1702-1764 [vars. Geoghegan; Abbé Jacques MacGeoghegan]; b. nr. Uisneach, Co. Westmeath, son of a prosperous farmer; related to Conall MacGeoghegan [q.v.], translator of Annals of Clonmacnoise, and to Fr. Francis O’Molloy [Prionsias Ó Maolmhuaidh, q.v.]; ed. Rheims [var. Lombard Coll.]; worked as tutor to the emigré community in Hamburg and published Oeuvres mêlées (1730) in Latin, French and English, ded. to Donough MacCarthy (4th earl of Clancarty); grad. MA from Paris Univ., 1733; appt. Abbé of Poissy, in the Chartres diocese; elected Provisor of Lombard College, Paris but suspended amid disputes over French adherence to Gallicanism and transferred to duties as chaplain at the Hotel de Ville - where he serve a certain Madame de Bignon; later transferred to parish of Saint-Merri, Paris; served as chaplain to Irish troops in armies of France;

issued Histoire de l’Irlande (Vol I. 1758; Vol, II. 1762; Vol. III, 1763), dedicated to the “Wild Geese” whose service in the French army he relates in it, stating that 450,000 Irish troops died in French wars - a figure questioned by W. E. H. Lecky [q.v.]; his History incls. a study of the Book of Lecan, then held at the Irish College, Paris, but drew mainly on Geoffrey Keating [q.v.] and John Lynch [q.v.] for his materials; prob. enjoyed access to the Royal Library through Madame de Bignon, a a relative of the King’s Librarians of Jean-Paul and Armand-Jérôme Bignon; the anti-Williamite character of the book make it unpublishable in Ireland; Edward Ledwich [q.v.] disputed his account of the Celtic Christianity and the implied claims of Irish civilisation and building in the Roman manner; d. of fever at Saint-Merri, 30 March 1764; his Histoire de l’Irlande was translated by Patrick O’Kelly and published by him in 1831-32; rep. by James Duffy in 1844; a reiss. by Sadleir contains a ‘continuation’ by John Mitchel (NY 1869) - first published separate under same title, 1868. ODNB

Note that Patrick O’Kelly, who published in 1838 the Historica Descriptio Hiberniae (1838) of William Kelly, a Jacobite one of the ‘Wild Geeee’ who became soldiers on the continent, must have felt a strong family affinity with his namesake and likewise with MacGeoghegan who dedicated his History to the Irish Brigade - i.e., the self-same Irish soldiers who left Ireland at the Treaty of Limerick and fought on foreign fields while their estates and properties" - in a phrase from MacGeoghegan - were confiscated by the Williamite victors at home, often in clear breach of the terms of the Treaty which was brushed aside and replaced by the Penal Laws banning Catholics from virtually all forms of civic office and most forms of civil rights. [See further on O’Kelly - infra.

In preparing a Continuation of the valuable History of Ireland by the Abbe MacGeoghegan, the compiler has aimed only to reduce and condense into a coherent narrative the materials which exist in abundance in a great number of publications of every date within the period included in the Continuation.

That period of a century and a half embraces a series of deeply interesting events in the annals of our country — the deliberate Breach of the Treaty of Limerick — the long series of Penal Laws — the exile of the Irish soldiery to France —their achievements in the French and other services — the career of Dean Swift — the origin of a Colonial Nationality among the English of Ireland — the Agitations of Lucas — the Volunteering — the Declaration of Independence — the history of the Independent Irish Parliament — the Plot to bring about the Union — the United Irishmen — the Negotiations with France — the Insurrection of 1198 — the French Expeditions to Ireland — the “Union” (so called) — the decay of Trade — the fraudulent Imposition of Debt upon Ireland — the Orangemen — the beginning of O’Connell’s power — the Veto Agitation — the Catholic Association — Clare Election — Emancipation — the series of Famines — the Repeal Agitation — the Monster Meetings — the State Trials — the Great Famine — the Death of O’Connell — the Irish Confederation — the fate of Smith O’Brien and his comrades — the Legislation of the United Parliament for Ireland — Poor-Laws — National Education — the TenantRight Agitation — the present condition of the country, etc.

