Ron,   I knew Mike Sheehan. In his later years, he returned to Ireland to live. His home was next to the Grotto on Cahirkeem. As my wife, Meriam and I were driving west on the Eyeries to Allihies road one day, we saw this man waving us down as we approached the corner beyond which the Grotto is found.-He asked me if I was Bill Sullivan who had been asking questions in a pub in Urhan the previous day. I told him that I was the guy.-- We went to his home nearby and had a great time talking. The next day we invited him to lunch at the Cametringane Hotel in Castletownbere where we were staying. He showed us around Castletownbere, which we knew quite well.   Mike told us all about his background and his travels. Many of  the details escape me now. I am quite sure he told me that he had become an American citizen during his years in New York and elsewhere. I believe he spent some years in Butte. He had fairly recently, maybe 1-2 years earlier, applied for American Social Security and was getting it. He had taken up painting and showed us some of his work. He took us to a pub in C-bere that had one of his paintings hanging on the wall behind the bar. He also took us to the hospital on the east edge of town and introduced us to all the nuns and many of the elder patients. It seemed to be more like a nursing home than a hospital. I got the impression that he was looking forward to moving in there..   I would guess that was the early to mid  1990's. In 1998, we rented the house at the corner roughly across the street from the Grotto for a month. I don't remember seeing Mike during that time, so he probably move out before that. The house we rented was known as the Jeremiah Murphy farm. We rented it from his son Brendan who lives in C-bere. Another son, a brother of Brendans, is Connie Murphy, a retired school teacher and a top authority on the history of Beara. We met Connie and his wife Eileen and have become long time friends.   Riobard O'Dwyer's Eyeries book tells all about Mike and his family on page 254. If you haven't talked to Riobard you should. He has done enormous research about Beara families. I don't know if he is still offering research services but you should ask him. He very likely knew some of your relatives past and present. He knows everybody.  I have learned all about my family from him. He and his wife Joan have been good friends of ours since 1985. His E-mail address is beararesearchodwyer@eircom.net     My father's father, Jeremiah Diarmuid O'Sullivan Rochtirre lived up the hill behind the Grotto, which was built long after he went to Michigans Copper Country. My Dad's mother, Ellen Harrington ( Caobach), lived on the little road going down to Kenmare Bay from that same corner where we rented the house in 1998   Bill Sullivan Hudson, FL       Wed, 7/8/09, Ronald Barnes <barnes149@comcast.net> wrote: From: Ronald Barnes <barnes149@comcast.net> Subject: [BEARA] Columnist Michael Sheehan descendant of Stephen Holland the teacher To: beara@rootsweb.com Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 11:03 PM Hi, I am looking for information on Michael Sheehan who wrote a column in The Irish World and American Industrial Liberator and Gaelic American in 1969.  In his column he was talking about the death of Michael Holland son of Cornelius Holland and Margaret(nee Sullivan) of Kilmackowen, Eyeries, Cork, Ireland. In his column he mentions that he himself was also a descendant of Stephen Holland the famous Irish rebel teacher. Does anyone know the family line of this Michael Sheehan or how to get in touch with him? Terry ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BEARA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message