<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
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