From the seventh century until the Cromwellian Conquest a thousand years later, the O'Dwyers were settled in the present Barony of Kilnamanagh, a territory of about 100 square miles lying in the centre of County Tipperary between Cashel and Emly in the South and Thurles and Killaloe in the North.
The clan leaders occupied fortified castles in Dundrum, Killinure and Clonyhorpe. Beginning with the year 1100, for five generations the O'Dwyer Chiefs married daughters of O'Brien, Prince of Thomond (twice), O'Kennedy of Ormond (twice), O'Carroll of Ely (once). In about 1250 we find John O'Dwyer of Kilnaman
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