Life
?1570-?1644 [var. 1580; Seathrún Céitinn], b. Burges, Co.
Tipperary; Norman family but ed. local bardic school, and Bordeaux from
1603; doctor of theology; returned to Ireland 1610; curate of Tubrid,
Co. Tipperary; celebrated preacher; Foras Feasa ar Éirinn written
in 1633-36 [formerly dated ?1620-34], and drawing on contemporary Gaelic
manuscript sources to provide a continuous historical narrative; Latin
translation issued by John Lynch in 1660; an English translation by Dermot
O’Connor, which met with much hostility on account of its inaccuracies
at its appearance in 1723, was nevertheless reprinted in 1809 and 1854;
the original remained untranslated until 1811 when William Haliday edited
one volume only; the entire text was finally edited and published by David
Comyn and P.S. Dinneen with a translation (4 vols. 1902-14); “Trí
Bior-ghaoithe an Bháis (The Three Shafts of Death)”; earlier
works include Saltair Mhuire, a defence of the mass and a tract
on the Rosary; “Mo Bheannact leat”, a lyric written in France,
and 18 other poems, many lamenting the departure of friends and the nobles
of Ireland, including ‘Óm sceol ar ardmhagh Fáil ní
chodlaim oíche’, an expression of disdain for the New English
‘trash’ coming into Ireland, and proposing that it were better
that Ireland’s people (‘pobal’); buried in Tubrid. RR
CAB DNB JMC DIB DIW FDA OCIL
[ top ]
Works
Dermod O’Connor, trans., The General History of Ireland
... Collected by the learned Jeoffrey Keating, D.D. Faithfully translated
from the original Irish language, with many curious amendments taken from
the Psalters of Tara and Cashel, and other authentic Records by Dermod
O'Connor [originally written in Gaelic as Foras Feasa ar Éirin
[c.1640] (London/Dublin 1723; rep. Dublin 1809, Dublin: Duffy 1854),
556pp., with index; Do. [2nd edn.] With an appendix, collected
from the Remarks of the learned Dr. Anthony Raymond of Trim, not in the
former edition (Westminster 1726); Forus Feasa ar Éirinn, mar a
nochtar príomhdhala na hinnse o Pharthalon go Gabhaltus Gall, ar
na chnuasach, & air na thiomsúghadh o phríomhlebhraibh
Shenchusa Éirenn, agus o iliomad d'ughdaraibh baranthamhla coigcríche
le Seathrún Ceitin, ollamh-diadhachta, An 1 chuid [A
Complete History of Ireland, Vol. I] (Dublin 1811), 411pp.; Do.
[Another edn.] 2 vols (Newry 1817) [?rep. of 1723 edn.]; Do. [Another
edn.] (Dublin 1854); Sir John T. Gilbert, Facsimiles of National Manuscripts
of Ireland, Pt. IV [Pl LXXIII]: History of Ireland by Geoffrey
Keating, TCD; Commencement of Preface transcribed by John O'Maelchonaire;
text and translation [Pl. LXXIV] with Michael Kearney’s English version
[1668] (London 1882); P. W. Joyce, Forus Feasa ar Éirinn. Keating's
History of Ireland, Bk. I, Pt. I; ed. with Gaelic text [from a MS
of TCD [H. 5. 26], literal translation, explanation of Gaelic idioms,
complete vocabulary, &c., (Dublin 1900), 8 + 168 pp.; John O'Mahony,
ed., Foras Feasa ar Éirinn do réir an Athar Seathrun Céiting,
ollamh ré diadhachta: The History of Ireland, from the earliest
period to the English invasion. Translated from the original Gaelic, and
copiously annotated, with topographical appendix (NY 1866), 20, 746pp.;
David Comyn & P. S. Dinneen, eds, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: A Complete
History of Ireland, 4 pts. [vols.] (London: ITS 1902-14) [definitive
edition; see infra]; and Do. [rep. edn.] (London
1987), O. J. Bergin, ed. & intro., Sgélaigheacht Chéitinn:
Stories from Keating’s History of Ireland, with notes & vocabulary
(Dublin 1909), 20 + 132 pp.; Do. [2nd edn., rev. & enl.] (1925),
& Do. [3rd edn. DIAS 1930]; Pádraig de Barra [ed.,],
Foras feasa ar Éirinn: Imleabhar 1 [i] An Díonbhrollach
agus an Chéad Leabhar de Foras feasa ar Éirinn [le]
Seathrún Céitinn. Dublin 1982. Imleabhar II [i] An
Dara Leabhar de Foras feasa ar Éirinn le Seathrún Céitinn,
athnua le Padraig de Barra, foreword by Breandán Ó
Buachalla (BAC: Foilseacháin Náisiúnta Teo 1982-83).
