Geoffrey Keating's History of Ireland, 1634

[smcarberry]

Here are some notes on an interesting work by Geoffrey Keating in the 1630s, an effort to preserve knowledge contained in several old manuscripts, devalued by some for Fr. Keating's lack of critical assessment of such information but acknowledged as preserving what would have been lost forever upon disappearance of the older manuscripts.

There is below first a Wikipedia description of the author, so that the selected excerpts here can be better understood.

Members of the Mulconry family have a particular interest in this work, as explained in the preface excerpt.

The Google Books version has the usual search engine feature. I actually first encountered this on the Internet Archives, that collaborative effort by institutions to place their book collections online.

Note that the original was entirely in Irish but various versions of it include translation into English.

Sharon Carberry


"Seathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was a 17th century Irish Roman Catholic priest, poet and historian. He was born in Burgess, Ballylooby, just outside Cahir in County Tipperary c. 1569, and died c. 1644...

In November 1603, he was one of forty students who sailed for Bordeaux...to begin their studies at the Irish College which had just been founded in that city by Cardinal François de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux...After obtaining the degree of Doctor of Divinity at the University of Bordeaux he returned about 1610 to Ireland and was appointed to...the parish of Knockgraffan, near Cahir, 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 (literally "Foundation of Knowledge on Ireland", more usually translated "History of Ireland") was written in Early Modern Irish and completed ca. 1634...The Foras Feasa circulated in manuscript as Ireland's English administration would not give authority to have it printed because of its pro-Catholic arguments...

Having Old English ancestry, Keating's political view was that Ireland's nobility and natural leadership derived from the surviving Gaelic clan chiefs and Old English landed families who had remained Roman Catholic. He also accepted the Stuart dynasty as legitimate because of its part-Gaelic ancestry. This had a continuing influence on the politics of the Confederate and Jacobite supporters in Ireland until Papal recognition of the Stuarts ended in 1766. Keating continued to have an influence on Irish genealogical writers such as O'Hart into the 1800s."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Keating

From The Internet Archive version of the Keating manuscript:
"The Irish Texts Society was established in 1898 for the purpose of publishing texts in the Irish language, accompanied by such introductions, English translations, glossaries and notes as might be deemed desirable."

using the Google Books version:
The History of Ireland
By Geoffrey Keating, David Comyn, Patrick Stephen Dinneen, Irish Texts Society, 1901

p. 127 description of the five Munsters (sub-districts of the ancient province) with Clare as "West Munster"

p. 201 arrival of the Firbog in Moyree, near Tulla

pp. vi-vii (preface)
"O'Donovan himself says of Keating's History of Ireland : — 'This work, though much abused by modern writers, on account of some fables which the author has inserted, is, nevertheless, of great authority, and has been
drawn from the most genuine sources of Irish history, some of which have been since lost. . .The most valuable copy of it...is now preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (H. 5. 36.). It is in the handwriting of John, son of Torna O'Mulconry, of the Ardchoill family, in the county of Clare, a most profound Irish scholar, and a contemporary of Keating.'
The next is an older MS., dated 1643, in my own possession, unfortunately in bad preservation, but still legible for the body of the work, written by James O'Mulconry, of Ballymecuda, in the county of Clare."

[dKeating]

Are there any original copies existing of any of Dr. Geoffrey Keating's writings?

[mcreed]

UCC's CELT project page on the Foras Feasa at
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G100054/header.html lists the manuscripts below:

1. Manuscript sources.A MS in the Franciscan Convent Library, Dublin. Written in the convent of Kildare. Probably the oldest existing transcript of Foras Feasa, written before 1640.
2. MS H. 5 26 by O'Mulconry, Trinity College Dublin, cat. no. 1397.
3. MS H. 5 32, Trinity College Dublin, cat. no. 1403.
4. Haliday's text, stated to have been printed from a MS "by O'Mulconry, dated 1657, but differing considerably in places from those named."
5. An older MS, which was in the possession of D. Comyn, written by James O'Mulconry, of Ballymecuda, Co. Clare, dated 1643.
6. A MS which was in the possession of D. Comyn, written in Dublin by Teig O'Nachtan, dated 1704.

Regards,
Mike