PRINCIPAL CONTENTS Page THE STORY OF DOE CASTLE (by J.C. T. McDonagh) ......... 381 HISTORY OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN DONEGAL .......... .. 406 DONEGAL IN INDUSTRY ................................................ 417 DONEGAL'S FIRST DISTRICT JUSTICE .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 424 ANTIQUITIES IN THE PARISH OF DONEGAL ............... 42S ANTIQUITIES IN AND AROUND KILLYBEGS ............... .\31 DONEGAL MEN IN THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE . . .. . . . . .. . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . .. . .. . . . . . .. 439 A FEW HINTS ON CORRECT ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE ................................................ 437 GLEANINGS FROM OLD NEWSPAPERS ........................ 434 THE BALLYSHANNON FISHERY DISTRICT (by H. Hemming) 441 1952 IN RETROSPECT . .. . .. .. . . .. .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .... .. .. . .. .. .. .. 449
THE DONEGAL ANNUAi. {6/,,,e @6u,tilq Q)6ne9al f/C;,sltwical d6ciP-lq. IRIS CUMANN SI<:ANCAIS DUN NA nGALL (FOUNDED AT LIFFORD ON 20th DECEMBER, 1946). VERY REV, PEADAR MacLOINGSIGH, P.P. PRESIDENT 1952.
LIST OF MEMBERS AND OFFICE HOLDERS President: Very Rev. Father Peadar MacLoingsigh, P.P. Aghyarn, Castlderg. Vice-Presidents : Mrs. L. Cochrane, Lifford. Rev. Richard La!rc!, The Manse. Ardstraw. Capt. Eamon O'Boyle, 56 Marlborough Rd., ·Dublin. Hon. Sees.: J.C. T. 1MacDonagh, B.Comm., M.LB.I., Highfie'.d House, Stranorlar; Liam Mao.."J\.lenamin, B.A., N.T., Labadish, Manorcunningham. J. J. O'Connor, Co. Librarian, Lifford. . Hon. Treas. and Hon. Editor : J. C. T. MacDonagh, Highfield House, Stranorlar. Hon. Business Manager for Donegal Annual: Cecil King, "Donegal Democrat," Ballyshannon. Past Presidents of the Society 1947, Mr. Andrew Lowry, Argrey, Bal}indrait, Lifford. 19 IB, Very Rev. Dr. Molloy, P.P., Dungloe. 1949, Capt. John S. Hamilt<m, Brownhall. 3950. Mr. S. D. MacLochlainn, .County Manager, Lifford. 1951, Rev. J. H. Bewglass, B.A., The 1Manse, Ballindrait.
List of Members 1951 I 1952 Adams G.B., 98 Salisbury Avenue, Belfast. Adams W.<.; .s ., Fahan House, Fahan. *Alexander, E. H., O'Donel, 55 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, London N.W.3. ·:+Algeo, Miss ·Ena, Lac Na Tare, Ballymore. Anderson, 1Mrs. W., Volt House, Raphoe. AJkinrnn, Mis.oes, Cavangarden, Ballyshannon. Bastib1e, Dr. Michaei, Co..M.O.H., Dublin. Bennett, Miss E.M., Fort Hotel, Gree11castle. Bcwglass, Rev. J.H., The Manse, Ballindr.ait. Bewglass, 1Mrs.. The Manse, Ballindrait. Boyle, Very Rev. H. Canon., P.P., Rathmul!in. Boyce, Very Rev Chas. Canon, P.P., Ardara. Brady, F., B.Agric., See., Lifford. Bustard, Mrs. A.. The Vil~a, Clones, Co. Monaghan. Campbell, A. Abert, F.R.S.A.I., 10 Rosetta Park, Belfast. Cannon, P., LL.B.. G1enmalure, I Herbert Park, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Central Catholic Library, ;Dublin. Chambers Rev. A., C.C., Ballybofey. ·l!-Cleary, F. R., B. See., H. Dip. Ed., Four Masters Schools, Donegal. Cleary, Patrick, N.T., 'Broadpath, Convoy. Cochrane, Mroj..Hugh,_ Lifford. Cochrane, Mrs. W.T.C., Edenmore, Stranorlar. Cochlainn, Rupert 0 . .-•AHsa Lodge, Roslare, Co. Wexford. County,Library, Lifford. Crossan, D. J., Hibernian Bank House, Ballybofey. *Cryan, •M. J., B.A., B.:Comm., C.E.O., Co. Vocational Committee, Letterkenny. Cunningham, The Misses, Killymard House, Donegal. Dallaghan, P. Dallas, ·Bank of Ireland House, Ballybofey, *Devine, !Miss Pauline, Strabane. Doher.ty, Rev. T., C.C., Convoy. Doherty, W.J.. (Jr.) BalJmaglack, Stranorlar. Dunleavy, F., Camas .House, Ballybofey. Emerson, L., Technical· School, Ballyshannon. Fury, Very Rev. Fr.. Adm., Letterkenny. Gallagher. Doalty, Foster House, Raphoe. {;allagher, Patrick, '(senior) Dunglow. Gallagher, Rev. Patrick, St. Tiernan's, Clones. Gallagher. Very Rev. T . P.. P .P., Stranorlar. (:allagher. 1\V.G., Greainan, Castlefin. t;allen, 1P,atrick. The Hotel, Clonmany. *Gillespie, Miss Maire, Buncrana.
Coodall. br. G.\V., Ph. D., The Glen, Ramelton. l~ooda ll, Mrs. (~. W., The·Glen Ramelt~m. Graham, J . P .. Technical School, -Ballysihannon. Gwynn, Rev. A., S.J., Milltown Park, Dublin. Hamilton, Capt. J.S., Brownhall, J3allintra. Hamilton, Miss S., Browrihall, Ballintra. Hannigan, Dr., T.he Whitehouse, Hartburn, Stock-on-Tees. Hannigan, J. J., B.E., l\fonaghan. Harvey, J. A., N.T., Drumkeen. Healy, Cahir., M.P., Enniskillen. Herdman, J. P., Glenmore Lodge. Welchtown. Herdman, ·Mrs. J. C., Sion Mills. Hynes, P., IM.A., Letterkenny. Homan, The Venerable Archdeacon, The Rectory, Raphoc. Hynes, P ., M.A.. Letterkenny. J ackson, P.A.. Laputa, Ballyshannon. Kerrigan, Dr., S.P.. Lifford. Kerr, !Miss A., Morass, Tamney. Letterkenny. King, Cecil. Ballyshannoh. Laird, Rev. Richard, The Manse. Ardstraw, Co. Tyrone. Laird, 1Miss R., The Manse, Ardstraw. Co. Tyrone. Leo, Rev. Brother, De La Salle Schools, Ballyshannon. Long, Rev. E., .D.C.L.. Drumkeen. Lowry, Andrew.· Argrey~ Ballindrait, Lifford. Macky, Ross, .Belmont, Kings Avenue, Parkstone, Dorset. •Maguire, F.. 8 Main St., Letterkenny. Maguire, P., .cooladawson, Killygordon. :\1illigan, C.D.. "Londonder.ry Sentinel", Londonderry. Molloy, Very Rev. Dr. T., P.1P., Dung.low. Morrow, T. A., So1icitor, Raphoe. Mulhern, Thomas, Cranhogboy, Ardara. Mullin, Rev. E. J ., C;C.. Edenfagh, Glenties. ·!'.forphy, Very Rev. J. J ., P.P., Ballintra. *Murnaghan, Walter. Solicitor, Strabane. *Murnaghan. 'Mrs. W., ·strabane. MacAteer, E., .M.P., Derry. McCarroll. F .. "Derry J ourna:", Derry. MacCathbhaid, B"rian, Kilcar. MacDonagh, J . . c. T., Highfield House, Stranorlar. :.vtcElhinny, H. P., (_~:i ei'iveigh Castle. McGill. P. J., Wood House, Ardara. McGinley, Very Rev. Qr. Leo., \Y·aynne, Penn, U.S.A. *IMcGlinchey. Edward, Clones, Co. Monaghan. ·McGlind:ey. Daniel, Meenbogue. McG!inchey, John, Killynure House, Convoy. * Mc(;linchey. Dr. Nancy, Cloghan. *,McGovern, Leo, Bundoran. *MaoHugh, I., Ballymacahitl, Frosses.
