As Michael sat listening to the song “It’s a long way to Tipperary”, his thoughts turned to his parents, Mary and Dennis who had left Tipperary, Ireland in 1841 when he was only a baby, to emigrate to New South Wales, Australia. They had often discussed their lives back in Ireland and Michael pondered the decision to leave their homeland and seek a new life in the far away colony.

Mary and Dennis had decided to emigrate shortly after Dennis’s father, John, had died. It had been a difficult decision to leave both Dennis’s mother, Judith and the family sheep farm, but with the birth of their first son, Michael, it was time to make a new beginning.
 

THE O’KEEFE CLAN

The O’Keefes were descendent from the O'Caoimh sept who were originally located in north eastern Co. Cork, Ireland. They were displaced and migrated westwards into the barony of Duhallow in Co. Cork and into the adjacent counties of Munster. During the years of Gaelic submergence many members of the O’Keefes retained the prefix ‘O’ unlike many of the other Irish families. With the widespread resumption of the prefix by those who had lost it, the Keefes are now in a very small minority.

LEAVING IRELAND (1841)

After farewelling many of the O’Keefe relations, both in Co. Cork  and Co. Tipperary, as well as Mary’s parents, Bridget and Roderick FOGARTY in Lochmar, Tipperary, the family left Ballycahill, Tipperary, for London.

In London they boarded the ship “Gilbert Henderson” as Bounty Immigrants. They set sail on 26 May 1841 and sailed south to Plymouth from where they departed for the new colony.