He had been appointed a justice of the peace for County Wexford but deprived of his seat on the bench in 1796 for alleged revolutionary sympathies.
Matthew Keogh was elected Cathaoirleach or presiding officer, effectively Military Governor of the county.
[1] He subsequently failed however, in spite of his good intentions, to prevent a mob from slaughtering nearly 100 local loyalists with pikes after mock trials on Wexford bridge on 20 June.
When the British force retook the town a few days later he was put on trial with other local leaders and sentenced to death.
The sentence was carried out on 25 June 1798 when he and the other defendants were hanged on Wexford bridge and their bodies thrown into the River Slaney.