On Friday, 6 July 1990, just over a hundred O’Dubhda descendants gathered in the Convent Hall at Enniscrone. It was the first hosting of the clan in 395 years — since Tadhg Buidhe was installed as Taoiseach in 1595 with the blessing of Red Hugh O’Donnell. They came from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, the United States, Canada, Australia and Zambia, and nobody quite knew how it was going to go.

The Gathering

The rally had taken shape slowly around Gertie MacHale’s pharmacy in Enniscrone, where for years O’Dowds in search of their roots had been sent with the instruction, “Go see Gertie — she knows all about the O’Dowds.” Her 1971 book Stories from O’Dowda’s Country, and a conversation with the hotelier Tom Nicholson about why foreign visitors had stopped coming to town, gave her son Conor MacHale the idea to simply ask them to come. With Mr and Mrs Tuffy and a small group of Enniscrone volunteers, they did.

The opening was held in the Convent Hall, emceed by Jackie Gleeson. A vellum scroll prepared by Sr Emer Mulderrig, emblazoned with the seventeenth-century clan coat of arms, was signed by every person present — six columns of names, now held in the Uí Dubhda archive. When Mary Nash of Clans of Ireland and Michael Curley of North-West Tourism unveiled the coat of arms and explained its heraldic meaning, clan certificates were presented to David O’Dowd of Louisburg, a direct descendant of Donal O’Dubhda (brother of Tadhg Buidhe), and to Seamus O’Dowd of AIB.

Any early hesitancy evaporated quickly. The planned events began almost an hour late — the ice broken, it was said, by a supper of Moy salmon and brown bread laid on by Maree MacHale and a team of local caterers. A ceilidh followed, led by the Kilglass branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann under Anthony Coleman, with the famed Irish piper Larry O’Dowd (whose own ancestors came from Tireragh) joining on stage. When the organised event ended, most of the clan adjourned to Maughan’s pub and stayed until the small hours, “the sound of revelry wafting down the main street in Enniscrone.”

Tours & Sites Visited

Demand for the Saturday tour was such that the bus filled and the rest of the clan followed in a convoy of cars. With commentary from Conor MacHale and Cyril Lonergan, they visited:

• Scurmore — home of the Mermaid Rocks and the old legend of the mermaid-wife whose seven sons weep when an O’Dowd dies
• Castleconor — where Chieftain Daithi Rua O’Dowda was murdered in 1594
• Ardnaree Augustinian Abbey, Ballina — founded in the fourteenth century by Tadhg O’Dubhda, Taoiseach of Tireragh
• Ardnaglass Castle — home of Donal O’Dubhda, believed to have been granted the O’Dowd coat of arms in 1608
• Moyne Abbey — where many O’Dowd chieftains are buried and where Fr John O’Dubhda was martyred in 1577

At Moyne, in cold weather and a drizzling rain, Jim Gilvarry of Crossmolina Historical Society guided the clan across the grass into the ruins. In a side-chapel built to mark the marriage of an O’Dubhda Taoiseach to a Burke heiress, Fr Michael Doody SJ of St Louis, Missouri, recited a short ecumenical prayer for all those buried there.

Highlights

For the duration of the rally an exhibition filled the Clan Rally Centre: maps of Tireragh, the O’Dowda estate at Bonniconlon (1854), the Strafford Inquisition of 1635, the 1597 deed of sale of Enniscrone Castle, and a genealogy from O’Donovan’s Tribes and Customs of the Uí Fiachrach (1844). Alongside them sat books by the MacFirbisigh bards — The Great Book of Lecan, The Yellow Book of Lecan, The Annals of Connacht and The Annals of the Four Masters — the sources that had kept the clan’s memory alive.

Saturday evening saw the launch of Conor MacHale’s The O’Dubhda Family History, followed by a lively discussion during which it was explained that, through mistranscription and historical accident, the O’Dubhda surname now carried over forty recognised variations. Sunday’s meeting agreed the shape of what was to come: a formal clan newsletter, printed membership forms and subscriptions, an idea to clear the site at Scurmore so the Mermaid Rocks might one day host a proper inauguration, and a proposal that members clip every published O’Dowd reference — good or bad — so that a modern “Book of Annals” could be assembled, echoing the work of the MacFirbis bards.

The Rowan at Enniscrone Castle

The weekend closed in the grounds of Enniscrone Castle — last held by O’Dubhda forces in the mid-seventeenth century. In a formal ceremony, a rowan tree, sacred to the O’Dubhda ancestors, was planted by Tom Dowds of Scotland, representing the Wild Geese come home, and Francis O’Dowda, a direct descendant of Baron O’Dowda of Bonniconlon. They unveiled a commemorative plaque, and every person present took a turn filling the hole around the sapling before saying their farewells.

Voices & Visitors

Among those who came: Nora O’Dowd MacNamara from Lisdoonvarna, whose uncle Michael O’Dowd had been a bodyguard to President Eisenhower, and who enjoyed arguing over the spelling of the name with Mamie Doud Eisenhower herself. Seamus O’Dowd from Shannon, at 86 the oldest present. Eighteen-month-old Keelan O’Dowd from Enniscrone, who brought along his parents Edward and Linda. Four Dowds from Scotland — Andrew, Tom, Bridie and Thomas — whose descendants would later become Taoisigh. Donna Glee Williams from the USA. Tess and Bill Heery from Galway. Daphne and Arnold Booth from the UK.

The full roll of the vellum scroll — six columns of signatories — is preserved in the Uí Dubhda archive.