Michael Linehan Born to Mary Curran and Jeremiah Linehan in 1903, Michael was the third child amongst Jeremiah, Margaret, John, and Grace. Michael's parents were born and lived in County Cork, Ireland. Mary and her mother grew up in a cottage at Mullinahorna in Belleville, County Waterford in the photo below. In 1899, well after the potato famine, but still among a large wave of Irish immigrants, Jeremiah emigrated to America. Mom believes he arrived at Ellis Island and went to Boston where Jeremiah found work in the Boston Naval Shipyard in Charlestown as a longshoreman. In Charlestown he met Mary Curran who had also recently immigrated. They married and lived at Monument Street during the years that Margaret, Jerry, Michael, and John were born. Between the births of John and Grace they moved to Mount Vernon Street. Until recently, Charlestown was an almost exclusively Irish neighborhood of Boston, and its proud residents were called "townies". Dad recalls being told that when his father was young he was sitting in church and had his leg sticking out into the aisle. The priest walking by didn't like this and kicked him, breaking his leg. Michael also had childhood polio. The polio was cured rapidly in an apparent miracle and his crutches were (and may still be) among the heaps of those belonging to parishioners who were cured in Mission Church in Roxbury. Michael grew up in Charlestown and most likely started work before he was able to finish high school. His family was quite poor, and his father died in 1912 when Michael was only 9 years old. He started out working in a livery stable in City Square and by age 16 he was working in the navy yard, receiving training over the years, finishing high school and night school at the Franklin Technical Institute until he received a degree as a draftsman. He supervised the naval yard training program and got very involved with the young students. Mom remembers that "he worked on the U.S.S. Constitution as they were restoring it, and when the project was done they were given the chance to go out into Boston Harbor to test it --- he was afraid of sea sickness and refused the great honor. Everyone, including Estelle, thought he was nuts." On his day of retirement he was honorary shipyard commander and commander of the Constitution. Childhood home of Mary Curran in Ring visited by Estelle and Michael as well as Mom and Dad and their early children when they traveled around Europe in the late 60s. Previous Table of Contents Next