{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} '''Eugene Egan''' ('''Owen McEgan''' and other variants) (died 1603) was a Catholic apostolic vicar in Ireland, designated [[bishop of Ross, County Cork]], closely involved with the uprising of the [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|Nine Years' War]].
==Life== Egan obtained the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity from a Spanish university. In 1600 he was in Ireland actively encouraging rebellion, meeting [[Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone]] in February at [[County Tipperary|Tipperary]], and co-operating with [[Florence MacCarthy Reagh]].<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=MacEgan, Owen|volume=35}}</ref><ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=17480|title=McEgan, Owen|first=Terry|last=Clavin}}</ref>
Tyrone and Florence MacCarthy sent Egan to Rome in quest of an [[excommunication]] for all that did not rebel. One result was that the [[Jesuit]] Luigi Mansoni was appointed [[papal nuncio]] to Ireland. Egan then gained access to the Spanish court at [[Valladolid]], travelling there with Mansoni, and influenced [[Philip III of Spain]], in the direction of sending men and money to support the rebellion which Tyrone had raised in the south of Ireland. [[Pope Clement VIII]] summoned Egan back to Rome, appointed him apostolic vicar, created him D.D., and conferred on him livings in [[Munster]].<ref name="DNB"/><ref name="ODNB"/>
Egan arrived at [[Kilmakilloge]] in [[Kenmare Bay]] in June 1601, in a ship bringing troops and finance from Spain. The [[4th Spanish Armada]] was sent in September and Spanish troops made landfall. At [[Kinsale]], [[Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy]] invested the town held by the Spanish. The Irish rebels under Tyrone [[Battle of Kinsale|were then defeated outside the town]], and the Spanish in Kinsale were forced to surrender.<ref name="DNB"/>
Egan's career ended in an encounter with English soldiers under [[William Taaffe]] in [[West Carberry|Carberry]] on 5 January 1603, where he was killed. He was buried in the convent of [[Timoleague]], in the diocese of Ross, and a small cross was placed above his tomb.<ref name="DNB"/><ref name="ODNB"/> A breviary (printed in Venice in 1600) apparently held by Egan when he was killed is now at Cambridge University Library (shelfmark Rel.e.60.2). It contains a note apparently in the hand of Sir Thomas Stafford, who came into possession of Egan's books, and was later in the library of John Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry, who bequeathed it to the Library in 1670.
==See also== *[[Catholic Church in Ireland]]
==Notes== {{reflist}}
;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=MacEgan, Owen|volume=35}}
{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= Ireland}} {{Authority control}}
{{Roman Catholic bishops of Cork or Cloyne or of Ross}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, Eugene}} [[Category:Year of birth missing]] [[Category:1603 deaths]] [[Category:16th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests]] [[Category:Apostolic vicars]] [[Category:17th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests]] [[Category:Place of birth missing]]