On Sunday June 20, lineal descendants of the Mac Sweeney Chiefs of Doe and friends attended the annual blessing of the graves of the Chiefs of Doe at Doe Castle, Creeslough, and commemorated the 500th anniversary of the battle of Knockdoe/ Hill of the Axes - eight miles north-east of Galway City.

The battle of Knockdoe, fought on August 19, 1504, was the greatest battle fought by galloglas. It was a contest between an army of 6,000 soldiers led by Gerald Fitzgerald, the Great Earl of Kildare, and an army of 4,000 soldiers led by his son-in-law Ulick Burke of Clanrickard. Mac Sweeney galloglas of Fanad, Doe and Banagh and Mac Sweeney galloglas of Mac William Burke of Mayo fought on the side of the Great Earl while Mac Sweeney galloglas of Clanrickard and Thomond fought on the side of Ulick Burke. Knockdoe was a victory for the Great Earl of Kildare and it ended a conflict said to have begun by Ulick Burke's ill treatment of his wife, the Earl's daughter, Eustacia. The annalists record "a dour struggle" lasting several hours until "in the place wherein were nine battalions of galloglass in compact array of battle, there escaped not alive of them but one thin battalion alone". Nine battalions of galloglas plus two auxiliaries to each galloglass would have made up 2,160.

Sweeneys and their cousins the Binns from California at Doe Castle. The Sweeney/Binns group at Doe Castle ranged in height from 6ft. to 6ft. 6ins. The minimum height for a Mac Sweeney galloglas was 6 feet, i.e., the same height as the shaft of the galloglas axe.

On the evening of June 20 the group attended a commemorative Mass in the Capuchin Monastery, Ards, celebrated by Rev. Dr. Pádraig O Baoighill, for the repose of the souls of all who died at Knockdoe and for the souls of two members of their group, Paddy Doohan, Glassan, and Kathleen Gilmore, New Mills, who died recently. Afterwards, a commemorative dinner was hosted in Arnold's Hotel, Dunfanaghy, followed by a social evening in the Glenveagh room.

In July 2002 Tomás Mac Suibhne, the current Mac Sweeney Doe, who organizes annual reunions on behalf of the "Descendants of Mac Sweeney Doe" group, commissioned an independent consultant genealogist to validate family proofs of descent going back to the Mac Sweeney Chiefs of Doe. Proof of descent from Maolmhuire/ Sir Myles Mac Sweeney, Chief of Doe 1596 - 1630 was confirmed in August 2003.

The reunion attracted lineal descendants of the Chiefly family of Mac Sweeney Doe from Ireland, the U.S. and the U.K. Sr. Maureen Sweeney of Glendowan, a great, great, granddaughter of Eamonn Rua Mac Sweeney, Head of the House of Doe, 1834/51, travelled from the U.S. She is celebrating her 40th year as a member of the Sisters of St Joseph, Massena, New York. Fionnuala Sweeney, CNN News Anchor/ Reporter, also attended the reunion. In 1993, Fionnuala presented the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of RTÉ (Ireland's State Television Service) to an audience of 350 million viewers in three languages. She is a great, great, great, granddaughter of Eamonn Rua Mac Sweeney and regularly attends "Descendants of Mac Sweeney Doe" reunions.

Descendants of Jim Mac Sweeney of Devlin, Creeslough, and Ellen Mc Nulty, Faymore, Creeslough, who married in St. Michael's Church Doe in 1910, travelled from the U.S. Jim's father, James, a brother of the jailed Cloghaneely Land League leader and U.S. politician, Daniel Mac Sweeney (Event 2003), was evicted from Dunlewey in the mid 19th century while in his teens. Jim's mother, Mary, a granddaughter of Eamonn Rua Mac Sweeney, Head of the House of Doe, 1834/51, was one of 244 people evicted from Derryveagh in 1861 by the notorious Glenveagh landlord - John George Adair. James and Mary were great, grandchildren of Eamonn Mór Mac Sweeney, Head of the House of Doe, died 1834, aged 96.

daughter Peggy Antonia and Judge Walter Scot Binns married in San Pedro in 1940. Peggy and Walter visited Ireland twice and are still remembered in the Creeslough area. Peggy died in 2002 and Judge Binns died in 1980. He had served in the U.S. Department of Justice, as U.S Attorney in Los Angeles and as a judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Four children of Judge Binns and Peggy, i.e., Walter Scott, Peggy Ann, William Anthony and George Patrick, and eight grandchildren attended the reunion. They visited Tara (of the High Kings), Newgrange Passage Graves (dating from c. 3300 B.C.), Monasterboice Monastery (dating from c. 500 A.D.), the National Museum of Ireland and Trinity College, Dublin, and the Viking City of Waterford. In Donegal they visited the Grianán of Aileach (said to have been marked on the maps of Ptolemy, fl. 127 - 145 A.D.) and sites in Derryveagh, Glenveagh, Cloghaneely and Gweedore associated with their ancestors the Mac Sweeney Chiefs of Doe.

A cousin of Peggy's, Kay McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, born in Feymore, Creeslough, is one of the world's pioneering computer programmers. On the night she was born in 1921 her father, James, an I.R.A. Training Officer, was arrested, taken to Derry Jail and held there for two years. In the mid 1920's he and his wife Ann Nellis and their four children, all native Gaelic speakers, emigrated to the U.S. James returned to Creeslough in 1958 and died there and Kay brought his body back to the U.S. for burial with his wife Ann. Kay, a brilliant mathematician, worked for the U.S. Government Ballistic Research Laboratories during World War II computing trajectories to improve the accuracy of artillery rounds over various distances and diverse weather conditions. Later she played a vital role in one of the most important inventions of the 20th century - the electronic computer ENIAC. In autumn 1945 she was one of six women chosen to program ENIAC. In 1999 Kay and a colleague, Jean Bartic, undertook a lecture tour of Computer Science Departments in Universities and Colleges in Ireland including Letterkenny Institute of Technology. A web site www.ohkaycomputer.com is dedicated to her career.