He was the second son of Sir John Keane, 1st Baronet, of Cappoquin (see Keane Baronets for earlier history of the family).
Lord Dunraven, Lord Barrymore, Lord Mayo and Lord Castletown, Sir John Keane of Cappoquin, Villiers Stuart of Dromana, Moreton Frewen, were a few of the more notable adherents who supplied political and financial support.
At Cappoquin they fired guns and marched by the military barracks playing the Jacobite tune "The lad with the white cockade".