The mere enumeration of these principal heads of the narrative will show how very wide a field has had to be traversed in this Continuation; and what a large number of works — Memoirs, Correspondence — Parliamentary Debates — Speeches and local histories must have been collated, in order to produce a continuous story. There exist, indeed, some safe and useful guides, in the works of writers who have treated special parts or limited periods of the general History; and the compiler has had no scruple in making very large use of the collections [iii] of certain diligent writers who may be said to have almost exhausted their respective parts of the subject.

It may aid the reader who desires to make a more minute examination of any part of the History, if we here set down the titles of the principal works which have been used in preparing the present’s Doctor John Curry’s Historical Review of the Civil Wars, and State of the Irish Catholics— Mr. Francis Plowden’s elaborate and conscientious Historical Review of the State of Ireland, before the Union’s — the same author’s History of Ireland from the Union till 1810 — the Letters and Pamphlets of Dean Swift — Harris’s Life of William the Third — Arthur Young’s Tour in Ireland— the Irish “Parliamentary Debates” — Mr. Scully’s excellent State of the Penal Laws— Thomas MacNevin’s History of the Volunteers, in the “Library of Ireland” — Hardy’s Life of Lord Charlemont— the Four Series of Dr. Madden’s collections on the Lives and Times of the United Irishmen— Hay’s History of the Rebellion in Wexford— the Rev. Mr Gordon’s History of the Irish Rebellion [the work of Sir Richard Musgrave, as being wholly untrustworthy, is purposely excluded] — The Papers and Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis — and of Lord Castlereagh; — the Memoirs of Miles Byrne, an Irish Exile in France, and a French officer of rank, lately deceased — the Lives and Speeches of Grattan and Curran — Sir Jonah Barrington’s Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation— Memoirs and Journals of Theobald Wolfe Tone — Richard Lalor Shiel’s “Sketches of the Irish Bar” — Wyse’s “History of the Catholic Association” — O’Connell’s Speeches and Debates in the United Parliament.

These are the chief authorities for all the time previous to the Catholic Relief Act. As to the sketch which follows, of transactions still later, it would bo obviously impossible to enumerate the multifarious authorities’s but the speeches of O’Connell and of William Smith O’Brien are still, for the Irish history of their own time, what the orations of Grattan were for his; and what the vivid writings of Swift were for the earlier part of the eighteenth century. The newspapers and Parliamentary Blue Books also come in, as essential materials (though sometimes questionable) for this later period’s and for the Repeal Agitation, the State Trials, the terrible scenes of the Famine, and the consequent extirpation of millions of the Irish people, we have, without scruple, made use (along with other materials) of the facts contained in The Last Conquest of Ireland (perhaps)— excluding generally the inferences and opinions of the writer, and his estimate of his contemporaries. Indeed, the reader will find in the present work very few opinions or theories put forward at all; the genuine object of the writer being simply to [v] present a clear narrative of the events as they evolved themselves one oat oi the others.

Neither does this History need comment; and indignant declamation would but weaken the effect of the dreadful facts we shall have to tell. If the writer has succeeded — as he has earnestly desired to do — in arranging those facts in good order, and exhibiting the naked truth concerning English domination since the Treaty of Limerick, as our fathers saw it, and felt it; — if he has been enabled to picture, in some degree like life, the long agony of the Penal Days, when the pride of the ancient Irish race was stung by daily, hourly humiliations, and their passions goaded to madness by brutal oppression; — and further to picture the still more destructive devastations perpetrated upon our country in this enlightened nineteenth century; then it is hoped that every reader will draw for himself such general conclusions as the facts will warrant, without any declamatory appeals to patriotic resentment, or promptings to patriotic aspiration’s — the conclusion, in short, that, while England lives and flourishes, Ireland must die a daily death, and suffer an endless martyrdom; and that if Irishmen are ever to enjoy the rights of human beings, the British Empire must first perish.

