BIO: "For me this was the moment of a lifetime, the end of a long search for our lost family in Ireland and with the touch of our hands, the old clan connection was retied He was the last living Devlin male from our family in Ireland and I was the last living Devlin male of purely Irish heritage in America," wrote Richard E. Devlin in a piece in "Irish Roots" magazine #3 (1999). I was able only to go so far with resources in America, but when I turned to the Ulster Historical Foundation and the Public Record Office in Belfast and the Irish World Heritage Center in Dungannon, matters began to fall into place quickly. After years of fierce fighting against the English, Hugh O'Neill, chieftain of the Tyrone clans, know as the Red Hand of Ulster, and next to him, young Rory O'Donnell, chief of the Donegal clans, were the last two Irish chieftains in possession of their hereditary lands. Their fleeing into exile on a legendary voyage known as the "Flight of the Earls" was one of the darkest moments in the long history of Irish resistance to English domination. Left behind to face the fury of the English were the smaller clans that were allied with the O'Neills and one of the most prominent of these were the O'Devlins. Nearly 400 years later, on a sunny day in April in the green hilly country of south Tyrone, I knocked on the door of a small pensioner's cottage in the village of Galbally, just to the west of the market town of Dungannon." (A lady up at the market next to the church had directed him to her door). She looked at me closely and with a small smile on her face said, "Well I guess I should know about the Devlins, my mother married George Devlin." I could hardly believe what my ears had just heard. After searching for hours in countless visits to libraries, federal archives and two trips the Mormon FHC in Utah, probing endlessly the fading memories of the remaining older family members, which had provided tantalizing clues, here in front of me was a sprightly, somewhat pixie-like old woman dressed neatly in a navy blue skirt and a matching cardigan sweater telling me that her mother's second marriage was to a man name George Devlin, the grandson of the brother of my gggrandfat! her! Her name was Susan Duggan (a Donnelly by birth) and she was 80 years old, mother of eight, grandmother of 32, born in the townland of Altaglushin. They had lived on a farm next to the Devlins all of their lives. She took my wife and I up to the nearby Galbally Church known to the locals as Cross and into the small cemetery around it and showed us George Devlin's gravesite (her stepfather), then lead us round to the southerly side and pointed out the main Devlin gravesite with its stone surround and two high Celtic crosses. Scraping away the mosses and lichens on the base of the largest cross revealed the grand old names in my family - John, James, Francis, and John Francis. For me, who had just lost my brother in Massachusetts, John Francis Devlin, this was more than a little overwhelming. In the distance...was Crocknavarac, the Hill of Tombs, the burial place of the old clans in the dark period. It was a very powerful moment. We went across the countryside to ! the townland of Altaglushin, a place not easily found by a stranger, directly to a hillside overlooking the old Devlin lands described in the 1851 Griffith's Valuation as "Francis, James and John, tenants; one lot of 137 acres, house, offices and land." She pointed out the busy farm house and outbuildings on the hilltop as the last remaining Devlin house on that tract, now belonging to the Nugent family, and places in the lower fields where other Devlin cottages had been in years gone by. One belonged to Ellen Devlin who had told the future in tea leaves, one belonging to Paddy and Charlie Devlin, well-known as ballad singers who could "sing from dark to daybreak without singing the same song twice." Susan said, "Now let's go and see George Devlin, he lives nearby." Off we went over the bogs and heathery moor, ending up in a small farmyard with a tiny cottage and a few small barns, near the village of Carrickmore. I tapped on the door and when an elderly but sturdy-looking man opened it, I knew at a glance that he was of our family. I took his hand and for me this was the moment of a lifetime." Excerpts -- Full article and photo of George Devlin (82) from Carrickmore, and Dick Devlin from Kingston, NH, USA can be found in that issue.