Other works, Patrick O’Brien, ed., Eochair-sgiath an Aifrinn: An Explanatory Defence of the Mass, written in Irish, Early 17th c. (Dublin: O’Brien 1898); Dánta amhráin is caointe Shéathrúin Céitinn (Conradh na Gaedhilge 1900); Trí bior-ghaoithe an bháis/The Three Shafts of Death of Geoffrey Keating, ed. R. Atkinson (RIA 1890), 2nd edition, ed. Osborn Bergin [RIA] (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1931); Rev. F. W. O’Connell, ed., Selections from Keating’s Three Shafts of Death (Dublin/London: Maunsel & Co. 1910). J. C. McErlean, ed., Dánta: Amhráin is Caointe Sheatrúin Céitinn’ [q.d.]
Foras Feasa (definitive edition): David Comyn, ed. [& trans.], Díonbhrollach foras feasa ar Eirinn; or, Vindication of the Sources of Irish History by [...] G. Keating, being the introduction to ‘Groundwork of Knowledge of Ireland’, [with] notes, vocabulary (Dublin: Gill 1898), 112pp.; Foras feasa ar Eirinn: The History of Ireland [Irish Texts Society; 4, 8-9, 15] 3 vols. (London: Irish Texts Soc. 1902-14): Vol.1: The Introduction and the First Bbook of the History; Vol. 2: The Book of the History from Sect. XV to the End; Vol.3: The Second Book of the History; Vol. IV [ed. P. S. Dinneen], Genealogies and Synchronisms; index incl. elucidation of place names and annotations to text of Vols. I, II, III [483pp.]. Reprints, History of Ireland [Foras Feasa ar Éirinn] (Irish Texts Society 1987), 230pp.
[ top ]
Criticism
W. P. Burke, ‘Geoffrey Keating’, Waterford Archaeological
Society Journal, 1 (1894-95).
RJC [pseud.], Geoffrey Keating, Priest, Poet, and Patriot: His Life, Times, and Literary Work (Dublin: CTS [n.d.]), 36pp.
Anne Cronin, ‘Sources of Keating’s Foras feasa ar Eirinn’, in Éigse, 4 (1943-4), pp.234-78; (1945-47), pp.122-35.
Russell Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP 1959), espec. Chap. 6: ‘Keating, Dermod OConnor’.
Herbert V. Fackler, ‘Nineteenth-Century Sources for the Deirdre Legend’, in Éire-Ireland, 4, 4 (Winter 1969), pp.56-63.
Breandán Ó Buachalla, ‘Annala Rioghachta Eireann is Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: An Comhthéacs Comhaimseartha’, in Studia Hibernica, 22 & 23 (1982-83), pp.60-105.
D. Ó Corráin, ‘Seathrún Céitinn, An Cúlra Stairiúil’, in Dúchas 1983-85 (Dublin 1986), pp.56-68.
Diarmaid Ó Catháin, ‘Dermot O’Connor, translator of Keating’, in Eighteenth-Century Ireland 2 (1987), pp.67-68; 275, 276, 800, 882, 956.
Bernadette Cunningham, ‘Seventeenth Century Interpretations of the Past: The Case of Geoffrey Keating’, in Irish Historical Studies XXV, 98 (1986), pp.116-28.
Tadhg Ó Dúshláine, An Eoraip agus Litríocht na Gaeilge 1600-1650 (1987).
Breandán Ó Buachalla [essay on Keating] in D. G. Boyce, R. Eccleshall, and V. Geoghegan, eds., Political Thought in Ireland Since the Seventeenth Century (London: Routledge 1993).
