Shayne Ward reveals extraordinary story behind his Irish Traveller background

Sunday World

01-05-2025

'I feel emotional today because this is a new adventure for myself, because this is where my mother's journey began.'
X Factor winner Shayne Ward has opened up about his Irish Traveller background by revealing his mother was born in a caravan near a shrine in Co Louth.
Shayne, who has also starred as Aidan Connor on Coronation Street and featured in the last series of Strictly Come Dancing, tells celebrity chef Anna Haugh on her TV cookery programme how emotional he is at visiting St Brigid's shrine near Dundalk.
'I'm super excited to show you Co Louth, the birthplace of my mum Philomena,' dad-of two Shayne (40) tells Dubliner Anna.
'My parents were born into the Travelling community. My grandparents were Irish Travellers.
'I feel emotional today because this is a new adventure for myself, because this is where my mother's journey began.
'She was born in 1957. Her parents were Travellers. Started here in a barrow wagon. They were obviously just passing through Dundalk. Then my mum was born somewhere near St Brigid's Shrine.'
Shayne, who sold over 1.3 million copies of 'That's My Goal' after winning the X Factor in 2005, joyfully explains more about his ancestry.
'My mum's parents, and of course grandparents and so on and so forth, all come from Ireland. They were obviously from the Travelling community,' he says.
Anna and Shane get peeling for their dinner
'When they moved over [to England] with my mum in 1958 they pretty much settled, from what I've been told, they settled pretty much straight away with relatives.
'It was around Longsight in Manchester, so my mum was obviously brought up in a house.
'Of course, she's not been here [the shrine] since she's been born. So now that I'm here I'm going to bring her back. I think that would be an even more special moment. Just to reconnect. I want to learn a lot more about my ancestry.'
Shayne's grandfather was a tinsmith in Ireland before he moved to Manchester and the entertainer gets to meet James Collins to find out about the craft.
Tinsmith James lives on a Travellers' site on the outskirts of Dublin and has been making tin cups, utensils and tin whistles since he was a boy.
Shayne and Anna chat about his heritage
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'My connection to this is that my mother's father, Martin Joyce, he was a tinsmith,' reflects Shayne.
'And my mum is so proud of that, she always tells me 'I'm very proud to be a tinsmith's daughter' and so just watching you do this, I felt like I was transported to a time that my grandfather was doing this and I felt proud watching you. Even though it's noisy I found it very relaxing, because you have a very good rhythm to it as well,' he says.
'This for me today has just connected me to so many stories that I have heard of growing up with my ancestors. You have brought a little bit of magic to it, you have made it real.'
Shayne gets to pick cabbage with Pat Hickey on his farm, before he and Anna cook up a traditional dinner of bacon, cabbage and potatoes, a dish he admits he had regularly while growing up.
'All the time, because I'm one of seven kids,' he says. 'I've got three brothers, three sisters. It was an amazing but mad household. There was always something being peeled, always food, so we never went without. My mum would always be doing the cabbage, would always be doing the potatoes – there was a lot of potatoes.'
There was also lots of music. 'There was always singing going on, it's kind of like the musical Waltons,' he says.
Shayne Ward on stage
'Someone was always singing a song from a room. Whoever was singing the song the longest or the loudest in the room, you'd have to give up and sing their song with them.
'It's a strange thing. I always had a vision, even as a youngster, I was going to do something.
'I remember saying 'I'm going to be on TV one day', and then fast forward 20 years later, that's what I do. I do a crossover between singing and acting,' he says.
He admits Ireland is his favourite place to perform.
'I love coming here,' he says. 'The moment I won the X Factor, I was over here all the time. What was so beautiful for me at such a young age as well, is just how welcomed I was... the moment I stepped into Ireland 'I'm home' and I always felt that, it's just the best feeling in the world.'