The estimated 50,000 McNamaras living worldwide have been invited to attend a clan gathering at the ancestral home in Quin, Co Clare on Monday for a week-long series of events.
heThe clan, which once ruled over large tracts of east Clare, is commemorating the founding of Quin Abbey by Siodha MacNamara in 1402. A Mass will be said in a field alongside the ruins next Saturday. Among the variations of the name are: Macnamara, MacNamara, McNamara, Mac na mara, MacConmara, MacNarmara, Macknamarra, Macnemara, Mac-namara and McNemar.
"There seems to be about 200 coming from abroad, about 140 from the States and 60 from Australia. After that who is going to be showing up from Ireland is a bit of a lottery," said Mr Tom McNamara, secretary of the clan.
Among the special guests will be the British Labour Party MP, Mr Kevin McNamara. Mr Robert McNamara, the former secretary of defence under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in the US declined an invitation.
Mr Patrick McNamara, from Killaloe, Co Clare, said one of the events being recalled next week will be the visit of the first Catholic prime minister of Australia to the county in 1930.
Patrick McNamara is a second cousin of Sarah McNamara, the wife of the former prime minister of Australia, Jim Scullin, who was the son of Irish emigrants from Derry. The couple visited the McNamara ancestral home at Bodyke in east Clare in 1930, where Sarah McNamara's father was born. Mr McNamara said the house, at Ballymacdonnell, is still occupied by one of his cousins.
Tours, a concert, and banquets in the McNamara-built Knappogue and Bunratty castles are among the events planned for the week. A criminal lawyer from New York, Mr Donal MacNamara, will give a lecture on "MacNamaras: law-makers and law-breakers".
Further information is available at www.macnamara.org