Geoghegan is a surname of Irish origin. Often spelled without the prefix "Mac", the name has many variants, including Gehegan, Geoghan, Geohegan, Gahagan, Gagan, and Gagon which approximate the most common pronunciations of the name. It is usually pronounced , or . In Irish it is Mag Eochagáin, from Eochaidh. The initial "G" of Geoghegan comes from the prefix Mag, a variant of Mac and the anglicised form Mageoghegan or McGeoghegan was formerly much used.
History
Correlation to ancient figures
The sept of the MacGeoghegans is of the southern Uí Néill, and said to be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages. Niall was alive from the mid 4th century into the early 5th century. His father was Eochaid Mugmedón, of the line of Erimhon, one of the sons of Esbain who it is said took Ireland from the Tuatha de Danann. Niall's mother was Carthann Cas Dubh, daughter of the king of Britain. Niall's first wife was Inné, mother of his son Fiachu mac Néill, from who the Geoghegan family are said to be descended. He also had seven other sons with his second wife, Roighnech. Niall's ancestry is claimed by Irish myth to trace back to Miledh of Esbain, King of Spain, whose wife Scota was the daughter of the Egyptian PharaohNectanebo II. From there the line is sometimes traced to Niul who was married to the daughter of Pharaoh Cingris.
Niall of the Nine Hostages
Niall Noígíallach, or in English, Niall of the Nine Hostages, was a prehistoric Irish king, the ancestor of the Uí Néill dynasties that dominated the northern half of Ireland from the 6th to the 10th century. Irish annalistic and chronicle sources place his reign in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, although modern scholars, through critical study of the annals, date him about half a century later. He is presumed by some to have been a real person, or at the very least semi-historical but most of the information about him that has come down to us is regarded as legendary. There are various versions of how Niall gained his epithet Noígíallach. The saga "The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages" says that he received five hostages from the five provinces of Ireland, and one each from Scotland, the Saxons, the Britons and the Franks. Keating says that he received five from the five provinces of Ireland, and four from Scotland. O'Rahilly suggests that the nine hostages were from the kingdom of the Airgialla, a satellite state founded by the Ui Néill's conquests in Ulster, noting that the early Irish legal textLebor na gCeart says that the only duty of the Airgialla to the King of Ireland was to give him nine hostages.. His son Fiachu mac Néill is said to be the ancestor of the Cenél Fiachach, a clan which included several well known sub-clans or septs such as Geoghegan and O'Higgins, whose lands extended from Birr to Uisnech in southern Westmeath and part of north Offaly and their southern territory became known as Fir Cell, and later the Barony of Moycashel. His son Túathal established a northern branch and his son Úathnemgenn a southern branch. Another son Crimthann was great-grandfather of a local saint Áed mac Bricc. On the other hand, it is claimed in the early 15th-century manuscript called Leabhar Breac that the Geoghegans are descended, not from Fiachu, son of Niall, but from a plebeian, Fiachu, son of Aedh. This claim so enraged the descendants of Fiachu, that they killed the author of the passage, even though he was under the protection of Suanach, the abbot of the monastery of Rahin.
Geoghegans
There have been several notable Geoghegans including:
Helen Gahagan Douglas, American actress and Congresswoman from California whose electoral defeat by Richard M. Nixon propelled him into national politics
In the late 1800s William Geoghegan was head brewer, and his brother Samuel was chief engineer, at the Guinness brewery in Dublin.
A branch of the MacGeoghegan sept settled in Bunowen, Co. Galway, and the name is found in that county as well as in their original territory. In the West it has been often shortened to Geoghan and even Gegan. In 1807, John Geoghegan of Bunowen Castle, Co. Galway assumed by royal licence the surname of O'Neill in lieu of Geoghegan and so his descendants.
The book Irish Pedigrees: Or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation by John O'Hart lists the direct lineage from Niall of the Nine Hostages to the ancestors of the modern day Geoghegans and Gahagans.
