In 1999 Liz Driscoll (Elizabeth Forrest O'Driscoll) in an online article The Green Man of Ireland and Scotland, claimed that her husband Sean Driscoll (Colonel John Joffre Driscoll) had known Philippe de Chérisey and was also the godfather to his son, Gaspard de Chérisey.

Sean Driscoll was a bomber pilot in World War Two and by the 1950s had become the American Head of the NATO Mutual Weapons Development Program (MWDP) in Paris (Robert Bud, Philip Gummett, Cold War, Hot Science, Routledge; 1999). In 1981 he bought and restored Castle Matrix in Ireland.

General Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO in 1966, thereupon the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) had to transfer its headquarters from Paris to Belgium (near Brussels) – SHAPE coordinated ‘Operation Gladio’, anti-communist stay-behind armies in Europe following World War Two (the existence of which only became known in 1990). France did not dissolve its stay-behind armies despite pulling out of NATO.

Philippe de Chérisey married Gloria Phillips on 1 February 1958 in Ixelles, Belgium.

Two things need to be considered.

1) – Gaspard de Chérisey’s Baptismal Certificate or Baptismal Register – does it bear Sean Driscoll’s signature?

2) – If it does bear Sean Driscoll’s signature – does this really mean there was an actual direct and historical connection between the Priory of Sion and NATO Military Intelligence – whereby Philippe de Chérisey would have gained access to classified military information like ‘Operation Gladio’ – or does it mean that Sean Driscoll was a romantic who took esoteric subject matters seriously and that was how he got to know Philippe de Chérisey?

The sword shown on the cover of Circuit – is that really the Roman Sword alluding to ‘Operation Gladio’ – or is it part of Philippe de Chérisey’s novel dealing with the theme of a Roman treasure involving the characters Charlot and Madéleine (“...au loin la belle ruine gardienne de l’épée”)? Circuit is divided into twenty two chapters each one named after the major trumps of the Tarot Cards – how does this relate to NATO Military Intelligence? De Chérisey’s sword has the handwritten name "Saint Ursin" inscribed upon it – the saint in question being the patron saint of Bourges located in the centre of France, lying at the heart of the shape of the Hexagram shown on the cover of Circuit. The bishop of Bourges during the Merovingian period was St Sulpice and there is a chapter in Circuit mentioning both Saints Ursin and Sulpice.

The 2004 novel L’Élu du serpent rouge by Jean-Paul Bourre presented Patrice Villard as the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, a pseudonym for François de Grossouvre.

François de Grossouvre was Chief of ‘Gladio’ for the Lyon region of France until his alleged suicide on 7 April 1994. But Grossouvre in real life wasn’t linked to the Priory of Sion, but rather (and posthumously) with the cult of the Order of the Solar Temple – following many unverifiable claims made after the mass suicides.

It seems strange that Sean Driscoll should ever have become acquainted with someone like Philippe de Chérisey, but everything indicates that the former NATO Officer had interests in esoteric matters and folklore, and he is described by one person who met him as "a mad Renaissance man" who "collected not only an astounding library, but incredible artefacts".

Driscoll allegedly belonged to the Shickshinny Order of St. John – a historical overview of the Order can be found here:
http://www.chivalricorders.org/orders/self-styled/selfsty1.htm

And an article outlining some of its more offbeat manifestations can be found here:
http://www2.prestel.co.uk/church/lumpen/saucers.htm

That highly intelligent and highly educated people who hold highly responsible positions in society seriously talk nonsense was the starting point to a book first published by Professor J M Roberts during the 1970s entitled The Mythology of the Secret Societies. The book by Professor J M Roberts is not recent and was published before the subject matter of the Priory of Sion became fashionable in the English-speaking world – but all of the familiar gambits and situations are there, existing in relation to other esoteric matters spanning centuries – strongly resembling the scam of the Priory of Sion.