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SHEEHY Family History

This interesting surname is of Scottish and Irish origin, and is an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name 'Sitheach', probably originally a byname from the adjective 'sitheach', relating to fairies, eerie, mysterious. The name was first established in Ireland by a branch of the Scottish McDonnell's, descended from Sithich, great-grandson of Domhnaill, who came to Ireland early in the 14th Century. The surname is now peculiar to Munster, though it is not found there before 1420, when the first of the family came to County Limerick, where they took service with the Earl of Desmond and established themselves near the town of Rathkeale...