Charlie Bird knows nothing. His family history is a blank page, and every revelation is a genuine surprise. His only starting-point is a grandfather from Bermuda who brought electricity to Macroom... but why did he change his name? From Cork to The West Indies, from Portsmouth to The Battle of The Nile, from the unerring love of the sea to the illicit love of a brother's wife, Charlie pieces together six generations of his family tree from scratch, and ends up back where he began, but very much the wiser.
Joe's story is a Tale of Two Grannies. One was born & raised in the notorious tenements of inner city Dublin, and her brother's vain attempt to escape this desperate poverty ended in the trenches of Northern France... But Joe's other grandmother was born into a very different life in India, and unravelling her story takes the True Blue Dub on a tour of his roots from Roscommon to Mumbai.
Family is an important part of Dana's life. She's prepared to take the good & the bad on board, just to know more about the lives that came before her. Her journey takes in secretive Protestants, elopement, Catholic Colonies in the Wild West, and a tragic life bookended by the famine and the poorhouse. Through all of this, there is the mystery of her Great Grandfather, who walked out on his wife and children more than a century ago. Dana wants to know what happened him, but she's afraid it won't be good.
The O'Hanlon name has been at the heart of many an Irish rebellion, and Ardal is desperate to separate the myth from the reality. He re-traces his Grandfather's exploits, from the morning of Bloody Sunday through to a dramatic prison-break; he also sets out to prove his connection to famous castle & an infamous 17th Century rebel. But ultimately, it's a childhood myth which turns out to be true that takes Ardal to New York, where he uncovers the story of an extraordinary Irish dynasty at the heart of a modern American revolution.
Pamela's biggest fear was that her family history would be too boring & normal.... She needn't have worried! An innocuous letter written by her grandmother opens up an amazing adventure through 19th & early 20th Century Dublin, taking in grand gentry houses & red-light districts, millionaire solicitors & pawnbrokers, contested wills, illegitimate children and eventually, murder.
Linda spends the programme searching for a Martini... She has always believed she had Italian roots, and now is her chance to prove it. She follows a trail of immigrant sculptors & craftsmen, starting in Little Italy in Belfast and leading to Dublin, Edinburgh and eventually, Milan. Along the way, Linda also uncovers some surprising sides to her family: from a Scottish coal-mining tragedy to a grandmother with a very 'liberal' approach to men & marriage!
From poverty & epidemics in Connemara to the seat of all wealth & power in the Middle ages, Ryan Tubridy's story is full of intense contradictions. Uncovering his Tubridy roots takes him to a remote rural schoolhouse, and a century-old battle between his Great-Grandfather and the local priest. On the other side of his family, Ryan stands in the very spot where his Grandfather took a bullet, and in the very place where his Grandmother went on hunger strike. And in a preposterous sequence of events, this grandson of Republican volunteers follows his family tree to the very heart of the British Empire...
Politician, bookmaker, radio presenter: Ivan Yates has had many lives of his own, even before he starts researching his ancestors. And it's the business adventures & financial gambles along his family tree that intrigue Ivan from the start. First, he discovers a long line of Quaker flour-millers who took too many risks and fell foul of their religious brethren; then, he unearths a direct line to one of the most famous drinks in the world. But when both of these blood-lines collided on his family tree, a spark was created that changed the modern world forever.
Rosanna Davison has always known that her father Chris de Burgh was born in Argentina, but now she uncovers the poverty that made the family flee to the New World 150 years ago. Following her de Burgh roots takes her from a surprising Dublin hotspot to Normandy and the Bayeux Tapestry, and a breakfast conversation with her mother leads her to discover great ancestral artistry... But it's the story of her Grandfather (and Chris' dad) which all of a sudden turns into a James Bond adventure, with espionage, Albanian revolutionaries and an attempted coup. And all the time, the final twist was right under Rosanna's nose.
Diarmuid Gavin desperately doesn't want to be boring, and tracing his surname back to Scottish shipyards in the 1800's, he turns out to be anything but... He uncovers a vast & wealthy family background in Edinburgh, an unsung Operatic figure in the West End of London, and a solitary black sheep who ends up in Dublin, with such a cloud over his unusual name that even his own son disowns him... Like many an Irishman, Diarmuid also goes looking for heroic ancestors in the 1916 Rising, and discovers something more shocking and tragic than he could have ever imagined.
