‘My great-grandfather fought for Ireland & makes me proud' says Aisling Bea after uncovering brutal murder in new show
Taking part in
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Aisling has discovered a brutal killing in her family's past in the famed BBC series, Who You Think You Are
Credit: PA
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Aisling's great-grandfather Padraig O'Briain with his three children, including her paternal grandmother, Eibhlin
Credit: BBC
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The shattered remains of the General Post Office in Dublin after the Easter Rising
Credit: Getty
Sitting in the West
Her maternal grandmother was one of the first females in her town to wear trousers while her mother was one of the few female professional flat-race jockeys of her era.v
Growing up surrounded by strong women, her maternal grandmother was one of the first females in her town to wear trousers while her mother was one of the few female professional flat-race jockeys of her era.
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Aisling filmed an episode of the BBC series in Ireland when she was expecting her first child.
Documents from the Bureau of Military History reveal Padraig led Ballyferriter and Dingle men on a night march across the Conor Pass to Tralee, aiming to join the Easter Sunday rebellion.
'It makes me really proud'
As she drives over the Conor Pass in the show, Aisling reflects: 'This landscape has meant so many different things to me at so many points in my life. This was my childhood and my connection to my dad, and now I'm just looking at it, thinking about my great-grandfather.
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'I can't even imagine what it must have been like for those men marching all the way to Tralee, 40 miles at night, getting ready to stage a revolution against one of the biggest powers in the world at the time.'
Reading about his involvement, she becomes emotional: 'I'm pretty sure my grand Uncle Sean was born in 1916, he couldn't be more than a couple of months old at this stage,' she says, referring to the brother of her grandmother Eibhlín O'Briain.
Aisling Bea reveals she's pregnant with first child
'And the idea of my great-grandmother at home with a baby, it just shows you how committed, even as a family, they must have been, to the ideal of freedom for
But when the Aud, a ship carrying arms, was intercepted by the British Navy off Kerry that weekend, the rebellion in the county was called off, although the Rising went ahead in
'When I was at school and I used to study the 1916 rising, you think of it as a massive part of our Irish history, but really a very small amount of people were involved…like my great grandfather, who were absolutely willing to take up arms and fight for what they believed in.
'It does make me really proud that he was part of that small group.'
MOB ATTACK
Aisling also traces her maternal ancestry to a farm near Adare, Co. Limerick. She learns her three-times great-grandfather James Sheehy, was attacked by a mob in February 1841 and died of his injuries.
A police report described 20 to 30 armed men breaking into his home at midnight and destroying his threshing machine.
Historian Dr Richard McMahon explains that violent incidents against landlords, land agents, and wealthier farmers were common in the area.
'The threshing machine that they destroyed suggests that they're a bit angry about new machinery being brought in, taking away work from them.'
SAVAGE BEATING
The police report said Sheehy was beaten in a 'most savage manner', leaving 'four severe cuts on his head', and his widow, Martha, to raise five children.
Yet in the wake of the Great Famine, Aisling is taken aback to learn Martha had grown the family farm in Ballycannon in the Adare district to 115 acres.
'BIT SHAMEFUL'
McMahon says: 'During the famine, landlords would have evicted hundreds of thousands of people from the land."
'And when they're moved off the land, that land has been taken over by farmers like your great, great, great-grandmother, Martha.
Aisling sighs and says, 'That does make me feel a little bit shameful.'
Now she sees pivotal events in Irish history in a new light. She says: 'It has blown my mind and given me a really interesting, different point of view on so many moments I felt I knew so well, and now feel like I know so personally.'
Who Do You Think You Are? will be shown on BBC One on Tuesday, May 20.
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Aisling Bea gave birth to her first child last year
Credit: PR Handout image
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