I would have joined IRA, claims Sheen

Hollywood actor Martin Sheen has declared himself proud of his uncle’s IRA past.

The star said he was also relieved to discover that his mother’s brother, Michael Fieland, from Co Tipperary, had no part in the assassination of Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins.

Sheen found out about his close family links to Ireland’s War of Independence while taking part in the US version of the hit genealogy television series Who Do You Think You Are?

During the making of the programme, the 71-year-old visited Dublin’s Kilmainham Gaol and spent time in the cell where it is believed his uncle was incarcerated.

“I’m enormously proud of him,” he said. “I would like to hope that if I had been here in Ireland at the time, I would have followed him. And I would have been as committed as he was.”

Sheen returned to his mother’s homeland to study in 2006 when he took a place as a mature student at the National University of Ireland in Galway.