Lord Chancellor, recommended him as a candidate for judicial office to James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whose friendship was then the usual path to the Bench. Keating was content for the time being with the minor position of Attorney General to the Duke of York; he admitted that he could not afford financially to give up his practice at the Irish Bar, and in addition said that he did not wish to arouse the envy of his older colleagues. He acted as legal adviser to several members of the Butler dynasty. In 1675 he was raised to the Bench as Chief Judge (or Seneschal) of the Palatine court of Tipperary, a position in Ormonde's gift, and which was generally regarded as a sinecure rather than a major judicial office (although for at least part of its history the Court's workload was heavy enough to require the appointment of a second judge, called the Master of the Rolls). Chief Justice Given Keating's previous reluctance to accept a seat on the High Court Bench, his appointment as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1679, when he had no judicial experience other than as a palatine judge in Tipperary, may seem surprising. Even more surprising was the choice of a judge who was widely suspected of Roman Catholic leanings, since the anti-Catholic hysteria engendered by the Popish Plot was at its height, and it was rumoured that Keating himself might be accused of complicity in the Plot. It is likely, as Elrington Ball suggests, that Charles II chose Keating precisely because his well-known tolerance in matters of religion meant that he was unlikely to succumb to the prevailing anti-Catholic mood. In particular, he was expected to quash an unfounded charge of treason made against Richard Power, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and duly did so. As belief in the Plot waned, Keating, clearly indicating his own scepticism on the issue, secured the acquittal of several defendants accused of playing a part in it. In the following years, he gained an impressive reputation for integrity, impartiality and mercy, and as a result, he made political enemies on all sides. He was offered the office of Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1681, but declined it. He suffered seriously from overwork in the period 1681-2, as due to the death or illness of his colleagues he was often required