il.\facLoughlin, Rev. Jas., M.A., Caenties. MacLoughlin, J. F., The Glebe, Cloghan. 1".\aeUochlainn. S. D., County :vranager, Lifford. MacLoingsigh, Very Rev P., P.P., Aghyarn, Castlederg. MaeLoone, Very Rev. A .. Letterkenny. IMaclVIanus, Seamus, Tanatalon. McMenamin, Liam, ·B.A., Manorcunningham. McMenamin Sean, 11VLcDevitt Institute, Glenties. McMenamin, ;\V.R., 87. Barington Drive, Glasgow ·1. McMullin, Rev. E., B.D., B.Sce., Stranorlar. M~cMullin, Very Rev. <M., P.P., Carrigart. 1McMullin, Very Rev. P. Canon, P.P.. Donegal. MeNulty, J. B., Solicitor, Rapboe. -McNulty, R. B., Lifford, .Ma:Ruaire. Brian, Tanatalon. McShane, Rt. Rev. Monsignor, P.P., Bunc1'ana. Naug.J::ton, .!VI., O.B.E.. Bundoran. O'B:>yile, Andrew, Stranorlar. O'Boyle, Capt. Eamon, 56 Mar:borcugh Rd.. Di.:blin. *O'Canainn, Eamon, 0.S.. L£tte1kem:y. *O'Cnaihhsighe, B., O.S.. 50 Old Kilmainham Road. Dublin. *O'Doherty, Lian, B.Comm,, AcC.A., Letterkenny. O',')one1. The, 37 Serpentine Ave., !Monkstown, Dublin. O'Donel, Aodh, 37 Serpentine Ave.. Monkstown, Dublin. *O'Donnell, Miss Frances. B.A., Adelphia Hotel. Waterford. O'Donnell. James (Ruadh), Meentanad. O'D::mnell, John, 7 Castle St .. Dunbarton, Scotland. O'Donnell, Sean, M.A., HJ Dawson St., Dublin. O'Hanrahan, Sean, D.J., Bal!yst.annon. O'Kelly, D., B.A., B.Ph., Wave Crest Villa, Downings. *O'Leary, P. M., Bay View Hotel, ·Buncrana. O'Neill, J. F., F .R.l.C.S.. 3/5 Castle St., Derry. Owings, Dr. Donnell, Dept. of History University of Oklahoma. Queen's University, Belfast. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. Swa:1, H. P., P.C.. 1\.1.R.I.A., F.R.S.A.I., Buncrana Swa11, Mrs. H. P., Buncrana. Sweeney, Mrs Edward, 3608 Spring Garden St., Philadelphia, U.S.A. Sweeney, .J. Johnst::m, 120 East Fnd Av2., Nev York 28, U.S.A. Troup, G. E., 23 Cluny Drive, Edinburgh 10. Walker, Mrs. A. ;M., Summerhill, Ballybofey. Walker, Dr. C .. Ferguson. Kilcadden Hot.:se, Killygordon. *Walsh, Louis, Soljcitor, (;Jenties. Ward. P. J., Co. Registrar. Lifford . West, A.M., Ardnamora, Dom•,gal. :\Vhite, Mrs. Creswell, Sallybroat, Manorcunningham. Whtelaw, Mrs. Peter, Strancrlar. * New Members.
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The Story OF Doe Castle l:ff J. C. T. M~DONAGH JN 1915 members of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ire. land visited County ·Donegal and one of them, 'an expert in architectural history, gave the following as his considered opinion of the buildings and fortifications ca:Jed Doe Cast:e (1), "Though -converted into a modern residence it still has the main chariacteristiCs of a sixteenth century fortress ... a central tower (fifty five feet high) with battlements, enclo.:;ure and bawn. The principal entrance was on the la!'Jd side by ,a bridge across the ditch but there were app:·oaches from the sea a'.so. Below the original bridge, wbich is to the right of j.he later entrance, is a masked outlet, now filled with stones, which opened .into t.he ditch. The eentra 1 tower is enclosed on three sides by modern structures wllkh fo part are built on the walls of an inner rampart. .such as the French style chemise, at a ::;hort cb;- tance fr.cm the base of the to\ver and flanked by circular bastions. The interior of the tower has been much altered. The lower storey is not now vadted and it cannot now be seen whether it was so originally or not. There is no sign Qf a vault at the summit of the tower. The original entrance to this tower was on the ground iloor and a straight stair in the thick ness of the wall, to the right of the door, gave access to the upper rooms ·and finally becoming a circular stair, in one angle of the tower. a>- cended to the battlements. The parapets of the tower and the enc:osing wall were loopholed for musketry nnd were 'arranged in pairs as at Carrickogunnel, so that the same gunner could fire in two different directions". ,A local antiquary, Harkin, in h is "Scenery and Antiquities of North West Donegal'' (2) placed on record a Doe traditio:1, dating into the eighteenth century, which told that the cnst:e was built by Nacthan O'Donnell, for one of his many sons; thereby associating it with the erection of similar structure3 at Burt, Inch :and Rame'.ton. This tradition diso related that the Mac Sweeneys were .g'.ven Doc Castle whell peace was made between Owen O'Neill. Prince of Tyrone, a,1d Nachtan O'Donnell, Prince of Tirconnell. Mac .Parland in his Statistical Account of County D<J!"'egal, gave another tradition which al~o dated back .into the eighteenth century "Doe cnstle ... situated at. Cann<m's
Pofol .. .. WaH l.ilt.ilt IJ,Y a ludy named Quinn who afterwards married one of the Mac Swine family a C'Ouple of years before the reign of Queen Elizabeth (3) ... .it was since fortified by t_hc grandfather of the present ~fr. Mac Sweeney of Dunfanaghy" ( 4). Our first historical reference to Doe Castle is in the year 1544 and is the sequel to the capture of its chieftain, at Rutland Island, by a fleet belonging to the O'Malleys ( 5). Mac Sweeney Doe died in captivity, in Connacht, the following year and when the news of his death reached Tirconail, Doe Castle became the fratricidal cockpit of the dead chieftains sons. One of them was killed with a numbe:- of his followers and another, Eoghan Og I succeeded to the title. He managed to survive the vengeance of hii'i brother'f family and friends until, some nine years later, they corne.:-ed him and slew him at Cloghaneely. The lordship of Doe remained in his family as his son, later known a.; 1.\Iurrough (67 was elected chief. This cltiettain of Doe Castle is well documented in the Anna:!> and vividly remembe:ed in t:-adition. He was slain at Dunnalong by ~ome of the :\lac Donnells and was sue· ceeded in the chieftainry lly his brother Eoghan Og II. Eoghan Og II. wa.> the MacSweeney Doc wlto gave hope and san•·tuary to some of th~ many unfortunate sailors who escaped from the Spanish Armada ships lost along the coa~ts. of County Donegal. He was cl;l.o oen b~· Ingheen Dubh as one r»C t"he fo~h,r falht!l':> (7) for hl'r son, Red Hugh (>'Donnc:i, and as a patron o{ the Bards, hi~ l1ospitality .is still eni-hrincd in the works of Eorhaid 0 hEoghusa and Tadg dall 0 Ulginn, two great masters of that g:eat period. (8) This great chieftain of Doe Castle was cordially hated by the Queen's deputies in Dublin on account of his befriending the Spaniards and was marked for punishment akin to that administered t-0 O'Rourke fo;,· a i;imilar crime. O'Rorke was driven from iBreifny and the English commanders made. an abortive attempt to do likewise with Mac Sweeney Doe; .but having failed to cross the River Swilly they quickly withdrew from Tirconail (9) . The hunted O'Romke spent a full year as Mac·Swceney's guest in \Doe Castle and from there went tc; Se:otland "in the hope -Of obtaining protection or as:>istance" a fatal venture wh'ich ended with his execution at Tyburn (10). Eoghan Og II. MacSweeney Doe was -0ne of the campa:atively few Tirccnail chieftains. who attended Red Hugh \>,:hen that i:oun"' man was inaugurated i.,o.·d.,of the Cinel Conail at Kilmacrenan in 1592. The Four Masters were well pleased with him and in their recording of bis obituary notice, 1596, described him as "an influential and generous man ·- JIUissant to sllstain, brave to attack . . . .with the gift of good sense and coun;:el, in peace and war" They alS-O reco:·d that f:-om the day that this .\'lac Sweeney assumed the lordship
