12 Facts About John Keogh

John Keogh was an Irish merchant and Catholic political activist.

John Keogh was a leading campaigner for Catholic Emancipation and reform of the Irish Parliament, active in Dublin on the Catholic Committee and, with some reservation, in the Society of United Irishmen.

John Keogh was born in Dublin and made his considerable fortune in land speculation, brewing, and silk trading.

John Keogh became involved in the political struggle for Roman Catholic rights in the 1780s, when he was a member of the Catholic Committee from 1781.

In 1784, Keogh joined in a plan for Ulster and Dublin radical elements to combine to push for Catholic franchise, and by 1790 Keogh was leading the Catholic Committee.

The Catholic hierarchy was alarmed, prompting John Keogh to complain of the bishops as "old men used to bend power; mistaking all attempts at liberty as in some way connected with the murders in France".

In 1795, John Keogh briefly reconvened the Committee in response to the declaration of the new Lord Lieutenant, Earl Fitzwilliam in favour of admitting Catholics to Parliament.

When Fitzwilliam was recalled after just 100 days, John Keogh led another delegation to London where it received scant regard.

Cox suggested that John Keogh might have colluded with the government to frustrate the preparations for an insurrection.

The acknowledged government informer Samuel Turner suggests that John Keogh would have been an unlikely source of information for Dublin Castle.

Turner reported that while John Keogh was formally counted among 22 members of the "National Committee" of the United Irishmen meeting in Dublin in the summer of 1797, like his fellow Catholic Committee veterans Thomas Broughall and Richard McCormick, John Keogh "did not attend".

John Keogh died in Dublin in 1817 and was buried in St Kevin's Churchyard, where his grave can be seen.