John Otway O’Conner Cuffe, 3rd Earl of Desart, an Irish Conservative politician styled Viscount Castlecuffe until 1820, is born on October 12, 1818. He serves as Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies between March and December 1852 in the first administration of Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby.

Cuffe is the son of John Otway Cuffe, 2nd Earl of Desart, and Catherine, daughter of Maurice O’Connor. He succeeds in the earldom in November 1820, aged two, on the early death of his father. He is educated at Eton College and enters Christ Church, Oxford in 1836 but takes no degree.

Cuffe sits in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as Member of Parliament for Ipswich between June and July 1842, when his election is declared void. He does not stand in the subsequent by-election. In 1846 he is elected an Irish representative peer and thus takes a seat in the House of Lords, which he holds until his death in 1865. He serves as Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in Lord Derby’s short-lived protectionist government of 1852.

Cuffe marries Lady Elizabeth Lucy Campbell, daughter of John Campbell, 1st Earl Cawdor, in 1842. They have three sons and a daughter. He dies at the age of 46 at his home in Belgravia, City of Westminster, Greater London on April 1, 1865, due to a fall suffered during an attack of paralysis. He is buried in Castleinch Cemetery, Kilkenny, County Kilkenny. He is succeeded in the earldom by his son, William. The Countess of Desart dies in April 1898, aged 76.