... r n"l;' hh ··j·11)ln w:1ti fr•.:(; f'ron.1 r1:f'ro;11·h 0 1· ,.;.;1 ,u11 • ( l lL Ile d ied on J aaua:·y 26th., 159(i, MulMall, and his brothe!'s son, .i.e. mur.ry, son of Morrogh t·ook his place. Mulmurry .'.\foe Sweeney Doe, bette::- known in histo!·y and iraditicn as Sir Mile:; Mac Swine, has been described by a contemporary as a man "in fidelity long infec·i or to his prede1·e~sor" f l2) and Father Paui Walsh (1'a) de.•crihed him as "a man o't unsavoury character, thcugh he was no. worse than many of his contempo1aries". He i3 spoken of in ~radition as "..\1aelmurra Ba tta Bwee or Mi!es -:::·f the Yellow sta'ff . . . . a baton with which he couid ccnjt:re up the 'b"ial'k magician'". Another tradition tells that Mi.Jes, ca:led ..\lac Sweeney of the Staff, used to try his refractory vassal3 in the -great hall of D::ie Castle (sir). Any of the conjemned whcm he wished to honour, :t.e forthwith b:ained with his club; the others if unworthy of his hand he tran>ferred to the tender mercies of ihe serf tribe -0f 'the Fe~·ries', who acted as JaC'-k Ketches for ilim; and these offenders were forthwith hung in gads from the parapets of the caslle. 'A false Fec-ry' was as proverl:al in Donegal as 'a false Fur'.ong' ·in We'Xfo!·d". (14) When we con,ider the efforts ma'.le l1y Red J rugli O'Donner1 to re-introduce t he rule of }a·N into Tirconail and his many succc.::ses in this sphere we have one aRpect <Jf his life whid. . raises him, 'in our opinion, far ~bove his subordinate r·hieftans. 333, Wl!.11 l11b i_11 dew it i•; i.:11 -y !•1r 11~ l., ;ipp r t·" i ; il. t~ t.11:11. willti11 lwo yea: s of his inauguration the tyrant ·Of Doe Castle was lucky enough to have e.:;caped with his life from Tirconail with only the Joss of sixteen of his henC'hmen on O'Donnell's gallows 01 at the hands of O'Donnell's ba iliffs. His English friends we:e led to believe that the banishment was not due to his l~w:e2s ness and cruelty but rather that his defection was due to "jealousy that he coneeived unto O'Donnell fm· his wife" (15). If a fictitious amour was the reputed cause of his b~eak with O'Donne:1 a lewd woman und:m:btedly assisted him to return to TiH~onail when we find him suplicating O'Don· neJl's mercy and the resto,·ation of his estates (16). Jn Joing so Miles. now Sir· Miles _\la<' Sweeney. ahandone:i a c.omfc:·rahle pensi-0n of six shillings per day from the Crown, not to mention a royal patent under which Do~ C::tstie and ir~ :and;~ we:e granted to him in knight's fee. O'Donnell in his justi1·e. to the repentant knight, allowed him to share tbe Doe estates with Eoghan og III Mac Sweeney i.e., O'Donnell's own fo:,te:.- brother. This s'.:aring with his cousin weakened Ecghan Mac Sweeney's loyalty and by the end of the year 1600, the Irish hero of the battle Of the Curliews was an E:1glish ally holding Dec rast!e as a Queen's Irist,man. A few m:.>nths later Doe Cast!e and Eog:ian oe 111 Mac Swee'.Jey were being beseiged by his foster brother's forces under Rory O'Donnell and Sir Miles Mac
~hveeneY. 'this seige was only abandoned when J ,OOO men under Sir "Niall Garbh O'Do'lnell and the English c.aotains from Li.Cford W€'rc within a shat c'iotac.ce of th: <'<lstlc. On their urrival E :1ghan ::.\1.ic :Sweer.~y took the oath of allegiance to the Queen a:1d in return was given a ,:arger garri·-on an! a promise of an Eng- "lish grant of Doe castle and lands on the same terms a3 those granted to Sior Miles. In .July 1601 Red Hugh descended upcn Doe in one of hiJ lightening raids and he forced his foster brother to line up 1Nith him a.rfain. His loyalty to O'Donnell was however dead and thenceforth -~ henevcr a Mac Sweeney Doe is me:-:.tioned, as one of O'Do•rnell's field officer:;, we can t.ike it that Sir Miles Mac E:".vceney was the person concerned. In fact he was the only Mac Sweer:cy of rote who accompanied Red Hugh O'Donne!J in his famous march to Khsale in November rno1 (J7). During all these month> Eoghan og 111 was the de facto Lord of Doc Cast!e and in March 1602, he again submitted to Sir Her:ry Dowrra, who left him in pos'cosic-n of the crastle. In Dowcra 1-:c · hcd a very staunch friend ancl this friendship was all the more strengthened by Dowcra's di~tain for Sir Mi:es, then a hunted man "on his keeping" in the Rls3es. Dowcra's friendship with Eoghan was not misplaced for when in the early part of 1603 Sir Niall (;arbh O'Donnell rash'.y gr atified his vanity on the inauguration stone at Kilmacren~an, and sought to raise the st:-indard of i·evolt. frnm 'DoC' Cast.IC', Engh:m Og, at once delivered ii to Dowcra "requesting he might tave it back agair, when the garrison I ~h:m:d out in be withdrawn, which I gave my w::>rd he should" ( Ul). This !JromisP., Dewer a, a very honourable En~lishma3 '\\ ·:i;; unabic tu fu!fil for whe11 the O'Donnell;; (HJ) returned frnm London, some months later, Rory O'D:mnet was E·arl of Tir~onail and car:ried home, among::t -others, a royal warrant givi!~g him the custody of Doe GJstle, which .D~1wcra tel~s ·US, "becau:;e of my pmrr.ise l opposed against ·as much as I could, but •with lost labour" ('~0). Eog!-:an og Mac Sweeney Doe wa;; executed at Lifford following a :;essions he!d there in .1605 and even h the absence of iany details of his crime it would be safe to assume that Doe c-astle figured prominer..tly in . his. inditement (21 r The fo:bwing year Mac Sweeney's young brother, Niall Mac Sweeney, and Caffer og O'Donnell, "near kinsmen of the Earl of Tirconail and Sir .Nic1ll O'Donnell" seized Doe c<ist'c and drove out the Earl's warder and rnen (22). Their cx- ('llSC was that E<irl Rory hatl ·wronged them and as he was .absent in E·ig!and tht! Lord Deputy ordered Sir Richard Hansard of Lifford to call on the:>e young men to come forward peaceably and to state thei~ grievances (2:3). They did not respond to the challenge ar:d when the Earl returned .l":orne, a short time later, he, as Lord Lieutenant of C:)Unty Donegal, was compe:Jed by, his office, to proclaim martial law and to mustc~· force.:; for t.~c stir,- pc~·~si nn of hi11 b!: ~: nwn,