Brendan Bradshaw, ‘Geofrey Keating: Apologist for Irish Ireland’, in Andrew Hadfield & Willy Maley, eds., Representing Ireland: Literature and the Origin of Conflict 1534-1660 (Cambridge UP 1993), pp.181-84.
Seán Ó Tuama, ‘Gaelic Culture in Crisis: The Literary Repartee’, in Repossessions (Cork UP 1995), pp.119-33.
Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation (London: Jonathan Cape 1995), pp.13ff.
Anthony Carty, ‘The Anglo-Irish Perspective: Was Ireland Really Conquered?’, in Was Ireland Conquered? International Law and the Irish Question (London: Pluto Press 1996) [discussion of Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Eirinn].
Bernadette Cunningham, The World of Geoffrey Keating: History, Myth and Religion in Seventeenth-century Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2000, 2004), xv, 263pp., ill.
Bernadette Cunningham, Foras Feasa ar Eirinn’, in History Ireland, 9, 1 (Spring 2001), pp.14-17; Declan Kiberd, ‘Saving Civilization: Céitinn and Ó Bruadair’, in Irish Classics (London: Granta 2000), pp.25-54. [See also CELT Bibl., infra.]
Memoirs of the Marquis of Clanricarde (1722; Dublin Edn.
1774), pp. cxxvi-cxxix].
James Hardiman, Irish Minstrelsy (1831), Vol. 2, pp. 219, 378.
Constantia Maxwell, The Stranger in Ireland (1954), ftn. to Ch. I, p. 315.
Russell K. Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP 1959), Chap. 4.
Herbert V. Fackler, ‘Nineteenth-Century Sources for the Deirdre Legend’, Éire-Ireland, 4, 4 (Winter 1969), pp.56-63.)
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (Amsterdam 1986), pp. 317-18, Bibl.
Anne Cronin, ‘Sources of Keating’s Foras feasa ar Eirinn’, in Éigse, 4 (1943-4), pp.234-78; (1945-47), pp.122-35.
Norman Vance, Irish Literature: A Social History (Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1990), p.22:.
Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation (London: Jonathan Cape 1995), pp.14-15.
Seán Ó Tuama, ‘Gaelic Culture in Crisis: The Literary Repartee’, in Repossessions (Cork UP 1995), pp.119-33: ‘And it was a work, it should be noted, which sought above all else to enhance the old Irish aristocratic order, and to bewail its passing.’ (p.123.)
S. J. Connolly, ‘Cultural Identity and Tradition’, in Brian Graham, ed., In Search of Ireland: A Cultural Geography of Ireland (London: Routledge 1997), p.46.
[ top ]
Notes
Charles A. Read, The Cabinet of Irish Literature (London,
Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast & Edinburgh: Blackie & Son [1876-78]);
Keating is the first author in Read’s Cabinet (ed. T. P. O’Connor,
1880), on Keating, b. Tubbrid [sic] nr. Clogheen, co. Tipperary; ed. Salamanca
at early age and for 23 years; famous at home for eloquence on his return;
‘Among others came a gentleman’s wife whom common fame reported
to be too familiar with the Lord president of Munster. The preacher’s
discourse was on the sin of adultery, and the eyes of the whole congregation
being on the lady, she was in great confusion, and, imagining that the
doctor had preached that sermon on purpose to insult her, she made loud
complaint of him to the president, who was so enraged that he gave orders
for apprehending him, intending to punish him with all the rigour of the
law’; fled to the Galtee Mts.; his History of Ireland prepared in
hiding and ultimately complete 1625; in 1603 [sic] enabled by recall of
president Sir George Carew to England to return to his parish [this identification
like the date of the whole account is dubious]; a church door erected
at Tubbrid in 1644 said to bear inscription, ‘in Tybrid, hid from
mortal eye,/A priest, a poet, and a prophet lie/All these and more than
in one man could be/Concentred was in famous Jeoffry’; skilful writer
in Latin and Irish. Various opinions incl. Peter Talbot, ‘an able
but extravagantly mad performance’; D’Arcy Magee, ‘a semi-barbaric,
semi-historic work, full of faith in legends and trust in traditions’
and acknowledges that ‘if it contains improbabilities or absurdities
they are not of his creation’; O’Curry, ‘This book is written
in the modified Gaedhilic of Keating’s own time’; also O’Curry,
