JOHN Sweeney, 69, is a man you don't meet every day. Born in Cullen, Co. Cork in 1939, he came to live in the U.S. at a young age, and now he has dramatic news to share with the world - secretly, he believes, he's the king of Ireland!It's the sort of claim that most people would be reluctant to make publicly. But Sweeney has no fear of the mockers and hecklers; he's faced them down before. You can see hear his conviction in his voice. This is no elaborate joke he's playing. After a dramatic series of revelations at the ages of six, nine and 39, he was called to duty, he says, and after many decades of searching he recently acquired the Irish Crown. If you're picturing a mystical silver sword rising from a lake, you can stop now. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table didn't inspire Sweeney's tale. He simply ordered his crown from a jeweler in Dublin, who collaborated with Joseph Kelly, the celebrated maker of Irish and heraldic jewelry. Ordering a crown may not have the romance of having one bestowed on you by the Lady of the Lake, but it's every bit as effective. The question is, when did his strange quest begin?"I was six and I was standing in front of the house in Cullen," says Sweeney during an interview with the Irish Voice. "I was kicking a football in the gutter, when all of a sudden this pool of light shone around me. It was like a thousand daylights all at once. It was a circle and I was standing in it."Sweeney stood dazzled in the September afternoon air. A voice spoke to him, giving him a secret message. Then the sky cleared and the day resumed."Then was I was nine. I was staying with my relatives in Dublin when a woman appeared," he says. "I didn't know her but I knew who she was. She stayed for about a minute, and then left."It was the sort of visitation that was would give anyone pause. For years after, though, the visions stopped and Sweeney got on with his life. Then in 1979 he had a stroke. While recuperating he had another vision. This time a voice came to him with one clear directive: "Go seek the crown."Some people told him he was quite frankly nuts, but he didn't stop until he had the crown and went to Tara in Co. Meath. (The Dublin jeweler who created the crown gave him a very reasonable deal, he says). In the fall of 2006 Sweeney stood at the fabled Stone of Destiny, Tara's ancient coronation stone, where for centuries Ireland's high kings were crowned. He put the crown on the stone, then he put the crown on his head, and with his right hand on the top of the stone he proclaimed himself King of Ireland and King of the Celts in front of bemused witnesses. This done, Sweeney completed his mission, and he says he is at peace with himself, although his journey is not quite over.Before all these late-in-life developments, Sweeney began his career as an inventory clerk for an insurance company in New York. Then he joined the U.S. Army, serving as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division (Screaming Eagles) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. For years after that he worked for the New York City Police Department, Since his retirement, he has worked in a private security firm where he is still employed. "One man came up to me and said, 'Only a Cork man could do a thing like this,' but I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing it for everybody else," Sweeney says.Some people have asked if Sweeney is seeking a queen - his wife passed away a year before he finally took his trip to Tara - but he denies he has any other agenda than claiming the crown and restoring the Irish royal line. "The longer you're single the easier it gets to stay single. It would have to be somebody very special. I'm not against the idea completely. But I what I really want is to give the Irish back their own history and to restore what was taken from them," he says."I can't stand these people from 1690 owning what they actually stole. I want to give the Irish back our heritage that was taken from us. I don't want anyone to lose it or forget it. I want to put this crown on all Irish people's heads. By succeeding with this that's what I'm after, I don't want anything else."Laugh if you want, but Sweeney is 100% serious.