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 The name O'Shea
is one of several transliterations of the Gaelic 'O'Seaghdha,' meaning
'descendant of Segda.' The Segda, or Seghdha, in question was a
7th-century Chieftain of the Corcu Duibne kin group (which also produced
the septs of O'Connell and O'Falvey), a western Kerry tribal group which
can be identified at least as early as the 6th or 7th century in western
Kerry, and which may be synonymous with the 'Iverni' described by
Ptolemy in his outline of Ireland given in the mid-2nd century (note the
similary between 'Iverni' and Uibh Rathach, or 'Iveragh,' of which the
O'Sheas were Lords until the 12th century). The most extensive
information on this Seghdha (although, one expects, mostly the product
of 12th-century synthetic historians) may be found in the 'Caithreim
Ceallachain Chaisil,' a 12th-century propaganda text written for King
Cormac III MacCarthy of Munster.
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