better for those who extract information from him to ‘endeavour to
imitate his devoted industry and scholarship, than to attempt to elevate
themselves to a higher position of literary fame by a display of critical
pedantry and what they suppose to be independence of opinion in scoffing
at the presumed credulity of those whose labours have laid in modern times
the very groundwork of Irish history’. With regard to the pre-Flood
portion of his History, Keating wrote, ‘nor have I inserted
it in the beginning of this history with any desire that it should be
believed, but only for the same of order, and out of respect to some records
of the kingdom that make mention of it.’ MS in of the original but
Mulcoury [sic for Mulconry] to be found in TCD Lib. ‘Thoughts on
Inisfail’, translated by Darcy Magee; ‘A Farewell to Ireland’,
addressed to his harper; ‘An elegy on the Death of Lord de Decies’;
and the ‘Three Shafts of Death’, treatise in Irish prose, which
Irish soldiers have long held in admiration; d. c.1650. CAB selects, ‘Thoughts
on Inisfail’, trans. by Reade; ‘How the Milesians Came’
[n. Keating dates the event 1300BC]; ‘Parliament at Tara, instituted
by King Ollamh Fodhla, 3082AM’, ‘The Fenians of the Olden Time’
(c.230AD); ‘How the Dailgais Returned Home after Clontarf’ (1014),
all the foregoing in Dermod O’Connor’s translation; also ‘Keating
to His Letter’, verse [from trans. by John D’Alton in Hardiman’s
Irish Minstrelsy].
Dictionary of National Biography lists Keating (?1570-?1644); author of Foras Feasa ar Eirinn (‘Foundation of Knowledge on Ireland’), history to English invasion, never printed except in translation, widely circulated in MSS; his Trí Biorghaoithe an Bhais printed by [Dr.] Atkinson, 1890. See also Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, p.348.
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904); Gaelic Index (Vol. 10, 4012), contains biographical note recounting that Douglas Hyde calls Keating ‘the Herodotus of Ireland’, in Literary History of Ireland. Further, ‘He brought limpid Irish to its highest perfection’; ‘I consider him the first Irish historian and trained scholar who [...] wrote for the masses not the classes ...’; b. Tubbrid, nr. Clogheeen, etc.; sent to Spain, etc [this biog. plainly copied in brief from Reade]; ALSO PS Dineen on, 10, 3959 [extract from Irish Prose by Dineen [in Irish and English l/r], ‘No author has done as much as Keating to preserve Irish amongst the people, especially the people of Leath Mhogha. Not that Keating wrote a very accurate or critical history, but he ammassed into one repository the accounts of Ireland given in the old books [...] It seems to us that had the Forus [sic] Feasa not been written, the remembrance of by-gone times, or the names of the old chieftains, or the exploits of the heroes would not have been half so fresh in the minds of the people as they were some fifty years ago [...] the poor people as well as the upper classes had it [...] Geoffrey also prefixed a splendid ‘Apology’ to his Forus Feasa [Is álainn an díon-brollach a chuireann Seathrún le n-a Fhorus Feasa’] [...] he did not leave much of Stanihurst that he did not rend to bits; heavy is the weight of his hand falling on Camden and on Spenser [...] he is like some great champion, some Cuchulainn or Achilles, his arms ready in his hands, clad in armour from head to foot, while he strikes down with zeal and fierce wrath those diminutive persons who gave false evidence against his country and who insulted his people’ [...] &c. [Dineen suggests that if he were alive today he would strike down equally Froude, Macauley, and Hume, 3963]; Keating’s Cave in Aherlow Glen, 7, 2615 [William O’Brien, ‘And still in Keating’s cave in Aherlow, and O’Flaherty’s cabin in Connemara, and Lynch’s cell in Louvain, the undying spark is kept alive, and the treasonous manuscripts of the Gael are cherished for happier days. Not happier, more unhappy days arrive’; from A Plea for the Study of Irish, in a lecture, ‘The Influence of the Irish Language’, given before Cork Nat. Soc., May 13 1902] .
