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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
The name of Geoffrey Keating is familiar to generations of students of Irish language and literature. His prose works are fine examples of seventeenth-century Irish writing. He was credited by scholars of Irish with having saved from oblivion many stories of the Gaelic heroes of old in his magnum opus, the Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, a compendium of knowledge on the history of Ireland. Writing in the early part of the seventeenth century, when the native Irish system of learning and patronage of scholars was disintegrating, Keating synopsized many manuscript sources for the history of Ireland into a flowing text full of stories and curiosities. His writings were frequently transcribed and are preserved in countless manuscript copies.
Kearing’s literary stature has meant that his tracts were more read for their language and style than studied for their content and it may appear curious at first sight to discover that this father figure of early Irish history and the preserver of the Irish language also wrote two theological tracts, on a continental Catholic Reformation model. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Kearing’s background. Although subsequently hailed as a champion of Gaelic Ireland, Keating was not a product of that society. In fact he was of Anglo-Norman (Old English) descent. He was ordained as a secular priest and was educated at two of the continental colleges set up to train Irishmen for the priesthood, Bordeaux and Rheims, where he came under English Jesuit influence. The precise dates of his sojourn on the continent are not known, but pre-date 1619. It is thought he was born about 1570 and died about 1644, spending most of his life as a priest working in Munster.
1 Keating, Geoffrey, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn: the History of Ireland, ed. Comyn, David and Dineen, P. S., 4 vols (London, Irish Texts Society, 1902-14)Google Scholar.
2 Geoffrey Keating [Seathrun Céitinn], Eochair-Sgiath an Aifrinn …an Explanatory Defence of the Mass…, ed. Patrick O’Brien (Dublin, 1898); Geoffrey Keating, TríBhior Ghaoithe an Bháis.ed. Osborn Bergin (Dublin, 1931).
3 Selections from the Zoilomastix of O’Sullivan Beare, ed. T. J. O’ Donnell (Dublin, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1960), p. 22; Calendar of State Papers Ireland, 161 ¡-2 s, p. 318. Donnchadh O Cor-ráin, ‘Seathrun Céitinn (C.1580-C.1664): an cúlra stairiúil’. Dúchas, 1983, 1984, 1985 (Dublin, 1986), pp. 56-68.
4 Keating, Foras Fcasa, 3, pp. 299-307, 357. On Keating as historian see Bernadette Cunningham, ‘Seventeenth-century Interpretations of the Past: the Case of Geoffrey Keating’, Irish Historical Studies, 25 (1986), pp. 116-128.
5 Keating, Eochair-Sgiath, p. 19.
6 Padraig Ó Fiannachta, ‘Scéalta ón Magnum Speculum Exemplorum ‘, 1ER 99(1963), pp. 177-84.
7 Keating’s citations included Calvin’s Institutes, 4, cap. 18 and Luther’s Treatise on the New Testament and his Table Talk, Keating, Eochair-Sgiath, pp. 7-9,3,15-16.
8 Jungmann, Joseif A., The Mass, an Historical, Theological and Pastoral Survey (Collegeville, 1976), pp. 83–7 Google Scholar.
9 National Library of Ireland, MS G 49, is the earliest known extant copy. For subsequent copies see Hayes, Richard J., Manuscript Sources for the History of Irish Civilization (Boston, 1965), 2, pp. 653–9 Google Scholar, and Manuscript sources for the History of Irish Civilization, first supplement (Boston, 1979). LP. 383.
10 Pádraig Ô Fiannachta, ‘Aiteanna as Bhiobla aistrithe ag Seán O Maolchonaire’, 1ER 97 (1962), p. 382; Ó fiannachta, ‘Eochair-Sgiath an Aifrinn’ in Duchas, 1983, 1984, 1985, pp. 33-42. Ô Fiannachta, ‘Sean Mhac Torna I Mhaoilchonaire agus Eochair-Sgiath an Aifrinn’, Eigse, 10 (1962-3), pp. 198-207.
11 For a summary of this catechetical tradition see Patrick Wallace, ‘Irish Catechesis: the Herit age of James Buder 11, Archbishop of Cashel, 1774-1791’ (PhD. thesis. Catholic University of America, 1975), pp. 77-88. The earliest printed catechisms in Irish were Bonavenrure O hEodhasa, An Teagasg Criosdaidhe (Antwerp, 1611), ed. Fearghal Mac Raghnaill (Dublin, 1976); Theobald Stapleton [Teabóid GalldufF], Catechismus, seu doctrina Cliristiana, Latina Hibemica, per modum dialogi inter Magistrum et discipulum … (Brussels, 1639) (Reflex facsimile, Dublin, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 194s); Anthony Gearnon, Parrillas an Anama (Louvain, 1645), ed. Anselm Ô Fachma (Dublin, 1953); John Dowley, Suini Bhunadhasacli an Teagaisg Chriosdaidhe (Louvain, 1663); Froinsias Ó Maolmhuaidh, Lucerna Fidelium (Rome, 1676), ed. Pádraig Õ Súilleabháin (Dublin, 1962).
12 For an overview of these writings see Brian Ó Cuív, ‘The Irish Language in the Early Modern Period’ in Moody, T. W., Martin, F. X. Byrne, F.J. (eds), A New History of Ireland, 3 (Oxford, 1976), pp. 529–34 Google Scholar.
13 Green, Ian, ‘For Children in Yeeres and Children in Understanding’, JEH 37 (1986), p. 402 Google Scholar; Ó HEodhasa, Teagasg Criosdaidhe, pp. 79-83.
14 Stapleton, Catechismus, preface.
15 Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire [Florence Conry], Desiderius, otherwise called Sgáthán an Chrábhaidh (Louvain, 1616), ed. T. F. O’Rahilly (Dublin, 1041), p. 2.
16 Stapleton, Catechismus, preface, sig. b2.
17 Gearnon, Parrthas an Anama; Wallace, ‘Irish Catechesis’, pp. 83-4.
18 Keating, Eochair-Sgiath, p. 93.
19 Ibid pp. 16-17.
20 Fitzsimon, Henry, The Justification and Exposition of the Divine Sacrifice of the Mass (Douai, 1611)Google Scholar>, sig. e2-e2v.
21 Keating, Three Shafts, pp. xii, 180-1.
22 Keating, Eochair-Sgiath, p. 91.
23 Corish, P.J., The Irish Catholic Experience: a Historical Survey (Dublin, 1985), p. 105 Google Scholar.
24 Richard O’Ferrall and Robert O’Connell, Commentarius Rinuccinianus, ed. Stanislaus Kavanagh (Dublin, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1944), 5, pp. 490-1.
25 Mrs T. Concannon, The Blessed Eucharist in Irish History (Dublin, 1932), p. xxii.
26 Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 H 18; NLI, microfilm P 471 (Stonyhurst College MSS); May-nooth, O’Curry MS 14. For the ‘Contention of the Bards’ see McKenna, Lambert (éd.), lomarbhagh na bhFileadh, 2 vols (London, ITS, 1929)Google Scholar.
27 Aodh Mac Aingil [Hugh MacCaghwell], Scathán Shacramuinte na hAithridht (Louvain, 1618), ed. Canice Mooney (Dublin. 1952), p. 94; Wallace, ‘Irish Catechesis’, p. 78.