Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keegan, John

by William Arthur Jobson Archbold

KEEGAN, JOHN (1809–1849), Irish ballad-writer, was born in 1809 at a small farmhouse on the banks of the Nore, Queen's County, and was educated by wandering hedge-schoolmasters. When very young he began to write verses, but lived a peasant's life, suffered much from the famine of 1845–6, and died in poor circumstances in 1849. Many of his ballads appeared in ‘Dolman's Magazine;’ some are contained in Hayes's ‘Ballads of Ireland’ and in the compilation known as ‘The Harp of Erin.’ At the time of his death Keegan was preparing a collected edition of his poems, which never, however, appeared.

[The Irishman, 28 Oct. 1876; Hayes's Ballads of Ireland; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog.; Men of the Reign.]

W. A. J. A.