Joyce

The Joyces, Gaelic Seoighe, were a Hiberno-Norman family in the far west of Connacht. Their surname came from the Old French Josse, drawn from Judoc, a Breton royal saint of the seventh century. One of the first recorded in Ireland was Thomas Joy, who founded a lordship in northern Iar Connacht, holding the barony of Ross between the Cong river and Killary Harbour.

The family became Gaelicised, ruling like an Irish chiefly line over the old Partraige country around Lough Mask and Lough Corrib, which became known as Joyce Country.

A kinsman branch settled in Galway and joined its fourteen merchant tribes: Henry Joyce served as mayor in 1542, and tradition credits the goldsmith Richard Joyce, around 1700, with designing the Claddagh ring.