Bobby bob,

There are a few more detiald to your tale about Micho.

Micho's trip to London.

The trip took place in the late 1960's and the person who organised the visit was the famous Mick Moloney.

Micho himself explained the story in an RTE redio programme.

The following is not an exact quotation but it is the essential story.

Micho came from a rural are in North Clare. The townland he lived in with his brothers was called Doonagore which is half way between Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher.

In small rural parishes in Ireland, there are so few people, and as a result everyone knows everyone else - so If you want to visit someone in a neighbouring parish, you simply call into a shop, or a house, and enquire. 9 times out of 10 the first person you ask will give you the necessary info.

Micho's sister emigrated to London in the fifties and lived in an area called Shepherds Bush. This name has a rural sound to it and it is easy to understand why Micho thought it would be a simple matter to locate her. He was totally dumbfounded when he saw the masses of concrete and the numbers of people and it was very quickly obvious that enquiries would not be successful. He arrived in London on a Saturday and stayed with Mick Moloney overnight.

At that time telephone contact to the West of Ireland was very difficult. In Doolin there was one public telephone and that was situated outside McDermott's Public House in Roadford. The pub also doubled as the local post office.

People in the West of Ireland are creatures of habit and everyone, particularly in rural parishes, attends mass on a Sunday morning. It is as much a social occasion as it is a worshipping occasion. Micho was aware that his brother, Gussie, would be passing by McDermott's on his way to mass at exactltly quarter to ten. It was a relatively easy matter for Mick Moloney to arrange a telephone call to McDermotts public telephone box. Accordingly the telephone in the street outside the pub started to ring and who, out of all the people travelling up that hill to the church, answered the call. You guessed it. Stephen McDermott and Micho immediately saked if he had seen Gussie passing. No said Stephen but I think he's coming over the bridge now, and sure enough there he was. And Gussie had, in his pocket, a letter from his sister in Shepherds Bush complete with her full address.

Micho met his sister before 12 o'clock that very same day.

That is how Micho related the story himself and I'm sure Mick Moloney will confirm the detail