Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mageoghegan, Conall
MAGEOGHEGAN, CONALL (fl. 1635), Irish historian, born in Westmeath, was descended from Cucochrich Mac Eochagain, the third son of Donnchadh, chief of Cinel Fhiachach. He became head of the sept of this clan, which was settled at Lismoyny, co. Westmeath, and there translated into English a volume of Irish annals, of which the original is not now extant. They are sometimes called ‘The Annals of Clonmacnois,’ and extend from the earliest times to 1408. He undertook the work for his kinsman, Turloch Mac Cochlain of Delvin, co. Westmeath, and finished it 30 June 1627. The translation is into good English of the time, and the Irish names are phonetically rendered into English; thus, Nial Glundubh is written Neal Glunduffe, and Gormflaidh is written Gormphley. Several manuscript copies exist: one in the British Museum, one in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and one at Monasterevan, co. Kildare, in Lord Drogheda's library. On a blank leaf of a fifteenth and sixteenth century manuscript, which probably belonged to Mageoghegan, and is now in the British Museum, is an entry in Irish in his hand and signed by him, headed ‘Iongnad mor, 1635,’ ‘great marvel, A.D. 1635.’ It gives an account of a great hailstorm in that year, on 25 March, in the King's and Queen's Counties. The hailstones were four inches round, a hen was slain and both her legs broken by them at Ballymacgillamuire, two grey-backed crows were killed, a woman's headdress was knocked off, a farm labourer's feet were blistered from the blows they received. The stones sank two inches into the earth, and went to the bottom of ponds. The manuscript contains several other autograph entries illustrating his kinship and reading. Mageoghegan knew Michael O'Clery [q. v.], who began the ‘Reim Rioghraidhe’ in his house at Lismoyny, in the parish of Ardnurcher, co. Westmeath. O'Curry and O'Donovan both thought that the original manuscript of Mageoghegan's translation was in the possession of Sir Richard Nagle [q. v.], but never succeeded in seeing it.
[O'Donovan's Preface to Annals of the Four Masters, Dublin, 1851, he also quotes large fragments of the translation in his notes; O'Curry's Lectures on MS. Materials of Ancient Irish History, Dublin, 1873; Miscellany of Irish Archæological Soc. Dublin, 1846, p. 182; Add. MS. 30512, ff. 15 b, 17, 72, 73, 74, in Brit. Mus.]