Educated at Blackrock College in South Dublin. He and his classmates were in the college on Easter Sunday 1916, and the young Michael climbed onto the roof of the school to watch the troops go past and to watch the city burn.
Present at shooting Dowling
The executioners were all young men, generally of religious sensibility, and most of them didn’t find their work easy. One, Mick O’Hanlon, recalled, “When we got in we found our man had a girl and that he was covering the door and the landing …none of us fired as she was in bed with him and she covered him with her arms…But this moment soon passed. Following the hesitation O’Hanlon notes simply, “Mick Flanagan shot him.” Some didn’t hesitate. O’Hanlon also recalled that one of the victims, “an old major”, had a meal prepared. “Mick White ate the breakfast.” (this is presumably Major Dowling)