The first was in south Roscommon, around Moyfinn in the barony of Athlone, which used to be known as "Keogh's country". Keoghville in Taghmaconnell parish is named for them.This family was part of the Ui Maine tribal grouping, and were a branch of the O?Kellys.
The second was in west Tipperary, near Limerick city; the placename Ballymackeogh marks the centre of their territory. A branch of the family based at Castletroy in Limerick spelled the name "K?eogh".
The third and most important, both numerically and historically, was in Leinster, where the original homeland was in north Kildare, whence they migrated first to Wicklow, and then south to Wexford. Here they were hereditary poets to the O?Byrnes, with whom, tradition has it, they shared their ancestry. Their literary fame survivied well into the moden period; Maolmuire MacKeogh is described in the Annals of the Four Masters as "chief professor of poetry in Leinster". A more recent practitioner was Padraig Kehoe of Enniscorthy (d.1959), prominent in the Gaelic Revivial and in the War of Independence, who wrote prolifically under the pen-name "Hy Kinsella". It is is Wexford that the name has been most commonly anglicised Kehoe. It is in Leinster that the surname is now most frequent, though it has become widespread throughout Ireland.
William Keogh (1817-1878), of the Keoghville family, was an M.P. a founder of the Catolic Defence Association and a campaigner for tenants? rights. Later, on becoming a judge, his opinions shifted. The severity of his judgements in the trial of the Fenians in 1865 made him violently unpopular.
Sir Alfred Keogh (1857-1936) was born in Dublin and became director-general of the British Army Medical Service before and during the First World War.
Myles Keogh (1848-1876), from Carlow, had an intense and varied military career, fighting first with the Papal forces in Italy, then on the Union side in the American civil war, and finally with General Custer in the Indian wars. He died with Custer at the battle of the Little Big Horn. Myles Keogh?s horse, Commanche, was the only survivor
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