Donegal Annual / Bliainiris Thír Chonaill, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1950)

J·.)URNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY The Ineen Dubh was jealous of him as he stood in the way of he.i:. children for the Chiefltainship. One day she disaJbled his sword arm. Being now marred by blemish he was no longer eUg1ble for the Office. His father thereupon assigned him to the North~WeS1t of his territory to collect the tribute and he henceforth be·came known as "Donnchadh Scaite." He was given 1the sixteen quarters of the Rosses where he settled and his descend: ants are numerous in 1that area to-day. Who his ;wife was or how many children he had we do not know. In fact no person is now able fo trace his pedigree back in unbroken suggestion to him. Some inform!!Jtion has howe ,.,,r survived. ' - ' In Donnchadh Scaite's time P_ractically all rents, tdbutes, fines, etc., were paid in beaS1ts. iElach clan had its stockman. The head man for that part of Donegal was Tadhg O'Tiomanaidhe. He is said to have married Donnchadh's daughter (name unknown) and taken her out with him to his district of Glenfin~. The names of their children, grandchildren and grea1t-gr.and-- children have >been lost, but a son of the fourth generation was a well-iknown early' &ighteenth century poet. This was "Tadgh an File." otherwise "Tadgh na mBan," who married Grainne Fhan.ad. Their daughter, Grainne Ruadh. Married Toirdealbbach Dall MacDaeid and had a son Colum. He married Peigi Bheag Ni Ghallachabhair and their daughter, Meadhbh, married Liam Mac Ailin. a Rosses man. These had a dau_g:hter, Maire, who married Peadar Mac Meanman and •they became the parents of Sean Bttn M.adMeanman the notPd Gaelic scholar and author of Kin,i?arrow and Glenties. · !Mr. James F. O'Donnell, (more popularly known as ".Jimmy Frank") of Burton.port and father of Pa O'Donnell, Esq., T.D., solicifor, a,lso claims descent from Donnchadh Seaite. Jimmy's grand:fatlier, Owen 279. Beag, visited the Timoneys of Min an Fhir Ruaidh, Glenfinn, and was told by the gre!!Jt-grandiather of .a rh~miber of that family that ;was alive in 1917, ithat he was "Iaruaibh Dhonnchai&h Scaite." INIJS SAILLE O'DONNELLS When Sir Cahir O'Doherty came out in relbellion in 1608 he was supported by Sean MacManus Og O'Donnell, grandson of the 2lst. .Chieftain. He lived a.it Dun Buidhe on Lou~h Swilly. He also had a castle in Tory. He took command of the Irish armies after the deaith of Sir Cahir and w.as forced to retreat into the Nol'lth part of the county. Here the position worsened and .he retired to his island fortress. The English effected a landing on To::y and 1the castle fell by treachery. In the account given in the State Papers we learn thait Sean's two children, a boy aged 10 and a girl of 11, were found in the place but he had escaped by sea. He was pursued inito Arranmore r.Vhere his boat was found fljbandoned in the sands, but he himself was nowhere to be seen. ,Se.an ::\faci"\1anus Og was at this time the principal representative of his race left in Dc.n:gal. The Government feared that given the opportunity he would have h i m s e 1 f inaugurated as "O'Domhnaill" .and were determined to get rid of him at all cosits, The last written record we have of him is in a letter to the ·Lord Deputy de.scribing the fall of To::v. the pursui1t to Arranmore and his escape. 1t concludes with the pious hope that if the 1tr.aitor remained in those parts Dublin Castle would su?- denlv hear of the loss of_ h_1s head. But Sean aid remain m those pa::ts arid, ;wh8Jt is .more. he kept his head! He settled on tnis Saille and his line to-dav is known as "Na Dalaigh Chearta." 'The sitatus of the Inis Saille O"Donnells has a1ways ibeen acknowledi;ied as a S'pecial one. William Harkin refers to it in his "Scenery and Antiquities of

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