Born in 1580, Roche was the sixth son of Ross MacGeoghegan, chief of the MacGeoghegan kindred of Moycashel, County Westmeath [REF].
Despite being educated in a Protestant school for 6 months, the bulk of MacGeoghegan's early education was in the hands of Catholics, men such as the Westmeath priest John Power, as well as Catholic laymen in Westmeath and County Tipperary [REF].