Ó Caoimh

Ó Caoimh was the surname of a Gaelic-Irish family found in Munster.

The eponymous Caomh from whom the family take their surname lived in the early eleventh century. He was himself a descendant of one of the Kings of Munster. Originally the family territory lay along the Blackwater river, near modern Fermoy, but were displaced during the Norman Invasion of Ireland, and the Ó Caoimh's moved west into the barony of Duhallow. Their territory became known as Pobal O'Keeffe, where the senior branch of the family had their seat at Dromagh in Dromtarriff parish. The last chiefs of this branch were Domhnall O’Keeffe of Dromagh (d. c 1655), who was prominent in the Catholic Rebellion of the 1640s, and his son Captain Daniel O’Keeffe, who was killed fighting for King James at the battle of Aughrim in 1691.

The surname is now generally rendered O'Keeffe, Keefe or O'Keefe but see also Éamon Ó Cuív.

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