As the learned Abbe MacGeoghegan was for many years a chaplain to the Irisl Brigade in France, and dedicated his work to that renowned corps of exiles, whose dearest wish and prayer was always to encounter and overthrow the British power upon any field, it is presumed that the venerable author would wish his work to be continued in the same thoroughly Irish spirit which actuated his noble warrior congregation; — and he would desire the dark record of English atrocity in Ire land, which he left unfinished, to be duly brought down through all its subsequent scenes of horror and slaughter, which have been still more terrible after his day than they were before. And this is what the present Continuation professes to do.

J. M.

To observe order and system in writing this history, I have thought proper to divide it into three parts, the objects of which appeared to me equally interesting. The first comprises the times which had passed from the establishment of the Scoto-Milesians in Ireland, down to the first century; that part, therefore, during which the island had been buried in the darkness of paganism, I call “Pagan Ireland.”

The second commences with the beginning of Christianity in that country in the fifth, and continues until the twelfth century: this part I call “Christian Ireland.”

Lastly, the third comprises the different invasions of the English, their establishment in that country, and all that has occurred down to our time.

In the first part, or Pagan Ireland, will be seen, first, the natural history oi the country; second, a critical essay on the antiquities of the Milesians; third fhe fabulous history of the Gadelians; fourth, the religion and customs of the Milesians; fifth, their civil and political government; sixth, their domestic and foreign wars; seventh, the different names under which that country has been known to the natives and to strangers; eighth, its general and particular divisions, its dynasties, and territories; also, the names and origin of those who were the proprietors ol it.

In the second part, or Christain Ireland, will be seen, besides its profane history, the great progress that religion and learning had made from the fifth to the ninth century; the confusion caused to the state, and the disorder which prevailed in the church for some time, by the invasion of the Danes; tranquillity restored, and the exercise of religion re-established in its ancient splendor after the final defeat of those barbarians, which happened in the beginning of the eleventh century, until the arrival of the English towards the end of the twelfth.

Lastly, in the third part shall be described the manner in which some English colonies came to establish themselves in Ireland in the twelfth century; the wars which they made upon the old inhabitants of the country during four hundred years; the reunion of the two people in the reign of James VI of Scotland and I of England; finally, we shall conclude by giving a detail of the strange revolutions which have, since that time, arisen to Ireland. (p.[9]; unsigned.)

“The Prince of Orange would have though himself but half king, were he not to rule over Ireland, as well as over England and Scotland; or, rather, he looked upon Ireland as belonging to him by right of conquest, and the loyalty of the Irish to James the II as an act of high treason that he should not leave unpunished; still, what right had this Prince to a country which had not called him to her aid? It is admitted, that he lawfully reigned over England and Scotland, because these kingdoms had transferred their crown to him, but of which he had no right to dispose; however, could they make an agreement for a distinct people, and against the will of that people? Let William III govern those parts of Great Britain that acknowledge no longer their Kings; but if do not wish him for her Sovereign, is her chosen and first Sovereign to forget his claim, and are his faithful subjects to be dealt with as traitors and rebels to their country? It will be said, that James II sapped the foundation of the monarchy my obstinately favouring the Papists, and by an arbitrary sway of power. However false this accusation may be, I shall pass it over in silence; it concerns only England and Scotland, which have taken [unnum. page] ample advantages of it. Was Ireland in the same situation? And if then this people wished to continue Papists, if they desired to invest their King with an absolute authority, who has a right to prevent them? The world has seen that England and Scotland dethroned James II, and that Ireland refused to follow their example: Ireland would have erred in her allegiance, if the whole of Great Britain had belonged to William III. On the contrary, William could not lawfully ascend the throne without an express law calling him to the succession, and declaring James to be dethroned; William III therefore had no right or claim upon the Irish, who neither sent for him, nor dethroned their own King. But as we have already observed, he did not consider his kingdom complete without Ireland, when James II still held out; but it has been the will of Providence that he should succeed in expelling him.

We discover nevertheless, by the manner in which the Irish are and have been treated, that it is contrary to the principles of the Magna Charta, that celebrated code in which the English notion glories, and of which they boast; the Irish are deprived of that liberty, which, according even to their oppressors, should be the portion and common-right of all mankind. They are forced to submit to a hateful and oppressive yoke; they have exerted themselves and fought in favour of their lawful prince; their resistance to usurpationi is considered as a rebellion, and the confiscation of their estates and properties is the consequence.” Abbé Mac Geoghegan.

