On a September Sunday in 2000, in an Iron-Age ring-fort above Lackan Bay called Cathair Mór, Conor MacHale held the White Wand over Thomas J Dowds’ head, and the assembled clan shouted ‘Ó Dubhda! Ó Dubhda! Ó Dubhda!’ across the same ground where the ceremony had last been performed in 1595.

The Millennium Rally

Hotels and guesthouses in Enniscrone were full. O’Dubhdas had come from Australia, the United States, Europe and Africa to mark a new century and a new chapter. The Atlantic Hotel reception brought together the regulars — Ed from Chicago, Seán from Kerry — and introduced new names, including seven-month-old Aimee Louise Stanton from Dubai. Friday’s session centred on Dr Peadar O’Dowd’s illustrated talk on the Uí Dubhda’s role in North Connacht, and an evening ceilidh that ran long.

Saturday: The Castles & Ballymote

The Saturday historical tour worked through the ancestral sites: Ardnaree Friary, Skreen, Castleconnor and Roslee Castle, Easkey. The group then drove south to Ballymote Castle — where the last Taoiseach, Tadhg Buí, had led his troops to join Red Hugh O’Donnell before the march to Kinsale in 1601. With permission from the caretakers, the Ó Dubhda standard was raised alongside O’Donnell’s at the gate of the castle. That small gesture — four centuries late — set the tone for the next day.

The Inauguration at Cahirmore

On Sunday the clan climbed to Cahirmore, the hilltop ring-fort that had once been held by the O’Caomháin family, hereditary marshals to the O’Dubhda. Following the rite recorded by John O’Donovan and, earlier, in the Great Book of Lecan, the Chieftain-elect climbed to the highest point of the hill and turned round three times. Ollamh Conor MacHale held the White Wand over his head, confirming his title. Richard F Dowd from New Jersey was inaugurated as Tánaiste. The assembly, arranged in rings around the fort, called out Ó Dubhda! Ó Dubhda! Ó Dubhda! three times as the wind rose from the bay. Where in earlier centuries the new Taoiseach would have received tribute from his people, in 2000 a collection was taken up to be donated to a local charity. The banquet followed at Belleek Castle.

Voices & Visitors

The Taoiseach remarked afterwards that it had taken four hundred years to hold this ceremony again. It is a mark of how well the clan had grown that, within a single weekend in 2000, it was able to be done at all.