A pioneering newspaperman in his day, there is little doubt that McAdam, in his wildest imagination, could not foresee the time when he would become a figure known outside the geographical boundaries within which he practised his craft, his native Scotland and ancestral Ireland.

Now, through the Internet and World Wide Web, his story is known around the planet (see The Vindicator Story), and his features, captured in the photograph, are an exact mirror of the description given therein, "Pa wearing moustache, homburg hat, pearl stickpin, and showing a self-assured steadiness of eye, looking straight at the camera lens".

To the few nonagenarians still living who remember seeing him in their youth, the photograph may stir memories and give as much pleasure to them as to his numerous descendants scattered all over the globe.

The "peripatetic pressman on the prowl" has earned this final encomium as he faces the world with self-assured steadiness of eye.

In what must be an amazing coincidence, this issue of the Internet Vindicator carries an e-mail from a third great granddaughter of Pa McAdam, Carol Briscoe, robustly defending her beloved city of Dublin against littery vilification.

To which must be added that a fourth great granddaughter, Catherine Ward, is the web design and technical wizard behind the production of the Canadian Vindicator e-zine, and whose web site Rynn Solutions offers web development, design and copy writing to small offices and home offices worldwide.

Carrying Pa's journalistic genes into a fifth generation, great great granddaughter, Cristín Leach, is freelancing as a visual art critic for the Sunday Times Irish edition. One example of her reviews, Louis Ducros at the National Gallery, may be accessed online at www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2101-748179,00.html.

A particularly timely one deals with the exhibit, "Alive, alive O!: -- Dublin Street Life 1750-1900", held at the National Gallery of Ireland, and her summation:

"Alive, alive O!" reveals what we already know about the capital city - it can be dirty and dangerous, magnificent and proud. It is a city where extreme wealth can sit next to devastating poverty. Two hundred years later much has changed, but in too many ways Dublin remains the same.

Waiting in the wings is a great great grandson, Brandon Knight, busily mastering his ABCs in preparation for future offerings.

The story goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, thankfully with no end in sight.

--30--