in l\farch, 1G07, Doe Castle was again under seige by Rory O'Donnell and during the fighting •which took place the Earl's principal ally, Sir Niall ,(;arb O'Donnell, was so seriously wounded that l:'.e was not ex:oected to 0recover from his wounds. When eventually the defenders capitulated it was found that the principal rebels had escai,;ed to the woods of Kilmacrenan and the besiege1·s had to content themselves by hanging, en the spot. some three or four of the unfortunate garrison. Soon afterwards the promoters having come in and submitted to the King'~ mercy their lives were spared because "if these young men can be rntisfied with a reasonable portion of land they may be preserved to good purpose to sway the greatness of others in these parts" (;24). These erave M'Ords were written by Chichester, one of the architects of the Plantation of Ulster, and the master .mind which enginee<:"cd the Flight of the Earls. Doe Castle was one of the p.awns in his game and although it was part of Earl Rory's possessions he i!,(- norcd the Earl's title to it ·and nominated as its garrison a company of soldiers from Hansard'~ men in Lifford. He then immediately set about to indemnify his illegal act by Tecommending that Doe Oastle be reserved for His Majesty's l:ands "being of great strength and standing in a dangerous place where it had hitherto been a great annoyance to the quiet settlement of these parts" (25). To which the Lords in Coundl. in Lon.don, at onee rl~plied. that they approvecl Chichester's action and thus fortified, he compelled the Ear] of Tirconail to allow Captain Basil Brooke to dwell in Doe Cast~e and to pass him a lease of four quarte::"s of the best land around it; at terms very much 1o B-rooke's advantage ( 26). Brooke, however, had his eye on much more valuab;e and less contentious property and he merely u:;- ed Doe Castle as his first foothold in Ireland (27). A few months later his lease wa2. nulified by the Flight of the Earls and Doe Castle and its lands was again in the King's hands. During Sir Cahir O'Dohe;rty's rebellion Doe Castle fell into the hands of his ames some time in the month <Jf April, 1608. It \vould. appear that its garrison, then consisted of six warders placed there by Captain Henry Vaughan (28) and that these were betrayed by the Castle';; cowherd "who was brought by n friar to give the alarm that seven or eight wolves were among the cattle; by which device they we:e drawn. all save one, slain and the castle taken" ('.l9). Soon after O'Doherty's defeat and death near Kilmacrennan. Doe Castle was besieged by a mixed Ang1o Irish force which included Sir Niall Garbh O'Donnell and Sir Miles Mac Sweeney. This expedition finished its mopping up operations witb the massacre of the Irish garrirnn on Tory Island (30). One account of this seige tells that Doe Castle only yielded after a demi-cannon fired one hundred balls into it (:H). Repairs were quick;y carried out :rnd its garrison strengthencxl : first under Captain ~lling~ and ~ms.
. . later Ullder Caplain Sir Richard Bingley. On the 19th May, 1611, Bingley w.as granted 500 acres of the lands of Doe at a rent of £4 per annum, subject to the uoLrnl conditions of the Plantation and also with a special clause under which Bingley was bound "to maintain and sustain the castle -Of Castledoe, situated on his lands, which is, neverthele£s, excepted out of this g'rant" ( 32) . Three years later, :i614, the castle and curtilage of Castledoe was granted to Sir .John Days, Attorney General for Ireland, and cm the :1_1 st December of. that same year he ~old lt to Captain John Sandford and Anne. his 'Wife, niece of Sit- Toby Caulfield. Sandford soon followed this initial purchase by buying up and leasing large tr.acts of land in the surrounding parishes, including ttose held by Sir Richard Bingley (33) and his brother Sir Ralph Bingley By 1619 Sandford and his family were well settled into Doe Castle <ind Pynar in that year noted that the Sandford home ·had "a bawne of .Jime and stone 40 feet square and 16 feet high and a castle within it that is very strong" ( 34). Sandford 's wife died in the year 1629 and the tombstone erected to her 1r.emory is now preserved by being set in the wall .surrounding the nearby graveyard of Ballymacsweeney. Sandford, himself died a year or so after her (35) leaving one son and five daughters. This son, Toby Sandfo•rd, died on the 7th May, 1639 (36) leaving his five sisters as his co-heiresses. Their names •were, .tn:rn, /\lltH', T.c1tir•<::, Mada and Maudlin (Magdalen). One of these 01-adies was wedded to an Irish Papist, one Mulrooney O'Carroll, w('lo is given as their representative in the Civil Survey of 1656, and as s.uch escaped the Cromwellian forfitures. Jn Hl43 O'Carroll, who described himself as "late of Castledoe," daimed tbat 1-.e had had goods to the value of £1,500, in County Donegal, and in the King's Cour~ ty, destroyed by rebellious Irish. For his -Donegal losses he blames, amongst others, the O'Donne1Js of Ramelton, the O'Boyles of Kiltorish, and the MacSweeneys of Doe and Fanad. His deposition, like the fow other Donegal d-Jcuments of ;a simil<ir nature, shows that Doe Castle was held for the Confederate Irish by "Captain ·Donnell ~fac Niall Mac Sweeney, Gentleman;" not w h a t one w o u 1 d expect; for Colonel Miles Mac Sweeney, "chief rebel" in the N-0rth-West, is described in all these d(;!position.s (37) as of Muinterme]~a n, i.e., p<irt of the lands goranted to his grandfather, Sir Miles MacSweeney. It would apear that Doe Castle fell into Irish hand:; shortly .after .the outbreak of hostilitic> in 1641 and remained in their hands fo1· the next nine years. Its most colourful associaticn with those years was on the morning of the 6th July, 1M2, when the :fdgate Saint Francis, bound from Dunkirk. saHed into Sheephaven Bay and came to anchor in the deep water off. Cannon's Point. This 30 gun man 'o war had safetly eluded units <>f the Royal Navy ~cnt out to intercept li<'I.' :trHI ~h(• had on boa1d Gl}llCf"