[Followed by notice of the Continuation of Abbe Mac Geoghegan’s History of Ireland at O’Kelly’s hand (dated ‘Dublin, 30, Richmond-Place, May 1st, 1855’, a blank page, and then Chapter 1: The light in which Ireland is viewed by the English - The causes assigned by the English and Irish Parliaments for further confiscations - the reply of William of Orange when asked to grant more confiscations ... &c., &c. (p.[7]).

Born at Uisneach, Westmeath, Ireland, 1702; died at Paris, 1763. He came of a long family long settled in Westmeath and long holding a high position among the Leinster chiefs, and was related to that MacGeoghegan who so heroically defended the Castle of Dunboy against Carew, and also to Connell MacGeoghegan, who translated the Annals of Clonmacnoise. Early in the eighteenth century, the penal laws were enacted and enforced against the Irish Catholics, and education, except in Protestant schools and colleges, was rigorously proscribed. Young MacGeoghegan, therefore, went abroad, and received his education at the Irish (then the Lombard) College in Paris, and in due course was ordained priest. Then for five years he filled the position of vicar in the parish of Possy, in the Diocese of Chartres, ‘attending in choir, hearing confessions and administering sacraments in a laudable and edifying manner’. In 1734 he was elected one of the provisors of the Lombard College, and subsequently was attached to the church of St-Merri in Paris. He was also for some time chaplain to the Irish troops in the service of France; and during these years he wrote a History of Ireland. It was written in French and published at Paris in 1758. It was dedicated by the author to the Irish Brigade, and he is responsible for the interesting statement that for the fifty years following the Treaty of Limerick (1691) no less than 450,000 Irish soldiers died in the service of France. MacGeoghegan’s History is the fruit of much labour and research, though, on account of his residence abroad, he was necessarily shut out from access to the manuscript materials of history in Ireland, and had to rely chiefly on Lynch and Colgan. Mitchel’s History of Ireland professes to be merely a continuation of MacGeoghegan, though Mitchel is throughout much more of a partisan than MacGeoghegan.

Count William O’Kelly (1670-1751) of Aughrim was born in Ireland in 1670, either in Co. Galway, or in Dublin (both locations have been mentioned), and left Ireland with King James II, in 1690. He studied humanities at Louvain and philosophy at Paris, and settled at Vienna in 1698 where soon he became friend and advisor to the Emperor Leopold. As a rule he signed himself in Latin - “William O’Kelly of Aughrim, chevalier of the Holy Roman Empire, hereditary Lord of Cullagh and Ballinahown, Count Palatine Imperial and Inspector of Arms of His Imperial Royal Majesty”.

He became professor of philosophy and heraldry at the Vienna Academia Nobilis. He was also Empire Herald which was a great honour for a foreigner. He was knighted by the Emperor in 1707, and in 1708, he received the honour of being created Comes Palatinus (count palatine). At the time of his death, he was Privy Councillor to Emperor Charles VI. His most famous literary work was written in Latin Historica Descriptio Hiberniae. This work was written in both prose and verse, divided into four sections dealing with Logic, Ethics, Physics and Metaphysics. Rev. Dr. Patrick K. Egan, the historian feels that O’Kelly’s claim to the title of Lord of Cullagh and Ballinahown, perhaps was “borrowed”, to improve his standing with his hosts on his arrival in Prague. Other O’Kellys used this same rouse, e.g. the O’Kelly Farrells in France.

Sir James Ware in volume 3 of his Works refers to a letter that he wrote to O’Kelly and the reply received on February 12, 1741. With a biographical testimonial in English by Walter Harris (1746). Includes index.

