The MacSweeney power-base  

Doe Castle was built by the MacSweeneys in the early 1500s. The MacSweeney’s were descendants of a class of elite Norse-Gaelic mercenaries known as Gallowglasses who lived along with the Western Isles of Scotland. In 1608 it was captured and used by Cahir O’Doherty as his headquarters when he started his rebellion. In 1642 Eoghan Rua O’ Neill landed here on his return voyage from Spain to lead the Irish Confederate Army during ‘The Wars of the Three Kingdoms’. It changed hands many times over the following years and you can still see the initials GVH carved into the east door from 1800 left by one of the owners: General George Vaughan. The last occupant to live here was a Church of Ireland minister who left in 1909. The castle then fell into disrepair until it was sold to the OPW in 1932 and was vested as a national monument. The most important fact from the last 400 years, however, is that Irish singer Brian McFadden proposed to his (now ex-) wife, Kerry Katona at the castle in 2001. This was also the spot where his grandfather proposed to his grandmother. lovely!