Life
1702-1763 [vars. Geoghegan; Abbé Jacques MacGeoghegan]; b. Usineach,
Co. Westmeath; related to Conall MacGeoghegan, translator of Annals of Clonmacnoise,
and to Fr. Francis O’Molloy [Prionsias Ó Maolmhuaidh]; ed.
Lombard College, Paris, ord.; appt. Abbé of Poissy, diocese of
Chartres; elected provisor of Lombard college, and later transferred to
church of St Merri, Paris; appt. chaplain to Irish troops in armies of
France; published Histoire d l’Irlande (Vol I. 1758; Vol,
II. 1762; Vol. III, 1763), extending to period of Irish Brigades in continental
service, stating that 450,000 Irish troops died in French wars (questioned
by Lecky); d. Paris. DNB
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Works
Histoire de l’Irlande ancienne et moderne, 3 tomes [2 vols. Paris:
Antoine Boudet 1758, 1762; the third Amsterdam 1763] [copy in Marsh’s
Library]; P.Kelly [trans.,] History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern,
taken from authentic records and dedicated to the Irish Brigade (Duffy
1831; 2nd edn. 1844) 622p.
WORKS, See also John Mitchel, History of Ireland [...]: A Continuation of the History of Abbé MacGeoghegan (1869) [two issues noticed in P. S. O’Hegarty’s commentary in Irish Book Lover, Vol. XXVIII, No.4, 1942, p.89].
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Criticism
Richard Ryan, ‘John Mageoghegan’, Biographia Hibernica: Irish
Worthies (1821), Vol. II, p.416.
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Notes
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea
of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To
The Nineteenth Century (John Benjamins Pub. Co., Amsterdam & Philadelphia,
1986): The last flourish of the emigrés tradition in praise of
Gaelic greatness occurred around 1760 when the priest James Macgeoghegan
published his Histoire de l’Irlande ancienne et moderne, tirée
des manuments les plus authentiques, 3 vols. (Paris 1758-62). [Joseph
Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (1986). p.400.]
British Library holds [1] Histoire de l'Irlande, ancienne et moderne. (Précis de l'histoire des quatre Stuarts, sur le Trône Britannique), and 2nd. copy, F. P. 3 tom. Paris, 1758-63. 4o. [2] History of Ireland, ancient and modern. Translated ... by P. O'Kelly; Another edition. 3 vol. Dublin, 1831-32. 8o. Dublin, 1844. 8o. [3] The History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the present time; being a continuation of the History of the Abbé Macgeoghegan. Compiled by J. Mitchel; another edition; also, another edition of vol. 1. New York, 1868. 8o. 2 vol. Dublin [printed], London, 1869. 8o. Cameron and Ferguson: Glasgow, 1869. 8o.
University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern, taken from authentic records and dedicated to the Irish Brigade (Duffy 1844) 622p.; John Mitchel, History of Ireland ... a continuation of the history of Abbé MacGeoghegan (1869).
Widely read: Roy Foster, Paddy and Mr. Punch (London 1993),
indicates that Abbé MacGeoghegan is cited as the foremost author
in J. Pope-Hennessy, ‘What Do Irishmen Read?’, in Nineteenth
Century, Vol. 15 (Jan.-June 1884), pp.920ff.; Foster, op. cit., Notes,
p.312).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)