Irish surname search
(O ) FEIGHREY, Feehery, Hunt (O) FEY (O)FEENEY
Hunt is a very common name in England and many of
the Hunt families established in Ireland are of English origin. However, since the name Hunt is much more numerous in Mayo and Roscommon and other parts of Connacht than elsewhere, in that province Hunt is not English but was adopted as an anglicized form of Ó Fiachna, which was formerly Feighney, Feeheny, Fagheny etc., a name still found in Co. Sligo. (fiadhach is the Irish word for hunt) This minor sept was a branch of the Siol Muireadhaigh (Silmurray) located in Co. Roscommon. In the same way Ó Fiachra of Co. Tyrone, first O'Feighry, Feehery, Feery etc., became Hunt; as did the family of Ó Fiaich (or Ó Féich) who were erenaghs of Derrybruck, near Enniskillen, though in this case the normal anglicized form Fey (with variants such as Fee, Fay, Foy) was not widely superseded by Hunt. Hunt is fairly numerous in Co. Waterford, and there it takes the place of Fee or Fye Ó Fiacha or Ó Fiaich in Irish.
The Connacht name Feeney is more numerous than any of the Gaelic names m entioned above, it almost equals Hunt which has many origins; Finney,with its Ulster varianti outnumbers Hunt. Feeney is Ó Fiannaidhe in Irish, now abbreviated to Ó Fianna. This sept of the Hy Fiachrach was located in the parish of Easkey, Co. Sligo. Dr. Thomas Feeny was Bishop of Killala from 1847 to 1873.