Keogh, Nicholas, Jesuit Brother
- Person
Born: County Wexford
Entered: 1669,
Died, post 1672
Official Catalogus Defuncti MISSING
◆ In Chronological Catalogue Sheet as Ent 1669 and Old/15 (1)
◆ Old/16 has; “Nicholas Keogh”; DOB Wexford; Ent 1669; Coa temp; RIP post 1672
◆ Fr Edmund Hogan SJ “Catalogica Chronologica” :
Two Entries
Keogh or Kehoe
DOB Wexford 1616; Ent 1668 as Brother; RIP post 1672
Had served the Jesuits in Kilkenny as a Postulant for several years previous to Ent. (cf Oliver, Stonyhurst MSS)
1672 Praised by Primate Plunket
◆ George Oliver Towards Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members SJ
KEHOE, NICHOLAS. I find that F. Francis White, in a letter, dated Kilkenny, 1668, earnestly recommended this Nicholas as truly worthy for admission for a Temporal Coadjutor in the Order. He was then 52 years old; and with the hope of being admitted, had served for many years the Fathers at Kilkenny.
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◆ Interfuse No 63 : Christmas 1990
WINDOW ON THE PAST
Senan Timoney
Two letters of St Oliver Plunkett to Fr John Paul Oliva, S.J. General, have come down to us. This is from the first, written in Italian from Dublin, 22nd November 1672.
Oliver Plunkett arrived in his diocese in March 1670 and was arrested in December 1679 (martyred 1st July 1681). The schools were open from 12th July 1670 to 30th November 1673 in Drogheda, so he wasn't long about getting them started! Besides the school there seems to have been a seminary for priests who had been ordained without very much training.
Oliver Plunkett had a high regard for the Jesuits and remembered with gratitude the education he had received from them in Rome.
The Jesuits certainly have good roots in the diocese of Armagh.
An historical addendum (from Monsignor John Hanly's introduction to the Letters): “The year 1673 ended with the edicts in Ireland which banned the Catholic bishops and religious from the country and caused the closing of the Drogheda schools:.
From The Letters of St Oliver Plunkett:
I have three fathers in my diocese of Armagh who by their virtuous lives, their learning and their labours, are enough to enrich a whole kingdom. The founder of the Armagh residence is Father Stephen Rice, a man of learning and an effective preacher, prudent in his way of doing things and a man of deep religious virtue; he never tires of teaching, instructing and helping the youth and young priests of which he is examiner and director. Oh how much he has had to suffer these past two years and four months in founding the residence! He has sweated and perspired, and in spite of it all he is so modest and reserved that you would think he came out of the novitiate of Saint Andrew's only yesterday. He received his education in Flanders, and has truly imbibed and preserved the spirit of the society: he is a worthy son of so great a father as Saint Ignatius - in fine, this Father Rice is another Father Young.
The second father is Ignatius Browne, an outstanding preacher in the English language, a man of learning and of exemplary life. He was educated in Spain. He preaches every feast day in the parish chapel with great applause. The third father is Father Murphy, a good theologian, a good religious, a good preacher in the Irish tongue: he is a young man of great ability. There is also a lay brother named Nicholas, and you would think he was a brother of the late Brother George.
In the school there are about 150 boys, sons of Catholic noblemen and gentlemen, and there are about forty boys who are sons of Protestants noblemen and gentlemen: you can imagine what a thorn in the side it is to the Protestant schoolmasters and ministers to see Protestant boys attending a Jesuit school. In the city in my diocese where the residence is, there are also residences of the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Capuchins. The city is called Drogheda, or Dreat in the Irish language and Pontana in Latin. It is as far distant from Dublin as Tivoli is from Rome. It is a seaport situated on the noble river called the Boyne and takes its name from the great bridge which spans the river there. The surrounding district abounds in grain and meat of every kind and fish, and is inhabited for the most part by Catholic noblemen and gentlemen. In the city itself there are wealthy merchants and comfortable artisans.
When I brought the fathers into my diocese and the schools began to flourish, Archbishop Talbot criticized the undertaking as rash and imprudent and hasty and vainglorious : he said it would be short-lived especially in so prominent a city. But he did not know the whole story. My Lord Berkeley. the viceroy, was most friendly towards me, and had an opinion of me much higher than I deserved. As his word I let down the net (1 Luke 5), I founded the residence. And the present viceroy, the earl of Essex, a wise, prudent and moderate man. is in no way inferior to his predecessor in his affection for me, and for this reason the schools which have survived these past two years and four months will, by God's help and the intercession of Saint Ignatius, have a still longer life and continue to function. In any case, while the wind is favourable we must hoist the sails and make progress; when the gale arises we shall lower them and retire to some quiet little port beneath some mountain or cliff. The paper is running out... Dublin, 22nd November 1672.