Falvey

Falvey is a surname which is an anglicisation of the name Ó Fáilbhe: in the Irish language Ó means "descendant" [of] and "fáilbhe" literally means "lively, pleasant, sprightly, merry, cheerful" or, according to another historian, "joker". Other anglicisations include O’Falvie, O’Falvy, O’Failie, O’Falvey, Falvey, Fealy and Fealey. The O’Falvey’s trace their descent to Conaire, who was King of Ireland at the beginning of the Christian era. The O’Falvey’s are recorded to have been powerful chiefs of Corcu Duibne, specifically the Dingle Peninsula of modern-era County Kerry, the barony of Corcaguiny. They were also Lords of Inveragh during the tenth century, and the hereditary admirals of Desmond. The veracity of such claims is in their intent more than their detail, thus an "admiral" may well have been the leader of some boats, and a "lord" may have been a somewhat less imposing figure than a Victorian English nobleman.

Some historical evidence appears to substantiate this particular claim, in the form of the following extract from The Viking Invasions of Ireland.

The stem is said to begin with High King Conaire Cóem in 165 and ends with the entry, Thomas O’Falvey of Taunton, Massachusetts with a son living in 1880. Documentation in Australia is also speculative, for example that of the "Falvey Family History".

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