1. I was born, shaped and formed in Dublin, Ireland although I moved to Roscommon and then Cork. I consider myself a Corkman and am delighted that Siena sends so many students to study at University College Cork - my alma mater.
2. Speaking of UCC - I graduated with a degree in zoology and my senior year was spent capturing and analyzing the diets of predatory water bugs - studying the competition between different species in a large pond near my home. Feel free to hit me up if you want any of the riveting details.
3. Gaelic is still the official language in Ireland - although not too many people actually speak it. I spent three weeks every year of my childhood on a remote island where only Gaelic was spoken. The island had a population of around 300, but it still had four pubs! I can still manage a conversation in Gaelic - especially if someone puts a pint of Guinness in front of me!
4. My grade school in Ireland was SMALL! How small was it? I skipped first grade - not because of my superior intellect - but because there would only have been two students in my grade. I moved up to a larger class of five.
5. I have a graduate certificate in computer science. Despite my handsome, youthful looks, I am old enough to have dropped a tray of punch cards, worked on green screen terminals and 8" floppy disks - none of those are good things!
6. I share my name with an American astronaut and an Irish Revolutionary war hero. The latter was related to my grandfather! Watch the movie, Michael Collins, sometime to see Julia Roberts play his love interest - with a truly awful Irish accent.
7. We are a Siena Family. My wife, Anne, teaches four sections of FYS to 70+ lucky freshmen every year and my daughter, Nora, is a recent Siena graduate about to pursue her master’s in counseling. My other two, Liam and Maggie, are out of school and gainfully employed - probably a good thing given that I work in the Career and Internship Center!
8. My zoology degree led to a long career in sales and consulting with IBM and Lenovo. I often talk to students about this to let them know that it doesn't matter WHAT you graduate with - it just matters that you DO graduate. Life will find you and you will end up where you were meant to be.
9. Our family loves a good show on Broadway or at Proctors. We have been to dozens of great shows: Wicked, Waitress and Come from Away are among the most memorable recent ones! Seeing Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard got us hooked! My kids gave me the nickname "City Mike" because APPARENTLY I change into an aggressive New Yorker every time I walk around on busy city streets.
10. I love reading, movies, music. I have seen many great bands: U2, Dire Straits, Yes, Thin Lizzy. The best show ever was Tangerine Dream. They played just two songs in a three and a half hour show. I was obsessed with them and had 50 or so of their albums - yes albums. I miss liner notes!
