MacSweeny

MacSweeny (Mac Suibhne). The most famous of the gallowglass families, the MacSweenys of Castle Ween in Argyle were fosterers to Domhnall Óg O'Donnell (king of Tír Conaill 1258–81), who subsequently married a daughter of MacSweeny and was succeeded by a son of this marriage, Aodh O'Donnell (d. 1333). According to their traditional history, Leabhar Chlainne Suibhne (early 16th century), MacSweeny gallowglasses at first hired themselves out as free‐lances to various Irish kings, and a tradition in the 16th‐century Leabhar Eoghanach that Donal O'Neill (d. 1325) was the first to billet them on his subjects may explain their official genealogy, which links the family to the O'Neill family tree. They were rewarded with land grants by both sides during a war of succession among the O'Donnells, and by the end of the 14th century the MacSweeny chief ruled Fanad as O'Donnell's vassal, subject to a levy of two gallowglasses for every quarter of land in his territory. An extension of this arrangement in the 15th century installed another leader of the kin in the Trí Tuatha (MacSweeny na Doe), and by 16th century a third chief, MacSweeny Banagh, ruled Tír Boghaine. Other members of the family received lesser estates in return for military service in Connacht and Munster.

Katharine Simms