<ii Owen i-t1;c O'Neill <>mi too Irbh veterans from the Span· i>h a.l'mies. On disemb<lrking at the boatslip of Doc Cast.le they ·\rerc greeted by Sir Phelirn O'Nei]l and many of tl:e Northern Irish leaders; and, after a short st.ay in ihe castle, they ,et out on that dangerous route to Charlcmont <where Owen Roe took over <'Omrnand Qf the Irish army in Ulster. During those eventful years .Doe Castle was more often th.an not an isolated outpost of the Ulster Irish forces as the country between Ramelton .and Raphoe .was, from November. 1641, secure!y held and defended b:: the Ulster Scottish regiments of Sir William and Sir Robert Stewart, 1whi'.e the Roy.alist Cores and ffolliots of Donegal and Ballyshannon held, Headfastly. their grip on the Barony of Tirhugh. From time to time flying columns, particularly those from the Stewart regiments, swept fire and sword throughout the rest of the county and on more than one occasion swept pal:'.t Do c Castle, through M ev.a·gh, clown into the Rosses; leaving West Donegal fit for neith€1r man nor beast (38). On other occasiovs they swept past Sheephaven i:1 galleys from the ports of Rathmullen, · Ramelion and Dern· (39), and in February, 1()50, Do2 Castle became the target for one of these amphibious raids. It was a ('Omplete success for the gaTrison \vas taken by surprise by a force belonging to Sir Charles Coote, the Parliamentarian governor of Derry (wO). Some historians attributc th•• annhilal.i.on of the Royalist Iris!: A•r,11y at Seariffhollis, in June. Hi5U, to the fact that its l:ommanclcr. Bishop Heber MacMahon, •weake:1ed hi:; forces by ::illowing Colonel Miles MaeSwcc:iey. somelime before the battle\ to detatch some of I te Donegal regiment' from his army for the purpo:;e ·Of retrieving Doc Cast.le, i.e.~ "the gratification of the whim of MacSvveeney family honouT" (\.I). A study of State .Papers and other conternporan dor.uments relating to MacSweeney shows that as early as 164!! four of the Donegal Colonels, including '.VIacSweene~·, were prcp:r:·- ed to break \\ilh Owen Roe O'Neill if "put in a way to get and enjoy, like knig·hts and squires, esta.tes in the county of Ooneg-11" (42). In l6Gl Charles 11 directed his Lord Justices that justice be done to MacSweeney because amongst other things he. to use MacS·.veene;v's own words "made efforts to desert Owen O'Neill's party in 1648." (4'1a). These claims about, hreak:> with, and cteserti·on.s from, Ow en Roe's army. have '.ed us to suspect that the absence of " t.:lOO or 1,400" (43) Donegal men 'from Scariffhoilis was brought about by much m.orc sinister motives thnn the recapture of Doe Castle. These suspicions '\•.;ere all the more justified w hen in 1652/3. the yenrs of mass executions or Irish officers. we found Venah:e!', wtose regiments administered at Scariffhollis the coup de grare to the remnants of Owen Roe's army, actively e:nployed in SlJPpressing a charge of murder againsl MncSwecne.v ( 4<i) . It also SC'C'med strange to ns th<d, Doc
Castle, when captured by the l!·isb in 164t. w::is not taken over by Col0nel Miles MacSweeney in accord "with family vanity", but by· Captain Donnell mac Niall .MacSweeney, g1,nncbon {)f Eoghan Og 11 MacSweeney Doe. During the years JtH6/ 7 a gentleman named Mkhael Harrison laid claim to ·Doe Castle, and strange to reLate, the Crown Rentals, of 1707, reccird 1.hat he was the assignee of Captain John Sandford (45). This record >-hows something- in the natu~·e of a .Jaeuna, in the devolution of the title to the Castle as it ignores Toby Sandford, his si~ters. and Mulrooney O'Carroll. A State Paper, from 'Westminster, dated 18th Aug;.ist, 164li requested considerabon by the Committee Resident in Mt:nstcr of. a petition, from Quarter Master Harrison, for arms and ammunition for 30 warders. and to be allowed to take possession of Doe Castle "in 1.he North of Ireland." Some months later a P arliamentary Commissioner at Belfa.:;t apparently recommended the implementation of Harrison'.s petition, not to \\'eshn i·nster, but to the Ct'll1Jnittee at Derby. "May it i:·l -;a s e Your Lordships, we think it !l'eason.able that Quarter . Mas.- ter ·Harrison be restored to his own touse and furnished with ammunition, he finding the men for the present." (46). Harrison had however to wait quite a nurnhe1· of years before his d aim to Doe Cast!c material-· ised. There is no reference to him in the Civil Survey of 1656 which r ecogni!-ied "Mulroney O 'C<11-rol a~ the l'epre8ent ative of the Sancil'ord Heiresses. On the otl:er hand O'CarroH and the Sandfords arc not mentioned iii the 1659 Census wl1ich set~ Ha"·- ' ison down a" the Titulado (or r.:•i'ident c:Jaimant) to "Mogora' in foe parish of Ray, and ·:o ad<.: to tliis enigma he is tabulated as the only non-Irish person in that townland. Neither, H arrison, O'Carroll n<Jr the Sandfords, figure in the Hearthmoney Rolls of 1656 for the dish·ict around Doe. The Ormond Mss. and .State Papers of the Restoration pericd however show that llarri!?-on was then a c·ollcdor of Customs and . E'xcise in North· Ea.st lJJster and that he .had t \aimed the re.storation of his estates in virtue of being one of the "4!1 officer~" wh:> remained loyal to the King. The reference to him in the Crown Rentals of 1707 confirms his ultimate suc1:.::ss in this claim (47). There is every indication tha'\ Doe Castle was returned very reluctantly to private ownership on account of its suitability a~ a fortress and military depot fol the Norlh West. In addition to reCO!'d Vie have a very substan· tial tradition which deals with an officer of the .garrison during the years foll~w_ing. its rerapfore b\" Coote's forces from Derry, i~ February .1.650. This t!·a ditiori tells that the constable of the castle was then one {'.aptafr (Rohert) Cunningham and that he was _slain near Ard:; by two men from the Rosses ( 48) i.n revenge for · Cunningham's part in a massac~·e of ·women and : hildl'en. This, of course, is a bare outline of the traditional ar- <·mtnt, irivolving of a number ot 31la,
