Boetius MacEgan

Boetius MacEgan (; died May 1650) was a 17th-century Irish Roman Catholic Bishop of Ross. Born in County Cork, MacEgan was associated with the Irish Catholic Confederation (also known as the Confederation of Kilkenny) and was killed during the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland.

Early life and clerical career MacEgan was born (possibly ) in the barony of Duhallow in north-west County Cork and educated in France and Spain. He returned to his native Munster as a Franciscan friar in the 1630s and was promoted to several positions of importance in the Franciscan order.

Support the Irish Catholic Confederation MacEgan was an enthusiastic supporter of the Confederation of Kilkenny, which controlled much of Ireland following the 1641 uprising.

In 1645, a new papal nuncio, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, landed in Ireland with arms and funds to support the rebellion and befriended MacEgan. Rinuccini appointed MacEgan chaplain general of the Ulster forces. He chose instead to exhort them to hold on and as a result was hanged from a nearby tree. The garrison surrendered shortly afterwards.

While local tradition states that MacEgan's body was buried in the local churchyard at Aghinagh, some sources suggested that his remains were "removed subsequently by his friends".