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Sweeney
The surname
Sweeney is Celtic in origin, and is found in both Ireland and Scotland.
It is the anglicised version of the gaelic surname MacSuibhne, meaning
"son of Suibhne". Suibhne is pronounced SIV-na and means "pleasant"
or "well going" in gaelic.
MacSuibne is
an Irish Clan Name, other branches of the clan include MacSweeney,
Sweeney, Sweeny, MacSweeny, MacSwiney, Swiney, Sweney. Swine, Sweny,
Sevnagh.
Suibne Menn
or Sweeney the Renowned was the High King of Ireland in A.D. 616-28.
It is suggested that the family descended from him.
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Sweeney's trace their ancestry from Niall of the Nine Hostages,
the fifth century High King of Ireland, through the eleventh
century King of Aileach in Donegal who was Flaherty of the Pilgroms
Staff. Following a family dispute over the succession of the
Aileach kingship, Flaherty's grandson, Anrathan, saiiled across
the sea to Scotland. There, according to a sixteenth century
family history preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, he acquired
estensive lands in Argyll and married a daughter of the King
of Scotland. The Sweeney (Spelt Suibhne, pron. in Irish Swivnah)
from whom the family derives was a great-grandson of Anrathan
who built Castle Sween in Knapdale, reputedly the oldest stone
Castle in Scotland. |
Remnants
of Castle Sween
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It was not until
the coming of the Normans in the twelfth century that Suibhne was
adopted as a surname by a senior branch of the Ua Niall clan of Scotland.
The Sweeney
family remained in Scotland until the fourteenth century where their
blood mixed with that of the traditional scots and Vikings. In 1315
the Clan Chief, Murchadh Mear Suibne (Mear = the Mad) lost their
lands in Argyll to Robert the Bruce whom they had opposed at the
battle of Bannickburn in 1314. So the Sweeneys of Castle Sween departed
Scotland en-masse returning to their native Ireland in a fleet of
small sailing and rowing boats across the North Channel. Those
who stayed on in Scotland became part of the MacQueen Clan - MacQueen
is of course one of the variations of the name Sweeney.
Murchadh Maer
returned to Donegal where he set up headquarters in Fanad (not far
from their original homelands) on the west bank of the Lough Swilly
estuary in Tyrconnel on the north coast of Ireland - the district
is now part of the modern Co Donegal. The Irish word "Gall" means
"foreigner", hence the placename Dun na Gall meaning "Fort of the
Foreigners". Ballyorgan is part of the ancestral home of the McSweeneys
and forms a stage of the Beara-Breifne Greenway which is based on
the historic march of O'Sullivan Beara in 1603. It was through his
offspring that the clan split into three distinct groups or septs
- "the three great Tirconnell septs of MacSweeney" - MacSuibhne
Fanad, MacSuibhne na d'Tuatha, and MacSuibhne Banagh.
MacSuibhne
Fanad (the chief and senior line) remained in Fanad building
a castle at Rathmullan which was their seat for the next 400 years,
during which time their influence extended from Donegal into Connacht
and Munster. In Donegal their principal seats were Doe Castle and
Rahan Castle near Killybegs. In Scotland the inauguration of the
MacSuibhne chiefs had taken place at Iona by the successor of Saint
Colmcille, the chiefs were also buried there. In Ireland they were
inaugruated on the crowning stone of Doon Rock, near Kilmacrenan,
County Donegal, where MacSuibhne Fanad had the priviledge of sitting
at the right had side of the O'Donnell, Prince of Tirconnell. The
family, up to the final defeat of the seventeenth century, fought
as gallowglasses or mercenaries in the struggles of Ulster, mainly
on behalf of the O’Donnells, and it was throught this 'tool of the
trade' that the family became known as "the Clan of the Battle-Axe".
Of the two cadet
septs of the senior house
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MacSuibhne
Banagh was bourne when Murchadh Mear MacSuibhne bequeatgh
Tir Boghaine (Banagh) to his grandson, Dubhghall. The sept quickly
spread into the western regions of the O'Donnell's principality,
with its base at Rathain Castle. A branch of the House of Banagh
became High Constables to the O'Conor Don, and to the Butlers,
Earls of Ormonde. From this latter the armigerous branch descends
who settled on Prince Edward Island, now a Province of Canada. |
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MacSuibne
na d'Tuath (pronounced na Doe) was based at Doe Castle near
Creeslough. A branch of the na d'Tuath sept went to the south
to Cork in the late fifteenth century where they became High
Constables to the McCarthy Mór of Desmond, acquiring territory
of their own in Muskerry with the most prominent branch centering
at Mashanaglass Castle. |
Sweeney is one
of the sixty most commonly-found names in Ireland. It occurs with
almost the same frequency in the Irish Provinces of Leinster, Connacht
and Munster, but less frequently in Leinster. In County Donegal
(of which the Irish name is Dún na Gall), this name is the sixth
most commonly found in a modern census (50 births of that name in
1921), and ninth in the seventeenth century (46 births of that name
in 1659). The Cork arms of the family prospered and multiplied,
and today the surname is more numerous in the Cork/Kerry area than
in its original Irish homeland of Ulster.
Arms &
Crests
The family's Coat
of Arms have altered considerable through the ages, and each of the
septs maintained a different crest. The features that remained consistant
were basic charges of boar and battle-axe.The first officially recorded
arms were borne by one Murragh Mac Sweeney. He was taken prisoner
in Umailia by Donnell, son of Manus O'Conor (agent of the Earl of
Ulster) in 1267. His arms are recorded as follows: Mac Sweeney (Co.
Donegal). Moragh Mac Sweeney, Chieftain 1267. Argent a lion in
Chief and a boar in base both pass. gules. This lion charge is
unusual however, Murragh was apparently the "champion of the King
of Scotland," which might account for the "ruddy" lion.
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The arms
of the Fanad line are recorded in Dublin Castle as:
Or, a fess vert charged with a reptile argent between three
boars passant sable.
The addition
of the green fess and white reptile is interesting. It is
thought that the lizard may relate to the fact that the family
helped to build a carmelite monastry. The emblem of the Carmelites
was a white chameleon
The motto
for Sweeney is "By the providence of God."
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The crest
of the senior line is
An arm in armour embowed holding a battle-axe proper
Is very
similar to that of the Clan Neil. This also seems strange
except for a tradition that the Clan Sweeny is descended from
the Clan Neil. However in Ireland they supported the O'Donnell,
for long the bitter enemies of the O'Neils.
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These two septs
adopted crests of similar design, though different tinctures:
| Na
d'Tuatha |
Azure
(Blue) shield with, two boars rampant combattant or, in chief
two battle-axes in saltire of the second.
The crest
is a demi-griffin rampant or (gold), holding in its dexter
claw a reptile vert.
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The Cork
branch of the family adopted a different version of the Tuatha
arms
Per Pale
gules and azure, each charged with a boar rampant combattant
counter-ermine; on a chief or two battle-axes in saltire argent.
The crest is a demi-griffin or charged with a fleur-de-lis
sable holding in its dexter claw a reptile vert.
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| Banagh |
Or (gold),
two boars rampant combattant sable, on a chief of the second
two battle-axes in saltire of the first.
The crest
is a boar passant sable.
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The Butler
branch of the Banagh sept adopted arms very closw to that
of the chief family
Blazoned
Or, three boars in pale passant sable langued guess, between
two haunches vert each charged with an ancient crown of the
first.
The crest
is a demi-griffin vert grasping in its dexter claw a battle-axe
proper
Motto:
Clann na d'Tua Abu.
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