lncidenrs, recorded. by Archdea-· con Kerr in this Journal (Yol. 1 No. 1 }Ip 9/10. An objective :;tudy of contemporary do('uments disclosed that Cunning· ham was a eJmpany commander in Sir William Stewart's regiment (which began the Wtff, a.3 King's liegemen and ended it as Cromwell's henchmen) and that in Novem'b-er, 16411, hL<; ' comP<iny, in galleys, raided islandr, in the R::is~es and slew 6il women and children; for which act he was commonly "called the killer of uld women" (49). Hi:; act was, unfortunately, not .an isolated incident and we have raked tl1e embers of this ltarba!·- ou;; war in ireland to point out that nemesis overtook Cunningham .(or Conn,rngham as he is called in tradition) · some nine years afte:: his dreadful act. The Cromwellian Census of 1659 shows that the townland on which Doe Castle stcod ranked in the Barony of Kilmaerennan, next to Letterl\enny in the number of English and ScottL'h persons domiciled there. This -r elatively high numhr, 45 English and Scottif'h residents a'> against 11 I~·ish persons was largely made up of the warders, garri~on and their families. No "Titulado is 1·egiste red against the castle and the Hearth Money Rolls of a few years later (1665) also re\'~al t b at tb.~ Gov'ernment exempted it from Hearth tax on account of its being commandeered a5 a .inllitary depot (50) This assumptio:; is .confirmed by a return furnished in tr..e year, 1664, by Captain Webb, a famou~ military cngin·. ecr, in which i t i~ !'hown tl1at the ckvcrtiinent had spent £iuo Ca relatively large :;um for those c!ays) in repairing and stJ:engthening tl1e Castle and its defences. T,he Government fcl.t .ius l ifler1 in thi.; exJJcnditur·e for 'lhci:· spied jn Donegal so alarmed ttc Lord Lieutenant that he believed that a Tory War was al>out to break out in tlte County. Tlflis helief was based on a memorandum nresented to him (51) deposing that the brothers and scn of Colonel ~files Mac Swe.eney and otl1en; of their fnenu:s. were so truculent and eontemptuous of the laws that no peuc2 officei· wou'.d dare .proeeed against them. Fo!: thl:; they were listed a,; ''suspected of being Tories" and the J,ord Lieutenant ordered a company of Foot, stationed at Rapho~, tc, proceed at once to Doe Ca~tle with special inst!·uct ions that they "be careful in their duties and watchful in tl:e securit.y of the place" (52). Some mo.1ths later the master of Ordnance was o:de"·ed to supply th~ Castle with barre'.s of powde1 and "with l1all and mateh proport ioriate". In thP. vea r l 666 \.he garrison of Doe Castle netilioned "to settle down with their families and nlant". Thi;:; uetition was granted and the men were discharged hut not before their young commande•·, C a p t a in Claud Hamilton, had replaced them with a corresponding number of new recruits, drawn from the re:zimental muster. A month or so afterwards Captain Hamilton was ordered to withdraw hill troops from Doe C.n~tl e ancl
to bririg them to Carrick:fergui;, Then for nearly twenty years the fortress of Doe was ignored 'Until the yea~·s 1684/5 when a battalion of Lord 1Mountjoy's regiment t;ad quarters · there (5:1). The offiC'ers stationed there :were Major Gustavus Hamilton, Captain .John Hamilton and Ensign Thomas Pigott. Early in the Revolutionary W:ar Doe Castle was held by a Williamite named Matthew Babbington (54) who was outlawed by the Jacobite Parliament of .1689 and who withdrew with bis family and supporters to Derry iwhen the army of .. lames 11 came nort1iward. After Babbington's withdr.awal Donogh Og, son of Colonel Miles MacSweeney, took over the castle and "offered his services to .James 11. He prom.ised lo raise a regiment amongst his followers if granted .a. commission. It was refused him, if you please, because he could not speak the Bearla. 'Methought,' says MacSweeqey 'that this war is being waged to drive the Be.aria. and all that it stands fOr <iut of Ireland.' Nevertheless, he joined tl:c forces of James, fought at the Boyne and Aughrim apd went •with Sarsfield to France to where he rose to a high 1rank in that nation." .'\Maci;;weeney · !Was the best sw<>rdsrnan in the France of his day. He is said to have fought no fewer than in 35 duels and was victorious in every one of tihem. His ·custom was to engage .lifs opp'.}nent's rush in a favourabie moment and seize the ·blade of his enemy's sword in his right hand, while with his own sw.ord lwld in his left htmd he rnn his !IRQ, en.e'iliy through the bocly. Such was the girip in MacSweeney's hand that, once he caught his encrr.y's swordblade, his enemy cJuld do nothing." · "When engaged in J::,b thirtyfifth duel he rushed in as usuul, seized his opponent's blade and dispatched him." "Little will it .gain you to win this victory,' says Ms dying enemy," for the sword you seized was poisoned.' " "And within three hours the brave 1Mac Sweeney was dead" (55}. This traclition is substantiated by the .Wi!liamite Outlawry Lists of_ 1B9l, which has ".Oonogh Og. Mac Sweeney of Castledoe, A·rmige10" as the third important Jacobite in County Don-· egal. (56). The M.acSweeney Doe pedigree recorded in O'Donovan's Ordnance Survey Letters shows that this Jacobite nobleman was ihe grandfather of the itinerant Dunfanaghy tinsmith, Eam-0n Mac Swyne, whom John O'Donovan met in a fisherman'.; cabin at Downin.gs in the year. 1835 (57). The tinker was, I beieve, in turn, the grandfatber of the famous piper, Torlogh Mac Sweeney. The h~story of Doe Castle, as a fortress, faded out with the seventeenth century. It shared the f.ate of most of our Irish castles for the Williamite War showed h_ow untenable they were in the face ()f powerful armament and the lo~g · peace wl:ich followed the war drove the occupants into the .comfort.able big houses . which became the fasl:ionable type of dwelling in the eighteenth cent.ury. By the midrlle Of thnt
cehhity Bishop l>ooocke Wrote of Doe Castle as .a curiosity observed while on b s way to the and comfortab:e homes of Wray ·Of Ards and Stewart of Horn He.ad. By the year 1786 guide books, such as The Post Chaise Companion described it as "a magnificent ruin." 