Life
1816-1849 [var. 1809]; b. Killeany, Co. Laois [Queen’s County], nr.
Abbeyleix; worked as hedge-school teacher and later at Shanahoe Nat. School;
contrib. to Leinster Express, 1837, the Dublin University Magazine,
Nation, Irish National Magazine, and Tipperary Vindicator;
ballads anthologised in Dolman’s Magazine, and Hayes’
Ballads of Ireland; compilation as The Harp of Erin; best-remember
for ; "To the Cholera", "The Dying Mother’s Lament",
"Caoch the Piper"; and "The Irish Reaper’s Harvest
Hymn"; m. Brigid Collins, whom he appears to have despised; corresponded
with John O’Daly amd moved to Dublin alone after birth of a dg.;
recognised as the most popular ‘peasant poet’ of his generation;
visited England in 1849; died of cholera in the Meath hospital on his
return; works collected in Legends and Poems (Dublin 1907) with
memoir by D. J. O’Donoghue;. CAB DNB JMC DIW MKA RAF OCIL
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Works
Very Rev. Canon John O’Hanlon, MRIA, ed., Legends and Poems by
John Keegan, with a memoir by D. J. O’Donoghue (Dublin: Sealy
Bryers & Walker 1907); [Tony Delaney, ed.,] Selected Works (Co.
Kilkenny: Galmoy Press 1997), 137pp.
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Criticism
Memoir by O’Donoghue, in O’Hanlon, ed., Legends and Stories
(1907); see also Irish Book Lover, Vol. 2
Robert Farren, Course of Irish Verse (1948).
Rita Kelly, Tony Delaney, ed., Selected Poems of John Keegan (1997).
Chris Morash, The Hungry Voice (1989), p.274.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)