John Keogh (1740 – 13 November 1817) was an Irish

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

and political activist. He was a leading campaigner for

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

and reform of the Irish Parliament, active in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

on the Catholic Committee and, with some reservation, in the

Society of United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional reform, ...

Background

Keogh was of an obscure family. He was born in

and made his considerable fortune in

land speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.) Many s ...

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...

, and

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trading. He owned land in Dublin,

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, and County Leitrim, and by the 1790s he had an income of around £6,000 per year.Kelly, James (2004) "John Keogh" In Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. ''

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

.'' vol. 31, 356-357. London: OUP

Political activity

He became involved in the political struggle for Roman Catholic rights in the 1780s, when he was a member of the Catholic Committee from 1781. In 1784, Keogh joined in a plan for

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

and Dublin radical elements to combine to push for Catholic franchise, and by 1790 Keogh was leading the Catholic Committee. He was part of a delegation that was denied a hearing by the

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, and so they went to

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to make their case for the repeal of the penal laws and extension of the vote to Catholics. They met with government ministers personally, and they received promises; however, Lord Kenmare quashed all progress. On the selection of the Protestant radical lawyer Theobald Wolfe Tone as Secretary to the committee, he and Keogh became great friends, frequently travelling together around Ireland. Tone's nickname for Keogh was 'Gog'. In December 1792, Keogh led the

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in Dublin. The elections to the convention, "conducted in a blaze of publicity", spread "an expectation of dramatic change to Catholics at every level", and was a spur to the growth among the Catholic peasantry, petty shopkeepers and artisans of militant DefenderismElliott, Marianne (1993), "The Defenders in Ulster", in David Dickson, Daire Keogh and Kevin Whelan eds., ''The United Irishment, Republicanism, Radicalism and Rebellion'', (pp. 222-233), Dubllin, Lilliput, , pp. 227-228 The Viceroy, Lord Westmorland, called on London for additional troops. The

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

saw the hand of the United Irishmen represented, not least, by Keogh who had followed Tone into the Dublin Society of United Irishmen. Of the 248 delegates elected to the Catholic Convention, 48 were members of the Society. The Catholic hierarchy was also alarmed, prompting Keogh to complain of the bishops as "old men used to bend power; mistaking all attempts at liberty as in some way connected with the murders in France". In opening the convention (the "Back Lane Parliament"), to great applause, he had two prelates seated on either side of the chairmen. But the petition, as finally approved and signed by the delegates, was presented to the bishops as a ''fait accompli'', with no implication that their sanction was sought or obtained.Keogh, Daire. (1993), "Archbishop Troy, the Catholic Church and Irish Radicalism, 1791-3", in D. Dickson, D. Keogh and K. Whelan eds., ''The United Irishmen: Republicanism, Radicalism and Rebellion,'' Dublin: Lilliput Press, , (pp. 124-134) p.131. In January 1793, Keogh led a delegation (which included Tone) that carried the petition, which called for full emancipation, to London. The government, eager to secure a measure of Catholic loyalty in advance of the war with the new French Republic, accorded them an audience with the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

, and in April helped force a

Catholic Relief Act The Roman Catholic Relief Bills were a series of measures introduced over time in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries before the Parliaments of Great Britain and the United Kingdom to remove the restrictions and prohibitions impose ...

through the Dublin Parliament. The Act relieved Catholics of most of their remaining Penal Law disabilities, lifting the bar to legal appointments and to army commissions, and admitting them on the same limited and idiosyncratic terms as Protestants to the parliamentary franchise. The necessary oaths, however, continued to bar them from

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

itself. In return, Keogh promised that Catholics would not press for further separation from England and that their Committee would disband—concessions for which Keogh was sharply criticised. In 1795, Keogh briefly reconvened the Committee in response to the declaration of the new

Earl Fitzwilliam Earl Fitzwilliam (or FitzWilliam) was a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain held by the head of the Fitzwilliam family (later Wentworth-Fitzwilliam). History The Fitzwilliams acquired extensive holdings in the ...

in favour of full emancipation. When Fitzwilliam was recalled after just 100 days, Keogh led another delegation to London where it received scant regard. Keogh's authority and influence in the Catholic movement in Ireland decreased as newer leaders emerged, though he remained (at least formally) on the Dublin committee of the

United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional reform, ...

into 1798. Although he was frequently arrested and searched, Keogh was a moderate radical, and he used his wealth to aid his co-religionists' cause without crossing the line to overt illegality. He was on the non-violent wing of the United Irishmen, along with Thomas Addis Emmet. Days before the outbreak of the

1798 Rebellion The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a Irish republicanism, ...

, in despair at the likely result, Keogh printed a pamphlet warning his followers in Dublin that it could not succeed. Some republicans, such as Walter Cox (who acted as a bodyguard to Lord Edward Fitzgerald) were sceptical of Keogh's motives. Cox suggested that Keogh might have colluded with the government to frustrate the preparations for an insurrection. The acknowledged government informer Samuel Turner (himself a Convention delegate from Newry) suggests, however, that Keogh would have been an unlikely source of information for

Dublin Castle Dublin Castle ( ga, Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a former Motte-and-bailey castle and current Irish government complex and conference centre. It was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin. Until 1922 it was the se ...

. Turner reported that while Keogh was formally counted among 22 members of the "National Committee" of the United Irishmen meeting in Dublin in the summer of 1797, like his fellow Catholic Committee veterans Thomas Broughall and Richard McCormick, Keogh "did not attend".

Death and burial

He died in Dublin in 1817 and was buried in St. Kevin's Churchyard, where his grave can be seen.

References

External links

Finegan, Francis, SJ. "Was John Keogh an Informer?" ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'' Vol. 39, No. 153 (Mar., 1950), pp. 75-86. Irish Province of the Society of Jesus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keogh, John 1740 births 1817 deaths 18th-century Irish landowners 19th-century Irish landowners Irish Roman Catholics People from Harold's Cross United Irishmen Irish merchants