Casey & O’Casey Irish Family Heritage Gifts
Casey and O’Casey come from Ó Cathasaigh, the watchful one, a name held by six Irish families from Dublin to Fermanagh and worn proudly on tartan blankets, mugs, ornaments and flags.
About Casey & O’Casey Irish Family Heritage Gifts
Casey and O’Casey are the English forms of Ó Cathasaigh, “descendant of Cathasach,” an Irish personal name meaning vigilant or watchful. Six separate families bore it. One family were lords of Saithne in north County Dublin until Hugh de Lacy took their lands after the Anglo-Norman invasion. Others held land in Coshlea in County Limerick, near Mitchelstown in County Cork, and served as erenaghs of church lands at Kilarduff in Tirawley, Cloondara in Roscommon and Devenish in Fermanagh.
The name’s most celebrated bearer is the playwright Seán O’Casey, born John Casey in Dublin in 1880, who took the Irish form Seán Ó Cathasaigh in the Gaelic League before writing Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars for the Abbey Theatre.
For the home, pair the Casey woven blanket or printed throw blanket with the accent mug and a framed Christmas ornament, all set on the Irish National Tartan. The wall pennant hangs well in a den, the Celtic harp T-shirt is an easy gift, and the garden flag carries the O’Casey spelling. Read the full Casey surname history.