Journalist; year of birth seems a problem. Wellesley gives it as 1812, the ODNB as 1809. Sheehan applied three times for Royal Literary Fund assistance (case 1993); in the first two, in May 1876 and February 1878, he gave date of birth as 23 January 1813, then in the last application, in April 1879, he gave the year as 1814 (thus claiming to be 65 for two years in a row). See Boase III: 534-535, ODNB.