'It was, however, destined to obtain a new lease oI life. Some eighty years ago Lord Leitrim and the then owner of Doe Castle took their dispuk ove:· the Lackagh Fishery to the House of Lords and the Law Lords commented on the fact that neither party could or did p:-Oduce any documentary evidence of title derived P·om the µ;rants made by James I to the Bingle.i's and other grantees or U'l·eir assignees, Captain John Sandford and liis family. Apart from these early seventeenth century parchments the earliest document of title which Stewart of Ards could produce was a copy of a Chancery Dec·ree of 1750 which showed that Doc Ca~.tle and lands \vere, in the opening decades of the eighteenth century, the property of one Francis Ha!'rison, a partne: in the pl'ivate bnnk ·:>f ll arriwn and Burto·n.. Dublin. · fr.formation kindly supplied hy the Chi.cf Herald for Ireland now reveals that the banker was the g~· andson of Quarter Master Michael lla~·rison, who claimed Doe Castle as his home. in 1649, and, that ~Iichael Harrison's wife was the daughter of Captain Theophilus Sandford. an- <'estor of the Lords Mountsan<lford of County Roscommon. Th<' Civil Survcv. as we now know, 391. .. showed that ~lulrooheY · (0) CarroH. an Irish Pa1Jist, was recognise<l as the legal representative of the daughte·:s of Caplain .lohn S~ndfor<l of Due Ca5tle some ten 1·ea:·~. after J 1 arris- ~n first laid to Doe, a fact which rather tends tu lead us to b·::- lieve that the Qua!'ter Master was, like his father-in-law, a '·claim jumper" (O:mond Mss. new series RH.C.) whose only legal title became .iia~ed on "lieing long in possession". The void in documentary evidences of title was, I believe, an a~.tutc suppression of gui It! ;Francis Harrison, the ba·!1ker, died on the 5th July, ins, leaving a spend-th!'ift brother, Mars l1 a~. his heir; a·nd within ty;o years he died but not before encumheing the large JJar rison estates with heavy debts as part of the legacy to his surviving sisters. A greater h1:1rden was added when in 1733 the banking fi ~m. which Francis Il arri~cn had estabJjshe~, failed with very g:-eat liabilities on the estate!> of tht! living and deceased p artners. It took four Acts of the Irish Pa"·- lfament to wind up tl1e Bank's affair!'; and coupled with ihcm were Chancery proceedings by Marsh Harrison's e·editors. In 1759 the Cou:"ts orde!·ed the sale of the Har"·isc.n estate in County Donegal and Doe Castle and lands were purchased by William Wray of Ards in trust for George Vaughan of · Buncrana. Its · pu:·chase was confirmed· to Vaughan lly decree of the Ceurt of Chance~·y in 1761 and ...somc two yea1·s later it flllSsed by hb death into Uw
juiut p u~; ; : u: .:;1io 11 o( Ms :>lslcr:;' faniilic:-., the Uroolrns. tllc Sa111p- ~ons and the Hartes. <By ·the end of the eighteenth ce ntU.l'Y. a representative of the Harte familv. · George Vaughan Harte. afte~-wards a .<;Jistinguisbed general in India (i31) bought uu: the other family .interests and ~ef. about making Doe CastlP habitabl~ again. He caTried out. manv r.e11afrs to the ancient keep and while doing ~o made' oile or two inte"·esting dist overies (62). By way of improvements he changed the en~ trance to the ca~tle and built an annex to it in. mJno:-ial style. He also cat:.-ied out l'epairs to the walls an:i tm·rets enclosing the bawn and completed tl'iis with a touch of barbaric splendour in t he form of. numerou=> cannon (63), mounted on the tunets and on gun carriages along the te1·1·are on the sea fr cnt. His Indian servant, "the faithful Balgoo" gave the place a fu: ther touch of oriental ~i;lenclour (64) . . General Harte died at a very ripe old age- the re- .!;Ult of an accident (65) in 1832. He was !'ucceeded in the ownership of Doe Castle \Jy hi;; son, Captain J-ohn Harte, who as a boy of si·xteen took part in the Battle of Waterloo. Captain John Harte, llnlikc his father, made Doe Cast1,; i1is •·hief residence for many >·ears before his death in . 18:~8. He was very friendly with the Ma( :Sw,eeney tinker family wh<J often ·settled down. for kmg periods, to wo~·k for him in and around the castle (06). lfo' father regarded him as the oluck sheep of the fami.ly and, u~ lie ldt 110 J.cgitimatc hdts, 6;;i: L i:-.tk \llltl mo~; l of t.hc fa111ily estate~, pas,.:ed to his hroth· e:-. .Commande1· Geor_ge Vaugnan Harte. R.N. About the year 1843 Commander 11 a rte moved most of the family effects from Doe Castle to the old ancestral l1-0me. of the llartes at Kildcrt'y and i~ the vear 1864 he and his s:m. . William Ed ward Ilarte, broke... tb~ entail on Doe Ca?.tle and soid it in the Landed Es.tates Courts. It was purchased 0hv Stewart of Ards wh:i al~o found himself taking on a feud with .. the Lo:-ds Leitrim over the ·salmon fishery on the Lackagh river, ond this law suit . o nly ended when it reached the House of Lords. Doe .Castle's history as a private residence came to a close near the end -0f the hrst century. Shortly after tl1e Jlad es moved to Kilderry a .reti1'ed naval officer, a Captain Madison, became its tennant and some of hb family were born and reared there. TheY wel'e extremely popular with the 1ocal people (67) . . The Captain was succeeded by a Church of Ireland clergyman, \ho. Rev. Mr. Mu"·phy, known as "An Miaister ban". H.e became invo'.vcd in a lawsuit with his landlord;; when h~ sought to invoke clauses in the Land_ Acts fer the purpose of establishing a title to the rastle and lands. After the landlord · got rid of him Doe Castle ·v. as ·Jeft v.acant and wa~ allowed to "go from wreck to ruim" and this decay was very much accelerated through pilfering and vandalism. In 1932 the landlord sold the castle and lands to the Irish Land Com-
1111~~i1.1lJ aud what rc1uailt8 of lh1:: castle, is now vested a~ a National monument (68). BIBLIOGRAPHY A'.'\D NOTES ON TEXT I. Doe. Caislean na dTuath and ~laC'Suiibhne na dTuath a"·e the p:·oper renderings ot Castledce and MacSweeney doe. , Some writers, like O'Brien, in the last century wer.e inclined to translate the Mac Suiohne na dTuath as ~IacSweeney of the battle axes, Le,, na dTuagh. EquaPy erroneous was the claim made by a writer in the Journal of the Royal Society of Anti11uaries of Ireland (Vol. XLVi -Sept., : 1915) that the name Tuatha "indicated that the tenitory allotted to the 'MacSweeneys (by the O'Donneils) had been occupied hy an ancient populace subjected oy the dominant Milesians and that it was possibly amongst this early remnant that the heathen customs prevailed which we!·e the ocrasion of a remarkable letter from Pope A1cxnnder l V to P atl'ick, '9is· ltcp of Raphoe in 1226 "(? the blind Bishop of Haphoe, ~·ho resigned 1251-53). The Bisiiop, at his own i·equest, was directed to use the sword of ecclesiastical crnsure aaa,inst lay folk (and the Irish word, tuath, has that mrnning) of his diocese, who w-0rshio idols, marry , persons related to them by kindred or affinity . The slender threads of argument. ,l1y which this writer rnught to associate the l'ishop's censute exdusively with t he D0e district, break down when we realise that the word tuath On addition to being the eccles393,. iastkal tel'lll for lay folk) uho was (a) the political term for "a population group capaille of maintaining 3,000 (or less, down: to 700 (l\tacNeill) and by extei'!