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Michael Skeahan
-- recipient of the Michael Flannery Award
 Like
"Mack the Knife" in the song from Berchtold Brecht's
Three Penny Opera,
Mike Skeahan has always been the strong, silent type, operating
in the background. But unlike Brecht's character,
Mike Skeahan was never in it for himself, but always served a
higher cause.
One of many examples of this is found back when the recent
troubles began; the Republican movement at home produced a book
called
Freedom Struggle,
which was promptly banned on the other side of the pond. Having
obtained a bootleg copy of same, Mike took it upon himself to
produce an American edition of the same (typeset and all, from
scratch). The distinguishing difference on the cover was a
photograph of some IRA men armed with
US Rifle, calibre .30, M-1.
[Mike had a love affair with the M-1 Rifle that went back to the
end of the Second World War, when he volunteered for the 82nd
Airborne Division.] While maintaining his daytime job, Mike
(with the occasional assistance of a friend or two) put in more
nights than he would care to remember making
Freedom Struggle
happen -- much to the chagrin of Brits and Free Staters alike.
A native of New York City, Mike comes of good
Fenian
stock. His father, also named Michael, was an IRA man (and an
Irish Volunteer before the Rising) from Kilkee, County Clare (a
town once served by the famous West Clare Railroad). While on
the run during the "Tan War", the senior Michael Skeahan met his
future wife, Christina Barton (a member of Cumann na mBan) in a
safe house in Limerick, operated by her father, Michael Barton -
an IRB man.
Mike graduated from Saint Sebastian's school in Queens, and
attended Power Memorial Academy under the gentle tutelage of the
Irish Christian Brothers, where he majored in football and
track. He graduated from St. Michael's High School and then,
with two buddies, joined the US Army for World War II. A
bricklayer by trade, he was an officer of
Local 34 of the Bricklayer's Union,
in Manhattan.
Whenever there was trouble at home, Mike was there, always
behind the scenes, lending his own special support to the
Cause of Irish Freedom.
He worked very closely, and always very discretely, with the
late Martin Madden, and others, during the recent Troubles.
After the
parting of the ways in 1986, Mike Skeahan was one of seven men
who met in Mike Flannery's parlor to found Cumann na Saoirse.
It was Mike Skeahan who came up with the name "Cumann na
Saoirse", and who insisted, to avoid being embarrassed by
back-sliding politicians at home in Ireland, that Cumann na
Saoirse would have no foreign principle, but rather would be an
independent American organization devoted to furthering the
bright dream of the men and women of 1916.
Mike
could always be counted on to do the heavy lifting,
all the while shunning publicity. The only thing that he
couldn't be counted on to do was to stand still long enough to
be photographed. There is, however, a rumor that Mike Skeahan
might, that is just might, consent to being photographed at the
testimonial on January 26th
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