Help Needed
April 22, 2026 2026-04-22 4:01Help Needed
HELP NEEDED
This website is a shared record — of who we were, who we are, and the places and objects that carry our story. None of it is finished, and none of it is the work of one person.
If you have skills, access, old photographs, an object in the attic, or simply time and curiosity, we’d love to hear from you. Below are the specific ways we could use help right now.
Pictures of the Land
Strong original photographs of our castles, abbeys, sacred sites, the Moy, the coast, and our gatherings. Not just replacements for what’s here — net-new material we’ve never shown.
We have a handful of good photographs across a lot of ground. If you’re out with a camera in Tireragh, Erris, around Ballina or Killala, send us what you capture. If you’re attending a rally, a walk, or a meeting, bring a camera.
Drone shots of the castle sites and inauguration mounds would be particularly welcome — the topography only makes sense from the air.
Offer Photographs →High-End Archival Scans
We have access to the original paintings of the clan’s armorial bearings and are seeking someone who can produce proper archival scans or photographs of them — so they can live on the site at full resolution for the first time.
The paintings are physical objects. What we have online are downsized jpegs taken a generation ago. At a proper archival resolution, these can be zoomed into by anyone who wants to read the detail — the way a museum would publish them.
In parallel, we are writing formally to the National Library of Ireland to request images of the three Genealogical Office manuscripts (1574, 1608, 1784) where the original records of our arms survive. If you have reading-room experience in Dublin and could help push that request through, we’d welcome it.
Offer Your Skills →
The Carved and Inscribed
Inscribed slabs, grave markers, carved fragments, the stones at our castles and abbeys. If you live near one, or already have good photographs, we’d like careful images and, where possible, close documentation.
Rathfran, Rosserk, Moyne, Ardnaree — the abbeys are full of carved work that rewards close looking. Castle doorways, window arches, and quoins also carry inscriptions we have only half-catalogued.
Photograph at a raking angle where possible; inscriptions that are invisible at noon can come out sharply at six in the evening with a low sun.
Share a Stone →A Photograph of the Stone in Dublin
A carved stone depicting a dog killing a wolf — said to have come from Ardnaglass Castle and to mark the O’Dubhda hound that took the last wolf of Connacht — was presented to the Royal Irish Academy in 1841. It is now part of the Academy’s collections in Dublin. We tell the story on both the Ardnaglass Castle page and in the Dog and the Wolf folklore article.
But we have no photograph of the stone itself. The RIA holds the object; we hold the story. The two belong together.
We need someone based in Dublin, or a friend of the Academy, or a museum photographer with access, to help us commission a proper archival image of the stone — ideally with raking light, so the carved figures show clearly. A single good shoot is all it takes.
Help Get the Photograph →
Objects in Family Hands
A christening cup, a family Bible, old photographs, letters, a carved spoon, a pipe, a chair. If you hold something with an O’Dubhda, O’Dowd, or Dowda story attached, we’d love a photograph and a short note on its history.
We are not asking you to part with anything — only for a record. A photograph and a paragraph: who had it, where it came down from, what you remember being told.
Over time, a collection of these, even just as images, becomes a rich counterpart to the scholarship — the life of the family as well as the history.
Tell Us About an Object →The Lost Castles Hunt
A small group is chasing the castles named in Mac Hale and on the Baxter c.1600 map that no longer stand — or can’t yet be located on the ground. Sites like Dunbuoy, Grangbeg, Duncarragh.
If you like fieldwalking, old maps, and detective work, join the hunt. Time in the townland, patience with the Ordnance Survey six-inch sheets, a willingness to knock on doors and ask older neighbours what the field is called.
Every site we can pin down is another entry moving from the Lost Castles page to the Castle Tour.
See the Lost Castles Page →
Back the Work Directly
The site, the rallies, and the fieldwork all cost money — hosting, archival scans, travel to sites, printing, commissioned photography. If you’d like to back the work directly, contributions in any amount go straight back into the clan’s archive and events.
Recurring support lets us plan beyond the next rally. One-off contributions are equally welcome — we will put them to the most obvious need at the time and tell you what they bought.
If you represent a family trust, a heritage body, or a business with a Mayo or Sligo connection, we are happy to discuss a larger contribution and what it would enable.
Offer Support →A Note from the Clan
If any of the above sounds like something you could offer — or if you have an idea for how to help that isn’t listed here — please send a note. Every photograph, scan, object, and hour offered strengthens what we can leave for those who come after us.
Write to us any time at our contact page. We read every message.
