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Gaffney,

(Caulfield, O'Growney, Keveney, MacCarronCarew) Gaffney is one of those quite numerous Irish surnames about which much confusion arises. Not only is it used as the anglicized form of four distinct Gaelic names, but Gaffney itself has for some obscure reason become Caulfield in many places. It never appears to-day with either Mac or O as prefix: of the four patronymics referred to above two are O names and two are Mac. The principal sept in question was O Gamhna of Ossory, but there Caulfield is the normal modern form. In the same area Gaffney is sometimes found as the anglicized form of O Caibheanaigh, recte Keveney in English. Then we have Mac Conghamhna, a sept of the Ui Fiachra Aidhne in South Galway: there again Caulfield is found as an equivalent as well as Gaffney. Finally MacCarrghamhna, sometimes MacCaron in English, is usually made Gaffney in Cavan and Roscommon, where the name Gaffney is most commonly found to-day Mac Cearain, however, the name of a small Tirconnaill sept, is the most usual original; of MacCarron. To add to the confusion Mac Carrghamhna has been corrupted to G Gramhna, whence O'Growney in English, a name very familiar to all Gaelic Leaguers through the Irish language primers of Father Eugene O'Growney (1863-1899). this corrupt form of the name MacCarrghamhna I.e MacCarron is of long standing, as six families called O'Growney appear in the Co. Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls of 1665-67. The name O'Growney was in general use in English in the mid-seventeenth century. It is one of the few names given with the prefix O in the Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls, in which six householders so called appear. Richard Caulfield (1823-1887) did much antiquarian and historical research for Co. Cork. The name MacCarron is now almost exclusively associated with Ulster, especially Counties Donegal and Derry, and in the "census" of 1959 it is confined to that province. Statistics of two centuries later give a similar picture: for example in 1865 there were 48 births registered for MacCarron (including some minor spelling variants) and 5 for Carron, all these being in Ulster; there was one Carroon - in Co. Westmeath. Other years for which figures are available corroborate this. In earlier records, however, from 1100 to 1600 it appears frequently as that of a sept in what is now the barony of Kilkenny West (Co. Westmeath). The Four Masters call the head of the sept Chief of Maol an tSinna, I.e. Chief of the Shannon, their territory lying on the Westmeath side of the river. In 1578 Hobbert MacCarron of Killenefaghna, Co. Westmeath, was as "Chief serjeant of his nation" confirmed in the possession of the lands in that county (including Kilmacaron) which of old belonged to the "chief of the nation of MacCaron" Caron, without the prefix Mac, is a different name: it is of Norman origin, formerly de Carron but later altered to Carew. The best known was Sir George Carew, Elizabethan President of Munster, and implacable enemy of the Irish. The name, however, was not confined to the landlord class: it was numerous among the ordinary householders of Co. Tipperary in 1666 as shown by the Hearth Money Rolls and is still found there. John Edward Carew (1785-1868), sculptor, was born at Waterford.