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, ed. A. W. Ward & A. R. Waller, 18 vols. (1907–21), Vol. XIV [“The Victorian Age, Pt. 2”], IX: Anglo-Irish Literature; Sect. 5: ‘Geoffrey Keating’: Works by Anglo-Irish writers of the seventeenth century are largely in Latin and, therefore, are not dealt with here. A reference to the bibliography of this chapter will, however, show that a few of these have been rendered into English and should be consulted, in this or in their original form by students interested in Irish history, archaeology and hagiology, secular and religious, and in the treatment of these subjects by such distinguished contemporary writers as John Colgan, Sir James Ware—whom archbishop Ussher had educated into an interest in Irish history and antiquities - Luke Wadding and Philip O’Sullivan Beare. These, too, were the times of Geoffrey Keating, the first writer of modern Irish who can claim to possess literary style, and of the O’Clery family. Keating was a poet as well as a historian, and his lyric Geoffrey Keating to his Letter on its way to Ireland is one of the most charming of Irish patriotic poems. Keating’s History of Ireland has been recently issued by the Irish Text society, with an excellent English translation facing the original Irish, and Annals of the Four Masters may also be consulted in a satisfactory English version. [See Bartleby.com: Great Books Online: link.]
Stephen Gwynn (The Fair Hills of Ireland, Dublin: Maunsel 1906): ‘Keating’s significance is other and greater than merely as a historian. He was contemporary with the Four Masters who like him gathered and digested all that they could find in the ancient records of their country. But they, the descendants of hereditary and professed historians, maintained the professional tradition of a deliberately archaic style, which scorned popular comprehensions. Keating wrote for the people in the Irish which was spoken by educated men of his day. He is the first classic of modern Irish prose.’ (Quoted in P. J. Kavanagh, Voices in Ireland, 1994, pp.135-36.)
Frank O’Connor, Book of Ireland (1968), gives extracts, "The Origin of the Battle of Clontarf", [includes the story of Gormley, dg. of Murrough, refusing to sew Brian’s button, and the game of chess between Murrough and the abbot of Glendalough, in which Maol Mordha advises the losing move, pp.74-76]; "The Return from Fingal" [the wounded men of Dal gCais led by Donough, son of Brian, stuff moss in their wounds to fight with their comrades against the greater numbers of the men of South Munster; Giolla Padraic advises the men of Ossary (S. Munster) to skirmish rather than give battle, pp.76-9]; "Mo Chua and His Three Treasures" [Colm Cille consoles him when his cock, mouse, and fly die, that possessions are misery, ‘I think by this joking of real saints that they were not much interested in worldly goods, unlike most of the people of our time’], all from History of Ireland [Foras Feasa] in O’Connor’s translations.
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), Deirdre jumps from a chariot, strikes her head on a stone, and dies, rather than leaping in the grave after Naisi, in Keating’s version of the ‘Death of the Sons of Uisnech [Uislui]’. The essay on Gaelic Literature includes a paragraph on Keating, his aim to refute the false impressions of his country given by writers such as Stanyhurst, Moryson, William Camden, and Sir John Davies. Keating’s history will not stand up to modern critical examination for he accepted much of the legendary accounts of the past as the truth, but his work is a masterpiece of Gaelic prose [...] limpid narrative style [...] Few students of modern Irish have not delighted in Bergin’s Stories from Keating’s History of Ireland [...] such is the magic of style. [Seamus O’Neill]
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1: selects Foras Feasa ar Eirinn, 255-59 & 323-24; News from Ireland, 282; Trí Biorhaoithe ar Bháis, 322-23. Editors remark that the cultural importance of Foras [Feasa] is that it fills the gaps in the transmission of seanchas which inevitably occurred follow-ing the demise of the bardic schools [...] [inform[ing] the political attitudes of those in opposition to the English domination of Ireland [...] almost racial polarisation in the writing of history [...] paralleled by opposition between protestant and catholic historians [236]; BIOG, 272. Notes that Foras &c, written in early 1630s; in Turbid; it appears that [Keating] offended a local lady in a sermon and was pursued by the authorities [...] went into hiding; travelled widely; [enjoyed] protection of protestants while consulting manuscripts; [given] access to library of TCD; said to have been murdered by Cromwellian soldiers in St Nicolas’s Church, Clonmel; mentions Dermot O’Connor’s trans. of Foras (1723).
