A man named "Suibne Menn" or "Sweeney the Renowned" was the High King of Ireland in AD 616-628 and it has been suggested that the family descended from him.
The Sweeneys trace their ancestry from "Niall of the Nine Hostages" Niall of the Nine Hostages who was the fifth century High King of Ireland, through to the eleventh century King of Aileach in Donegal named "Flaherty of the Pilgrims Staff". Flaherty O'Neill Following a dispute over the succession of the Aileach kingship, Flaherty's grandons, Anrathan, sailed across the seat to Scotland. There, according to a sixteenth centruy family history preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, he acquired extensive lands in Argyll and married a daughter of the King of Scotland. "The Suibhne" was a great-grandson of Anrathan who built Castle Sween in Knapdale, reputedly the oldest stone castle in Scotland.
It wasn't 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. A "Suibhene" was Lord of Knapdale in Strathclyde about 1200. In 1315 the Clan Chief, Mudchadh Mear Suibnee (Mear = Mad) lost their lands in Argyll to Robert the Bruce whom they opposed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. During his rise to power, Robert The Bruce, "Robert I, King of Scotland", created enemies in Scotland among whom were the Sweeneys.
Therefore the majority of the Sweeneys of Castle Sween left Scotland returning to Ireland. Those who stayed on in Scotland became part of the MacQueen Clan (MacQueen being one of the many variations of the Sweeney name).
Murchadh Mear Suibne (Clan Sweeney) set up headquarters in Fanad from where all present-day Sweeneys/Sweenies descend. This district is now part of the moderate County Donegal. The Irish word "Gall" means "foreigner", hence the place name Dun na Gall meaning "Fort of the Foreigners". Ballyorgan is part of the ancestral home of the McSweeneys.
The sept of MacSuibhne Fanad fought as mercenaries in the struggles of Ulster, mainly on behalf of the O'Donnells, and it was thought because of their "tool of the trade', the family became known as "The Clan of the Battle-Axe".
A Coat of Arms granted to the family depict a silver lizard on a green broad horizontal band crossing the middle section between three black boards shown walking on a gold shield. On the crest of the "senior line' is an armored arm shaped like an arch holding a battle-axe.
Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. For a thousand years, Euopenas made do with only one name, but as people multiplied, record keeping became more and more difficult. Suppose there were six Johns in a village; how was the tax collector to make sure which one was deliquent? Therefore by royal decree, over a number of years, folks began to give themselves surnames.
The first recorded spelling of the family names as we have come to know it is showng to be that of Murrough MNacSweeny whiuch was dated 1267 in the "Annals of Connacht", during the reigh of King Henry III, 1216-1272. Throughou the centuries, surnames have continued to develop often leading to surprising variations of the original spelling. Many times the name is spelled phonetically open to the interpretation of both the speaker and the listener as to how it was written. Researching the "Sweenie" name has resulted in finding many spellings. Sweeney is one of the sixty most commonly found names in Ireland. It means "Little hero" when used for a boy's first name.
The motto for Sweeney is "By the providence of God".
The Sweeney Tartan
As I was growing up, when my father would introduce himself, he would say, "Harry Sweenie, that's Sweenie with an 'ie'". He wanted to make sure it was spelled "correctly" and not the way the Irish usually spell it. He was proud of his Scottish heritage.
My research has not yet discovered when and/or where my particular Sweenie line returned to Scotland. I have only been able to definitively tract the line back to 1810 to John Sweenie who was the "illegitimate son of" Agnes Burns. According to John's death record, Agnes named the father as "John Sweenie" who was a "canal boatman". I have never been able to find any further information on this line nor on Agnes Burns! Perhaps someday, more information will be available or perhaps a distant cousin can help me complete this link from John Sweenie back to the original members of the clan.
If anyone has any further information, I would LOVE to know. Please post a comment so that I may contact you.
Most of the information included in this history was found on various web sites of other Sweenie researchers / historians including Sweeney Clan, Mac Suibne and Sweeney Names
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