or, in Scotland, the early 18th century. Most of ...
, monastic annals, and other ecclesiastical records. The ''Foras Feasa'' circulated in
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...
, 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 of
anti-Catholic religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or their lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within societies to alienate o ...
, known as the
Graces
In Greek mythology, the Charites ( ), singular ''Charis'', or Graces, were three or more goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, goodwill, and fertility. Hesiod names three – Aglaea ("Shining"), Euphrosyne ("Joy"), and Thali ...
, was denied by the viceroy.
Having
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
ancestry, Keating held the political view that Ireland's nobility and natural leadership derived from the surviving
Irish clan
Irish clans are traditional kinship groups sharing a common surname and heritage and existing in a lineage-based society, originating prior to the 17th century. A clan (or ''fine'' in Irish) included the chief and his patrilineal relatives; howe ...
Chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the bo ...
s and Old English landed families who had remained Catholic. He also accepted the
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fi ...
as lawful Kings of Ireland, which had a long-term influence on both Irish
Confederate and
Jacobites until Papal recognition of the Stuart claim finally ended in 1766. Keating continued to influence Irish genealogical writers such as
John O'Hart
John O'Hart (1824–1902) was an Irish genealogist. He was born in Crossmolina, County Mayo, Ireland. A committed Roman Catholic and Irish nationalist, O'Hart had originally planned to become a priest but instead spent two years as a polic ...
into the 1800s.
Works
:''Edited and translated works : ''
*
**For a list of editions, translations, and manuscripts see
Foras Feasa ar Éirinn
*
*
*
*
References
Sources
*
*
External links
The History of Ireland (English Translation)with memoir, notes and genealogies at The Ex-Classics Web Site.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keating, Geoffrey
Irish chroniclers
Irish poets
17th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests
Irish-language writers
University of Bordeaux alumni
People of Elizabethan Ireland
Poet priests
Irish people of Norman descent
People from County Tipperary
17th-century deaths
17th-century Irish historians
Irish genealogists
1560s births
1640s deaths