hattan, living in Bruree in a one-room house with mud walls and a thatched roof. Living with him were his grandmother, his twenty-one-year-old uncle, Pat, and young Hannie, his fifteen-year-old aunt.
             Shortly after Eamon arrived, the family moved to a cottage, built by the Irish government for farm workers, but it was only a little bit larger. It was made up of two rooms, most of which were given over to kitchen space. After a year Eamon's mother visited briefly- long enough for her to announce her new marriage to an American, Charles Wheelwright, known to Eamon as "Uncle Charley". Kate soon returned to America. She thought it would be best that four-year-old Eamon remain in Ireland.
             Eamon's childhood was typically Irish. He worked at farming with the rest of his family, went to school, played rugby, and starred as a runner. At the age of fourteen, after eight5 years of school, it was time to decide what he was going to do next. He considered returning to America. He even wrote to his mother about it. It was just not to be. Instead, he enrolled at the Christian Brothers' School seven miles from his home. Since the family could not afford to buy him a bicycle, he had to walk the entire distance- both ways every day- carrying a heavy load of books.
             Eamon proved so strong a student that after two years; he was admitted with a scholarship to Blackrock College. That school, which was located near Dublin, was run by the Holy Ghost fathers. Eamon entered the college unsure of his future career but leaning toward either teaching or priesthood. It soon became clear to him that his greatest interest, as well as his greatest academic strength, lay in mathematics. After five years at Blackrock, he became a mathematics teacher at a school in Tipperary while completing his college degree. In 1904 he graduated from the Royal University in Dublin.
             Very tall and thin with dark hair, dark eyes, an...