Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/536

 MacGEOOHBOAN

493

BiAOHABESS

the Union between England and Ireland, brought him an offer of employment on the Boston *' Pilot. His editorial and other contributions to this paper and public addresses attracted the attention of O ConneU who called them " the inspired utterances of a young exiled Irish boy in America''. After this McGee re- turned to Dublm to take a place on the editorial staff of "The Freeman's Journal, but his advocacy of the advanced ideas of the Young Ireland Party caused him to leave that paper for a position on Charles Gavan Duffy's " Nation", in which many of his poems and patriotic essays were printed. In the subsequent revolutionary episodes of 1848 he figured as one of the most active leaders, being the secretary of the Irish Confederation, and was arrested and imprisoned for a short time because of an unwise speecn. When the government began to suppress the movement and to arrest its leaders McGee escaped to the United States

during these years he wrote a " History of Ireland ". It was written m French and published at Paris in 1758. It was dedicated by the author to the Irish Brigade, and he is responsible for the interesting statement that for the fifty years following the Treaty of Limerick (1691) no less than 450,000 Irish soldiers died in the service of France. MacGeoghegan's * * History " is the fruit of much labour and research, though, on account of his residence abroad, he was necessarily shut out from access to the manuscript materials of history in Ireland, and had to rely chiefly on Lynch and Colgan. Mitchel's " History of Ireland professes to be merely a continuation of MacGeoghegan, though Mitchel is throughout much more of a partisan than MacGeo- ghegan.

MacGrooheqan, History of Ireland, tr. 0*Kbllt (Dublin, 1831); O'CcRRY, MS8. Materials of Irish Historj/ (Dublin, 1861); Boyle, The Irish CoUeffe of Paris (London. 1901).

E. A. D' Alton.

disguised as a priest. In New York he started a paper m*ni-ii_T otv ta

caUed •' The l^ation ", but soon got into trouble Xh McQolnck, James. See Duluth, Diocese or.

Bishop Hughes over his violent revolutionary ideas and diatribes against the priesthood in their relation to Irish politics. Changing the name of the paper to "The American Olt" he moved to Boston, tnenoe to Buffalo and again back to New York.

In 1857 he settled in Montreal where he published another paper, " The New Era '*, and entering actively into local politics was elected to the Canadian Parlia- ment, in wiiich his ability as a speaker put him at once in the front rank. He changed the whole tenor of his political views and, as he advanced in official promi- nence, advocated British supremacy as loyally as he had formerly promoted the revolutionarj^ doctrines of his youth. The Confederation of the British colonies of North America as the Dominion of Canada was due largely to his initiative. In the change of his political ideas he constantly embittered and attacked the revo- lutionary organizations of his fellow countrymen, and so made himself very obnoxious to them. It was this that led to his assassination by an overwrought fan- atic. His literary activity in his earlier years brought forth many poems full of patriotic vigour, tenderness and melody, and a number of works, notably: "Irish Writers of the Seventeenth Century" (1846); "His- toiy of the Irish Settlers in North America" (1854); " History of the Attempt to establish the Protestant Reformation in Ireland" (1853); "Catholic History of North America" (1854); "History of Ireland^' (1862).

Sadlirr, T. D. McOee's Poems with Introduction and Bio- graphical Sketch (New York, 1889) : McCarthy, Historu of Our Own Times. I (New York. 1887); Fitsgerald, Ireland and Her People, II (Chicago, 1910), s. v.; Dufft. Younq Ireland (Lon- don, 1880); Idem, Four Years of Irish Htstory (London, 1883).

Thomas F. Meehan.

MacOeoghegan, Ja.me8, b. at Uisneach, West- meath, Ireland, 1702; d. at Paris, 1763. He came of a family long settled in Westmeath and long holding a high position among the Leinster chiefs, and was re- lated to that MacGeoghegan who so heroically de- fended the Castle of Dunboy against Carew, and also to Conncll MacGeoghegan, who translated the Annals of Clonmacnoise. Early in the eighteenth century the penal laws were enacted and enforced against the Irish Catholics, and education, except in Protest- ant schools and colleges, was rigorously proscribed. Young MacGeoghegan, therefore, went abroad, and received his education at the Irish (then the Lombard) College in Paris, and in due course was ordained priest. Then for five years he filled the position of vicar in the parish of Poissy, in the Diocese of Qiartres, "attend- mg in choir, hearing confessions and administering sae- rameiits in a laudable and edifying manner". In 1734 he was cIect a priestly family which under the leader- ship of Mathathias initiated the revolt against the tyranny of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, King of Syria, and after securing Jewish independence ruled the com- monwealth till overthrown by Herod the Great. The name Machabee was originally the surname of Judas, the third son of Mathathias, but was later extended to all the descendants of Mathathias^ and even to all who took part in the rebellion. It is also given to tJie martyrs mentioned in II Mach., vi, 18-vii. Of the various explanations of the word the one given above is the most probable. Machabee would accordingly mean "hammerer*' or " hammer-like ", and would have been given to Judas because of his valour in combating the enemies of Israel. The family patronymic of the Machal)ees was Hasmoneans or Asmoneans, from I^hmon, Gr. *A<roiua»Katof, an ancestor of MathathiaB. lliis designation, which is always used by the old Jew- ish writers, is now commonly applied to the princes of the dynasty founded by Simon, the last of the sons of Mathathias.

Events leading to the Revolt of Mathathias. — ^The ris- ing under Mathathias was caused by the attempt of Antiochus IV to force Greek paganism on his Jewish subjects. This was the climax of a movement to hellenize the Jews, begun with the king's approval by a party among the Jewish aristocracy, wno were in favour of breaking down the wall of separation be- tween Jew and Grentile and of adopting Greek customs. The leader of this party was Jes«is, or Josue, better known by his Greek name Jason, the unworthy brother of the worthy high-priest Onias III. By promising the king a large sum of money, and b^ offering to become the promoter among the Jews of his policy of hellenizing the non-Greek popidation of his domains, he obtained the deposition of his brother and his own appointment to the high-priesthood (174 B. c). As soon as he was installed he be^an the Work of hellenizing and carried it on with considerable suc- cess. A gymnasium was built below the Acra (cita- del), in close proximity to the temple, where the youths of Jerusalem were taught Greek sports. Even priests became addicted to the games and neglected the altar for the ^mnasium. Many, ashamed of what a true Jew gloried in^ had the niarks of circumcision removed to avoid being recognized as Jews in the baths or the gymnasium. Jason himself went so far as to send money for the games celebrated at Tyre in honour of Hercules (I Mach., i, 11-16; II Mach., iv, 7-20). After three years Jason was forced to yield the pontin- cate to Menelaus, his agent with the king in money matters, who secured the office by outbidding his em- ployer. To satisfy his obligations to the king, this man, who was a Jew only in name, appropriated sacred vesseb, and when the former high-priest OQia& 5^^^^