CELT lists secondary sources: Risteard Ó Foghludha [“Fiachra Eilgeach”], Saoghal-ré Sheathrúin Céitinn: Sacart is dochtúir san diadhacht, staruidhe, file, ughdar, &c. [rep. from Gaelic Journal, XVIII, 1-12, 47-5708] (Dublin 1908); R. Henebry, ‘Geoffrey Keating’, in Journal of the Ivernian Society, 5 (1913) 197-202; Réamonn Ó Muireadaigh, ‘Lámhscríbhinn agus blúirí eile ó Mhainistir Bhuithe’, in Seanchas Ard Mhacha, 5 (No.270), pp.397-400 [desc. of 18th c. MS of Foras Feasa in Monasterboice, Co. Louth]; M. J. Connellan, ‘The See of Tuaim in Rath Breasail Synod’, in Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, 24 (1950/51), pp.19-26 [ad FF iii, 302-5]; Anne Cronin, ‘The sources of Keating’s Forus Feasa ar Éirinn’, in Éigse, 43/44 (1945), pp.235-79; & 45/47 (1948), pp.122-35 [1. The printed sources; 2. Manuscript sources, (1) The manuscript sources of book 1, Chaps. 4-23; no more publ.]; Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin, ‘Céitinn agus Caesarius Heisterbacensis’, in Éigse, 9 (1958/61) [4], p.242; Brian Ó Cuív, ed., ‘An Eighteenth-century account of Keating and his Foras feasa ar Éirinn’, in Éigse, 9 (1958), pp.263-69; Brian Ó Cuív, ed., ‘A seventeenth-century Criticism of Keating’s Forus Feasa ar Éirinn’, in Éigse, 11 (1964/66) (pt. 265), pp.119-40 [from MS R.I.A. 23 M 40; with notes]; Brian Ó Cuív, ed., l. Labraid Loingsech [incl. edn. of relevant scholia to ACC, from MS N.L. G 50; on Keating’s use of Source Material for the LL section in Foras Feasa], in Éigse, 11 (1964/66), pp.167-87, 290; Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, ‘Stair Finnscéal agus Snnála’, in LCC, 2 (1971) [No. 1], pp.5-13; Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, ‘A possible source for Keating’s Forus feasa ar Éirinn’, in Éigse, 19 (1982-83) 61-81; Nicholas Canny, ‘The Formation of the Irish Mind: Religion, Politics and Gaelic Irish Literature 1580-1750', in Past and Present, 95 (1982), pp.91-116; Seán Ó Dúshláine, ‘More about Keating’s Use of the Simile of the Dung-Beetle’, in Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, 40 (1984), pp.282-85; Ó Dúshláine, ‘Seathrún Céitinn agus an Stíl Bharócach [baroque] a Thug Sé go h-Éirinn’, in Feasta, 37/10 (1984) 10-15; Donnchadh Ó Corráin, ‘Seathrún Céitinn (c.1580-c.1644): an cúlra stairiúil’, in Feasta 37/10 (1984) 17-21; Bernadette Cunningham, ‘Seventeenth-Century Interpretations of the Past: The Case of Geoffrey Keating’, Irish Historical Studies, 25, No. 98 (1986), pp.116-28; Breandán Ó Buachalla, '‘Annála Ríoghachta Éireann agus Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: An Comhthéacs Comhaimseartha’, in Studia Hibernica, 22-23 (1982-83), pp.59-105; Diarmaid Ó Catháin, Dermot O'Connor: translator of Keating’, in Eighteenth Century Ireland, 2 (1987) 67-87; Brendan Bradshaw, '‘Geoffrey Keating: apologist of Irish Ireland’, in Bradshaw, Andrew Hadfield & Willy Maley, eds., Representing Ireland: literature and the origins of the conflict, 1534-1660 (Cambridge 1993), pp.166-90; Bernadette Cunningham, ‘Representations of king, parliament and the Irish people in Geoffrey Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn and John Lynch’s Cambrensis eversus (1662)’, in Jane Ohlmyer ed., Political thought in seventeenth-centuy Ireland (Cambridge UP 2000); Bernadette Cunningham, The World of Geoffrey Keating. History, myth and religion in seventeenth century Ireland (Dublin 2000); Bernadette Cunningham & Raymond Gillespie, ‘Patrick Logan and Foras Feasa ar Éirinn’, in Éigse, 32 (2000), pp.146-52; Bernadette Cunningham, Geoffrey Keating's Foras Feasa ar Érinn’, in History Ireland, 9/1 (Spring 2001). [Go to CELT web pages: link.]
