Talk:Clan Sweeney

Tartan
The Sweeney tartan can be either the Sweeney tartan which originated in Scotland for the MacQueen /MacSween clan or the tartan from the region in which Sweeney was first found in Ireland, which is Donegal. It is the custom in Ireland to wear the tartan of your region (the original region in which your clan came from) and so a Sweeney in Ireland would wear a Donegal tartan. This information was provided to me from the Scottish and Irish store http://www.scottishandirishstore.com/index.htm and I have verified at several other sources. In the end, it’s a matter of choice as a Sweeney, whether you want to wear the Scottish or Irish tartan, either is correct.--198.103.53.5 16:27, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

King of Ulster
The third part of Séamus Heaney's Station Island (Faber and Faber, 1984) is entitled "Sweeney Redivivus" in which the poet's voice is at one with the voice of the legendary Sweeney, A King of Ulster whose story Mr Heaney has translated from the Irish. Millbanks (talk) 09:36, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Copied from Sweeney (name)
The following was recently added to Sweeney (name). Some of it could likely be incorporated into this article.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 02:56, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Sweeney (also MacSweeney) is one of the sixty most common surnames in Ireland, and is fairly equally distributed between the four Irish provinces, although less common in Leinster than the others. The Gaelic version of the name is MacSuibhne and the family can be traced back to a Scottish chieftain called Suibhne who lived in Argyll in the 12th century. Suibhne's two sons, Dougal and Maolmhuire, are recorded as residing at Skipness Castle and Sween Castle respectively both in Kintyre, Western Scotland. An elaborate genealogy written many centuries later proposes that this 12th century ancestor descended from the royal Irish family of O'Neill but this interpretation is no longer accepted. What is however clear is that the Scottish MacSweeneys descended from a mixture of Irish Dalriadic Gaels and Norsemen, and were referred to in the Irish annals as 'Gall Gaedhil' (literally 'foreign Irish') when they first appeared in Ireland. Most Irish genealogists conclude that the name Suibhne derives from the Irish word for 'pleasant' while a number of Scottish historians, most notably, A.A.M. Duncan (The Edinburgh History of Scotland: Scotland, the Making of the Kingdom v. 1) states that the Gaelic name derives from Norse 'Svein' and has an authentic genealogy dating back to circa 1000 AD. During this period, Hebridean lords adopted weapons, maritime technology and names from the Norse Vikings who settled in Western Scotland.

The first Sweeney to appear in Ireland according to the Irish annals was Murchadh Mear, son of Maolmhuire, and Murchadh's nephew Eoin was the first family member to settle in Fanad, County Donegal. In Ireland the MacSweeneys are known as the most prominent Scottish gallowglass families, and they retained a distinct social organisation until the English conquests of the mid-17th century. Different branches of the family settled in Connacht and Munster as well as Ulster; however, the most prominent families remained in Donegal where they were divided into three separate septs: Sweeney Fanad (MacSuibhne Fanad), Sweeney Doe (MacSuibhne na dTuath) and Sweeney Banagh (MacSuibhne Boghaineach).

These three branches commanded the forces, many of whom were also from gallowglass families, that formed the backbone of the armies of O'Donnell, the ruling family of Tir Connaill (Donegal). In battle the gallowglasses used battleaxes and darts in the manner of the Vikings. According to the English officer, Sir Anthony St Leger, who faced gallowglass warriors in the 16th century, they were formidable opponents, stating that "these sorte of men be those that doo not lightly abandon the fielde, but byde the brunt to the deathe".

Thanks in large part to their military prowess, neither the Normans or later the English were able to extend their power to the North West of Ireland until well into 17th century. However, along with the native Irish, the Sweeneys suffered considerably after the Cromwellian conquests and subsequently many fled to the Continent where they fought and distinguished themselves in the Irish brigades of European armies.

Variations of the name include MacSwiney and MacSwine, and the Irish form of the name is identical to that of the MacQueens, a clan to which the Sweeneys are related.

Copyvio?
Some sections of text seem to have been lifted from here. Unless there are prompt responses this material will need to be removed. Ben  Mac  Dui  10:09, 28 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Not as bad as I feared and the worst excesses have been fixed. Ben   Mac  Dui  19:08, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070927145707/http://www.music-lovers.co.il/prague/prague_miscellaneous/prague_misc_pages/invention.html to http://www.music-lovers.co.il/prague/prague_miscellaneous/prague_misc_pages/invention.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070928231414/http://www.tartankilts.com/The_Tartan_Ban.asp to http://www.tartankilts.com/The_Tartan_Ban.asp

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Heraldry
I've removed File:Sweeney.png from the infobox. I'm not certain that there are historical arms that represent the whole clan. I've read that the medieval Scottish family didn't leave any discernible heraldry. The following link isn't to an unbiased website, but it's worth looking at .--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 00:49, 6 March 2019 (UTC)