Hi everyone. Don't know why it took me so long to join this group but now seems

[IrishAyes]

15. Depending upon your politics (if any) re Ireland itself

If you like, I could send you a link where you can buy a copy of a rare picture of Michael Collins' own personal top squad of the Disciples, complete with names. It took a lot of digging and pure luck for me to uncover their identities, but I did and then sent it to the seller of the photo copies for nothing, all to enrich the historical value of the piece. It hung in our house in America - I'm only second gen native born here - and we kids knew the one who was our ancestor, of course, but none of the others. That sort of thing was still kept pretty quiet back then, (especially by those who'd escaped John Bull's clutches and fled under assumed identities) although my grandfather and great-grandfather certainly knew, and I suspect my father did too. So yes, we came from illegal immigrants, something I delighted in aggravating my desperately conformist, faux-elitist sister with after our father died. If she could reach out and slap me right now for blabbing, she would.

BTW, I don't have any website of my own, so I'm not pumping you for money. That picture can now be found also on an MI5 historical website, though I'm not sure when or where they got it. But I think after several generations have passed, there's no danger to any descendants. If they're still in Free Ireland with Sinn Fein's militant arm, they've already earned their own stripes anyway. The Ulster Project, for instance, has done much to eradicate or at least alleviate traditional divisions.