O’Kelly, who translated MacGeoghegan’s History of Ireland (1831-32; rep. Duffy 1844 & Sadlier 1869), is not the subject of any biographical notice in standard reference works - including the RIA’s Dictionary of Irish Biography (2004; online 2009). Nor is he to be confused with his namesake Patrick O’Kelly [q.v.], - bard, plagiarist, or sycophant according to viewpoint - who as a school-teacher in Co. Galway. His translation of MacGeoghegan was preceded by an edition of Historia descriptio Hiberniae, a Latin work of Irish historiography by a Jacobite emigré who shared the same patronymic - William (or Guillaume) O’Kelly - and weas followed by his own histories of the 1798 Rebellion () and a “Repeal” History of Ireland (1855) framed as a continuation of MacGeoghegan. (The latter is not, however, notably pro-O’Connell in person.)

It is highly probable that O’Kelly considered himself, or actually was, a collateral kinsman of the Irish soldier and patriot who write the Historia descriptio and dedicated himself to the revival of the Irish literary monuments of the Jacobite period of which MacGeoghegan’s Histoire de l’Irlande was glaringly the most prominent - though as yet untranslated into English. This he did in three volumes (1831-32) which were afterwards reprinted by Duffy in one (1844). This, in turn, had an extended publishing history in America when it was joined by a "Continuation" written by John Mitchel and published with it - that is, bound with it in a single uniform volume - by Sadlier of New York in 1869.

O’Kelly’s solo History of Ireland (1855) - published fully a decade after Duffy republished his translation of MacGeoghegan - is represented in the prefatory material as a ‘continuation" of the other and even formally styled “Vol. IV” at the outset. It begins with a quotation taken from the Conclusion of MacGeoghegan’s book in his own translation where MacGeoghegan roundly contests the legal right of William III to take Ireland as part of his kingdom and to confiscate the property of Irishmen loyalty to their legitimate monarch James II. He also defends their right to espouse the doctrine of Divine Right of Kings and to adhere to their Catholic faith.

The remainder of O’Kelly’s latest book is a history of Anglo-Irish transactions since the Treaty of Limerick drawing much on unfamiliar and less familiar sources (including French travellers in Ireland) quoted at some length. In spite of the reference to 1855 as the terminus ad quem in the title, it only runs up to events of 1845 - more specifically, Daniel O’Connell’s levée in the Rotunda on 31 May 1845 which is treated under the sub-heading “Famine“. The end-date of ‘1855’ cited in the title therefore appears to be a printer’s error simply reproducing the date of publication (i.e., 1855), whereas it actually marks the moment when O’Kelly’s translation of MacGeoghegan was widely circulated by the Irish publisher James Duffy.

Earlier pages of the book incorporate a retrospective view of the ‘painful and abhorrent’ (p.8) epoch of the Cromwellian War in Ireland mixed with homages to William Mollineux [Molyneux, q.v.] and his Case for ‘the perfect and reciprocal independence of both kingdoms.’ (O’Kelly, op. cit., p.10.) The same pages are replete with quotations from his own edition of William O’Kelly’s Historia descriptio Hiberniae (e.g., "

• [Patrick O’Kelly, ed.], Historica descriptio Hiberniæ, seu Majoris Scotiæ, Insulæ Sanctorum. Pars prima metrice potissimum exhibita agit de Hiberniæ insula ... ab universali diluvic ad ... annum M.D.CCIII. Auctore Perillustri Domino Guil. D. O’Kelly [William D. Kelly] ... Hoc opus editum est de nova a P[atricio] O’Kelly [i.e., Patrick O’Kelly] (Dublinii: Typis R. Graisberry 1838), 242pp. 12°. [Title details accessible at COPAC - online]
• General History of the Rebellion of 1798 (Dublin, 4, York-Street: Printed for the Author by J. Downes 1842), [2], [1]-iii,[1],312pp. ,[iii]-viii; 19 cm.
• History of Ireland, Since the Expulsion of James II by his Son-in-law William III Prince of Orange. This work commences with a.d.1692 and ends with 1835. By Patrick O’Kelly, Esq., translator of Abbe Mac Geoghegan’s History of Ireland and author of the “History of the Rebellion of 1798” (Dublin: Printed for the author by Goodwin, Son, and Netherscottt, 79 Marlborough-street. 1855), , [1-7] 8-384, [2]pp.; 23cm. [Styled prefatorily as ‘Vol. IV of MacGeoghegan’s History of Ireland’.