Sheen proud of his uncle’s IRA past but glad of no Collins link

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 Michael Collins’ assassination.

Sheen found out about his family links to Ireland’s War of Independence while taking part in the US version of the 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.”

Best known for his roles in Apocalypse Now, Wall Street and the television series The West Wing, he described his uncle as an Irish volunteer.

The actor said Fieland went on to fight against the Free State side, who supported the Anglo-Irish treaty, during the resulting Civil War in the 1920s.

Sheen admitted that he was concerned about what would turn up.

“When I was in Ireland and discovering the involvement of my uncle in the Rising and the Civil War, because he took an opposing side to (Eamon) de Valera, I was afraid he might have been in on the plan to assassinate Mick Collins,” he said.

“But as it turned out he was in prison when Mick Collins was assassinated and I was deeply relieved.”

“I have been involved in a lot of campaigns for peace and social justice and I had the same kind of commitment in those areas that he had here.”

One of 10 children, Sheen, whose real name is Ramon Estevez, was born to a Spanish father and Irish mother, Mary-Anne Fieland, from Borrisokane in Co Tipperary.