COPAC lists Díonbhrollach fórais feasa ar Éirinn: or, Vindication of the sources of Irish history. By [...] G. Keating, being the introduction to his “Groundwork of Knowledge on Ireland”. Edited ... with new translation, notes, vocabulary, &c. by D. Comyn. Irish & Eng. Publisher: Dublin, 1898. pp. 112.; 8o. Also as Foras feasa ar Eirinn. The History of Ireland [Irish Texts Society; 4,8-9,15] 3 vols.(London: Irish Texts Soc. 1902-14) [being] Vol.1: The introduction and the first book of the history. Vol.2: The book of the history from sect. XV to the end. Vol.3: The second book of the history. Foras feasa ar Eirinn. The history of Ireland [Irish Texts Society; 4,8-9,15] London: Irish Texts Soc. 1902-14), Vol.1: The introduction and the first book of the history. Vol.2: The book of the history from sect. XV to the end. Vol.3: The second book of the history.
Hyland Books (Cat. 220; 1996) lists J. Keating, D. O’Connor trans., The General History of Ireland (Duffy 1854), 556pp.; but cf. Hyland No. 219 (Oct. 1995), listing General History [...] &c. (1868); also ‘RJC’, Geoffrey Keating, priest, poet, and patriot, his life, times, and literary work (Dublin: CTS n.d.) [pamphlet], 36pp.
Belfast Public Library holds The History of Ireland under variant titles and editions, 1811, 1841, 1861, 1902. Library of Herbert Bell, Belfast, holds Jeoffry [sic] Keating, The General History of Ireland Vol. I (Newry 1820).
University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection, holds Foras Feasa ar Eirinn, 4 vols. (Irish Texts Soc., 1902-1914); also Bk I, Pt. I ([Dublin:] Gill 1880); The General History of Ireland, 2 vols. (Christie 1809); Eochair-Sgiath an Aifrinn ar na chnuasach agus ar na sgriobhadh le Seathrun Ceitinn (Dublin 1898) 128pp.; Sgealaigh-eacht Cheitinn, Stories from Keating’s History of Ireland (RIA 1930) 121pp.
Translators of Foras Feasa ar Eirinn: William Halliday,
Vol. I (Dublin 1811); John O’Mahoney (New York 1857); Patrick Weston
Joyce, Bk. I, Pt. I (Dublin 1900); David Comyn & Patrick S. Dineen
[Irish Texts Society] (London 1902, 1908, 1914). [All cited in Russell
K. Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1978, Philadelphia:
Pennsylvania UP 1959]. Also, a Latin Translation by John Lynch (Louvain
1660).
MS versions: MS in the Franciscan Convent Library, Dublin; written in the convent of Kildare before 1640, and probably the oldest extant transcription; MS of James O’Mulconry of Ballymecuda, Co. Clare, held in TCD Library (MS H. 5 26; Cat. No. 1397); another (MS H. 5 32, Cat. No. 1403); Haliday’s text stated to have been printed from MS by O’Mulconry dated 1657, but varying from the foregoing; MS written by O’Mulconry (1643), and formerly in possession of David Comyn; MS by Teig O'Nachtan (1704), formerly in possession of David Comyn. [Information available on CELT web pages.]
Marsh’s Library: A MS copy, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, transcribed by Christopher Geraldinus, 1651 [imperfect] is part of the Marsh’s Library Collection.
George A. Little cites Keating as his authority for saying that Sean Mhagh Ealta Eadair [The Old Plain of the Flocks of Howth] was cleared about 1500 b.c., being the first meadowland of Ireland. (Dublin Before the Vikings, 1957, p.86.)
Lord Killanin, ed., Shell Guide to Ireland (1966), notes a picture of an engraved stone at Tubrid [sic]: the inscribed plaque (1644) to Frs Eugene O’Duffy [his co-adjudicator] and Keating at the ruined mortuary chapel [...] is situated on an unclassified road 5 miles s. of Cahir. In the gazette the orth. Tubbrid [sic].
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)