And just in case you attempt to accuse me of your practice of doctoring articles - the rest of Coogan's biography.
Jim Carroll

Biography[edit]

Tim Pat Coogan was born in Monkstown, County Dublin in 1935. He was the first of three children (Brian was born two years later, and Aisling was born four years later) born to Ned Coogan and his wife Beatrice. His father Ned (or Eamonn Ó Cuagain as he sometimes preferred to be known) was active in the Volunteers during the War of Independence and later went on to be the first Deputy Commissioner of the newly-established Garda Síochána, then a Fine Gael TD for the Kilkenny constituency. His mother was a Dublin socialite who was crowned Dublin's Civic Queen of Beauty in 1927. She also wrote for the Evening Herald and took part in various productions in the Abbey Theatre and Radio Éireann. Coogan spent many summer holidays in the town of Castlecomer in County Kilkenny, his father's home town.[1]
He is a former student of the Christian Brothers in Dun Laoghaire, Belvedere College and spent most of his secondary studies in Blackrock College in Dublin. In his memoir, published in 2008, he describes himself as an atheist.
In 2000 Ruth Dudley Edwards was awarded £25,000 damages and a public apology by the High Court in London against Coogan for factual errors in references to her in his book Wherever Green is Worn: the Story of the Irish Diaspora.[2]
When Taoiseach Enda Kenny caused confusion following a speech at Béal na Bláth by crediting Michael Collins with bringing Vladimir Lenin to Ireland, Coogan commented: "Those were the days when bishops were bishops and Lenin was a communist. How would that [Collins bringing Lenin to Ireland] have gone down with the churchyard collections?"[3]
In November 2012, the United States embassy in Dublin refused to grant Coogan a visa to visit the US. As a result a planned book tour for his latest book (The Famine Plot, England's role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy) was cancelled. The decision was described as a major shock and blot against United States Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney. After representations to Hillary Clinton, Senator Schumer, reckoned to be the second most powerful member of the U.S. Senate and the chairman of the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security, Congressman Peter King, he received his visa.[4]