Michael John Keatinge (1793–1877), also Keating, was a nineteenth century Irish

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

priest. He argued in 1827 that the economic problems of Ireland were largely caused by the system of letting land, with which government should not interfere.

Life

Keatinge was educated at

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, graduating B.A. in 1814. In 1824 he was a school patron at

Bruree Bruree () is a village in south-eastern County Limerick, Ireland, on the River Maigue. It takes its name from the nearby ancient royal fortress, the alternative name of which from the earliest times into the High Middle Ages was ''Dún Eochair M ...

, and at Cahirnarry, also in county Limerick. His expressed views on economics in Ireland have been characterised as "reductive

Malthusian Malthusianism is the idea that population growth is potentially exponential while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population die off. This event, c ...

". At this time there were proponents in the Church of Ireland clergy of a Poor Law system. Keatinge belonged to the clerical opposition, as did George Hickey of

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

who in 1820 wrote as "Martin Doyle" on ''The State of the Poor of Ireland Considered'' and agricultural education, and George Miller of

Derryvullan Derryvullan () is a civil parish and townland (of 296 acres) in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The civil parish is situated in the historic baronies of Tirkennedy and Lurg. Derryvullan townland is in the portion of the parish of the same nam ...

, who advocated '' laisser faire''. Keatinge saw the solutions, to perceived overpopulation, in emigration, and "moral education". By 1827 Keatinge was Rector of

Ventry Ventry (), officially ''Ceann Trá'',Ventry/Ceann Trá
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a Gaeltacht village in County K ...

county Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

. He was Rector there to 1841. Keatinge was

Archdeacon of Ardfert The Archdeacon of Ardfert was a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Anglican Diocese of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe from the early thirteenth century to the early twentieth. As such he was responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the ...

from 1839 to 1856; and

Dean of Kilfenora The Dean of Kilfenora was based at the Cathedral Church of St Fachnan (also known as St Fachtna) in Kilfenora, Clare in the small Diocese of Kilfenora within the Church of Ireland. It is probable that the Dean and Chapter were established aroun ...

from then until 1877.

Works

Keatinge was the author of two books published at Limerick, under variant names Michael I. Keating or Michael J. Keating: *''A letter to Wilmot Horton, Esq. M.P. on emigration from Ireland'' (1826), as Michael I. Keating, Secretary of the Limerick Emigrants' Friend Society *''A Letter to the Right Hon. Henry Goulburn on Grand Jury Laws and a legal provision for the Poor of Ireland'' (1827), was the second edition, ''Suggestions for a Revision of the Irish Grand Jury Laws'' having appeared in 1825.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keatinge, Michael John Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Archdeacons of Ardfert Deans of Kilfenora 1793 births 1877 deaths Diocese of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe