Who Do You Think You Are? (IE)

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.