Matthew Keogh or Keugh or Keough ( 1744 – 25 June 1798) was the United Irish governor of Wexford during the

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

. Held responsible for a massacre of loyalists in the town, he was hanged following its recapture by Crown forces. He was born in Ireland around 1744 and joined the British Army as a private soldier. He was promoted to Ensign and gazetted to the King's

60th Regiment of Foot 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

in 1763. He was promoted to Lieutenant in the King's 45th Regiment of Foot in 1765 and finally transferred to the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot in 1772, retiring as a captain-lieutenant in 1774. He saw action in North America. When the

Wexford Rebellion The Wexford Rebellion refers to the outbreak in County Wexford, Ireland in May 1798 of the Society of United Irishmen's rebellion against the British rule. It was the most successful and most destructive of all the uprisings that occurred throu ...

began in 1798 he was living in Wexford as a freeman of the town, possibly engaged in shipping. He had been appointed a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for County Wexford but deprived of his seat on the bench in 1796 for alleged revolutionary sympathies. On 31 May 1798, when the rebel forces 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, ...

occupied the town of Wexford, a representative Directory, or Council of the People, was formed to administer the town and county. Matthew Keogh was elected Cathaoirleach or presiding officer, effectively Military Governor of the county. He subsequently failed however, in spite of his good intentions, to prevent a mob from slaughtering nearly 100 local loyalists with pikes after mock trials on Wexford bridge on 20 June. When the British force retook the town a few days later he was put on trial with other local leaders and sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on 25 June 1798 when he and the other defendants were hanged on Wexford bridge and their bodies thrown into the River Slaney. Keogh's corpse was beheaded and his head stuck on a spike at the courthouse.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keogh, Matthew Date of birth unknown 1798 deaths 18th-century Irish military personnel Military personnel from County Wexford United Irishmen People executed for treason People executed by the British military by hanging Executed Irish people People executed by the Kingdom of Great Britain Year of birth uncertain 27th Regiment of Foot officers Sherwood Foresters officers Irish officers in the British Army 18th-century British Army personnel King's Royal Rifle Corps officers Place of birth missing

See also

References