- .sion the land it occupied" (Dinneen) and (b) that a very ancient Irish account ,of Tircori~ ail menticns many other tua~ thas in addition to "The three tuaths in McSwine-na-Doe's country.'' In fact the tuath was a:most the unit of division in this particula'r account < rnn. '"Planation in Uls~er" pp 101-2). O'Donovan rightly t:anslated T·uath as a district or territory and tells that MacSweeney Doe's 1hree terrUorles wu1'e Ross Guill, Tuath Tory arid Cloghaneely and these divisions were co-terminous with the parishes of :\1eevagh, Clondahorky, Raymunterdoney and Raytullaghbegley, Befo:·e the advent pi the Mac Sweeneys the O'Boyles appear to have been the lords of these districts. 2. William J::larkin, author of "Scenery and Antiquities of North-West Donegal." (Londonderry 1893) was a native of the Cresslough distrkt. He got these traditions from Manus Og O'Donnell of Golan, a son of ,~vlanus a Phice, who was born in the year 1758. See vol. 1, No. 3, p. 203 of this J-0urnal. 3. See "Traditions of Doe Castl.e," by the late Mr. Edward , Durnin, N.T., of Creeslough, to whom mem'hers of the Donegal Historical Society we:c much indebted when we visited the castle in 1948. <':. ";)fr. MacSweeney of Dunfanaghy," (l SCPl- 1810) , mentiol)ed by De MacParland was,
:1n.\l1r1 li 11~ lo t 1' ll arl'1- " Lrlsh Pedlgrees," (3rd Edition), Emon !\IacSweeney, whom 0'•Donovan met in a fisherman's cabin, at Downings, in 1835. See Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 241 of this Journal. 5. There are strong traditions, still preserved, which recall such raids upon the Rosses. The most vivid, tl1at taken· down about 1800 from Bartley O'Boyle of Ananmore, deals with a ·raid made by the gaEeys of G~a::e O'Malley on .her return journey tram the court of . Queen Elizabeth. 6. See "Traditions of Doe Ca.rtle," by Hugh Durnin. 7. .Red Hugh 0'.Donne!: was fost.ered with the O'Kanes "Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell," p. XXXll, by Denis Murphy, s. :r., 1895. 8. T.eabhar Chloinne Suihne (Dul1lin 1920), Father Paul Walsh. H, 10, 11. Annals of thet Fdur Masters. 12 Historta cathOlicae Hiberniae (L'.£bcn 1621) O'Sullivan Beare. 13. "Sir ::vlulmory '.\Jc.Sv;iny," by Father Paul Walsh, in the Irish Ecclesiastical Recc·rd and V.~rry Journal, 1936. 14 The Fate and Fortunes of the Earls cf Tyrone <rnd Tyrconnell''. DubEn. 1870, By F·ath-er C. P. Meehan. 2nd Ed. 15. Sir George Carew· to Sir Robert Cecil. 12th Feh , 1600 Calendars of Stale papers. 16. "Sir Muimory McSwioy" op. cit. 17. Ibid. 11'!, 19, 20. "Dowcra's Naration", Miscellany of Celtic Society, 184fJ. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. Calendars or !:ilal.c 1'<1('1?1'1-l , 26. •·Fate and Fortune•," op. cit. 27. Basil Brooke, Esq., Captain in Eliz.ahethan army in Ire· land. Ancestor of the Brooke families of ~VI anor Brooke and Donegal Castle and of Brookeborough, Co. Fe1managh. . 28. Captain llenry Vaughan. He was then High Sheriff for County Donegal. He was a brother of Sir John Vaughan, Govenoi· of Derry, 1611-1642, and ·grandfather of Colonel George Yaughan. 1693-1763. See Thr~ hundred years in lnni:sowen by Mrs. A. M. Young, · also Romantla .Innise>wen by H. P. Swan. 29. Ca.lendars of State papers. 30. Descdbed by Harkin ''Antiquities of North-West Donegal," and Rev. Dr. E. Maguire's ''A History of the Diocese of Raphoe." .31' Hill "Plantation in Ulster". 32. Calendars of State pape:s ?Q ·~ ,...'t. 34 Pynar's Survey p~·inted in Hill's "Plantation in t ns,tl' .. 35, Capt. Sandford's pension ceased to ·be paid in the year 1629-30. Sandford was one of the ea pt a in s in charge of the Irish swo:·dsmen shipped to Sweden aitel· the "Flight of the Ea::ls." See u:ster .Journal of :\rchaeology. Vol. 5. 1859. 36. Inqui"itions of (llste· (Printed). 37. Mss. T·.C.D. :rn. Relation by Audley Mervyn, printed Q:Jhert's "A Contempo::ay Ilistff,·y of Affairs in Ireland," 1879. 39. Harkin ''Scene'!"y and ·\ntiquities," op. cit. 40. Ibid,
U. Journal o! Socfoty of Antiqua1:ks t>f I r~la:1d. Sept., I !!lii. (1~1:1). 42. Gilbert "Contemp<;rary Hi~ tory," op. cit. 42a State Papers Domestic. Signet office lV 502. 43 "l,300 or 1,400 men'' to recapture a garrison of some 3040 men! 44 Papers and letter from Colonel Venahles to Sir Gerrard Lowther, President of the High Court~. Transcript made for Allingham. Siss. 45 Extracted from Crown Rentals; now in Public .Record Office, Dublin, hy Dr. Simmi·ngton, for which we are \'ery grateful. 46 Calendars of State papers. 47 The quit rent office :zdgers ·even as late a:s 1818-1823 have the following items which need fuither explanation. l'atent~e. !'11.il'hael 11 aq"iso1'1; Deno:ninatiou, Bailymasineda Pt., of Castlcdoe a n d Dowbeg :C4 12s 6d. 1\2nant Heirs of Gore Wray, per Bryan Devann.1· of Meevagh (This rent ·includes II'. 5s [4s 7~d BritishJ eharged on "Castle and Fort of Castledoe). Dr. Simmington reports tf:at the atove Crcwn rent was paid tm!il 1837 when "the helrs of Go!'e Wray" cea.sed to appea1·_ Bryan Devanny marked 'dead' and Patric•k McBride. Caggan, Carrickart, appears in his stead. Then from 184a to 1848 ''James Coch::ane." 48 Tradition appears to have reversed the Christian names of these two men, :1 ames Crone O'Donnell and Aodh Bane 395. O'Gallaghcr. O'Donnell figurie;; ln tlh. . · .st~rl.c Faper :·1 (lr !(),•2 arid ·.v:·1s •m his keeping thr1.>ugll "ue<s oJ' pirar·y." 4!) f >'Connell's "Jreiand" ciuo1ing pii:nphlet printed in 1661. 50 Cast:edoe (townland) parish of Kilmacrenan HiJ5, llearth ~Ioney Rolls. John Algeo ls for 1 hearth. -Richard Benstead, ls cio. Be:nard Kncx, ls do. 511 Carte Papers. Bodleian Library, Vol. XXXIX, p. WO. 52 Ormond mss. ii3 !hid. 54 Allingha-m Mss. in autho~"s possession. Outlawry List Parliament of Jas. 11, 1689. 55 Tradition recorded by late William Durnin which he g-0t from Father Sweeney, a native of Dungloe, who died in •910. :rn Williamite out:awry lists l(i91, mss. T.C.D. 57 {)'Donovan ':' Ordnance Survey Letter from Dunfanaglly, 1835, quoted in thii' J ou:·nal. 85 "The History of the Bank Of 1r6land". by Dr. F. C. Hall. 51.l Letter published in "Dtrry J ournal." G. \'. Hart, 17th Dec., rn:n. ~O The Sampsc.n family only benefited unde1· Cc'.oncl Vaughan's will by mere ch:ance. "The Fa:mily History of Hart of Donegal" , ;London, 19G7, P. 97. lil General Hart joined the 46th Foo1 as an Ensign ir, 1774 nnc! from 177 ii to 1777 wai" on ar:ti \'e service in Amerka. In 1779 he wa~ with Gcnc;·al Harris at tlie ca11ture of Serringapatam, as Colonel of 75th Re.giment, and arting in command of the Highland Brigade. As Colonel George Vaughan llart he i·eturned to Ire.land to hecom"' Bri!:1arlie..-
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