Actress Fionnula Flanagan may live in Hollywood, but her heart is at home in Ireland. Her mother was born in a workhouse... but not for obvious reasons. Her father, from a large inner city family, grew up in a turbulent era, and eventually took his Republican & socialist principles across Europe to the Spanish Civil War. For the first time, Fionnula has a chance to understand her dad's many battles, wounds and victories. But it's back home in Dublin, while trying to grapple with the family circumstances that inspired her father, that Fionnula discovers a harsh truth about her grandmother: a woman who was the rock of the family.
A Dub, a whole Dub, and nothing but a Dub - true blue actor Simon Delaney nervously starts unravelling his City roots, afraid they might lead somewhere shocking, like Meath. Why did his Great-Grandmother, who hated "drink & culchies", end up marrying a barman from Laois? Simon's detective work takes him all the way to Missouri, and all the way back to the Guinness Brewery in the heart of his beloved Dublin. As he tries to get to the source of his Dublin blood, Simon gets shocking insights into the trenches of the Western Front, and ends up with 41 new cousins.
Damien Dempsey explores the life of his grandfather Thomas, who was born in America. Why did his mother bring him home to Ireland, but without his older brother, or her husband? It’s a story that leads Damien to 19th century Fall River Massachusetts to find out about the lives of his ancestors who worked there in the cotton mill industry and right through to Letterfrack in Connemara where he discovers the harsh realities of what life was like for his grandfather who was incarcerated in its notorious industrial school. Also on his father’s side, Damien learns about the heroics of his great grand aunt Jenny Shanahan who fought in Dublin Castle with James Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army in the 1916 Rising. He reflects on the hardship of her life as she struggled to receive her military pension and died at a young age. On his mother’s side, the uncommon surname of Bridgeman opens up a window into an aspect of 19th Century Dublin that Damien had no knowledge of: his ancestor was a respected Freeman of the City – one of few Catholics afforded the privilege – who ends up being accused of treason and rebellion in the era of the Young Irelanders and was incarcerated in the same prison as one of Ireland’s greatest civil rights campaigners Daniel O’Connell.
Pat Shortt can trace his name back five generations in rural Offaly. What appears to be a life of poverty and evictions turns around in the 1850s with the arrival of the railroad in Birr. Three generations of his family made their livelihoods on the tracks. Music, ambition and invention brings Pat to London to follow the footsteps of his grandfather’s siblings right to the heart of World War II where he discovers the secret work carried out by his mysterious granduncle Brendan during the Blitz. On his maternal side, Pat discovers a side to his stern grandmother that he had never known before and finally by delving more deeply into his little known maternal side an unexpected door is opened to a murder mystery which gripped Ireland involving one of his ancestors. On the surface, a petty land dispute, but in reality a dark tale of infidelity and intrigue.
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power explores her ancestry, finding secret military officers and a Communist scourge of the Catholic heirarchy.
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern explores his family's past bringing him right to the heart of the divisions that were all too common during the Civil War and discovers more about his tight-lipped father's revolutionary youth.
Laura Whitmore's paternal lineage takes her on a journey through the Fenian uprising of 1867, to the various industrial disputes and lockouts in Dublin in the early 20th century, and the deadly Spanish flu epidemic of 1918
Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar traces his roots, including a Singapore born grandfather who was a ceremonial drummer boy for Queen Victoria and an uncle who fought with Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War. Adrian’s paternal family history reveals a long line of Catholic tradespeople who found themselves ghettoised in the predominantly Protestant town of Portadown when partition was introduced in 1921. Adrian himself moved from Enniskillen to Portadown when he was just 10 years old as the Troubles broke out. He visits the town and reflects on the parallels between his own life and that of his ancestors. On his mother Pauline’s side, there’s a deep-rooted military angle, tied to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers regiment in Enniskillen, which sees Adrian’s grandfather Walter born in Singapore, enlisting as a young boy and acting as the ceremonial drummer boy for Queen Victoria on her visit to Ireland in 1900. With so many of his family members fighting for the British over the generations, Adrian reflects on how times were different when they enlisted and how this would never have been a consideration for him or his brothers. The religious theme continues through the programme into Europe – Adrian’s Uncle Charles enlisted with the Irish Brigade under Blueshirt Eoin O’Duffy to fight with Franco against ‘godless’ communism during the Spanish Civil War. Adrian traces his journey to the battlefield in Spain where he learns about how his uncle and the other volunteers had no idea what they were letting themselves in for and how the atrocities they witnessed stayed with them for a long time.