Aisling Bea's family history: A brave freedom fighter... and a brutal, fatal assault

Extra.ie​

16-05-2025

Comedian Aisling Bea has discovered a brutal killing – and a brave freedom fighter – in her family's past in the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?
In the series, she learns that one of her male ancestors was among the volunteers prepared to fight in the Easter Rising, while another male relative was violently attacked on his farm a few years before the Famine, later dying from his injuries.
Sitting in the West Kerry Museum in Ballyferriter, she learns her schoolteacher great-grandfather, Pádraig Ó Briain, played a key role in the Irish Volunteers by keeping the Ballyferriter branch trained ahead of the 1916 Rising. Aisling Bea's paternal great grandfather and his three children Eibhlin, Sean and Mairin. Pic: BBC/Wall to Wall/Breda O'Sullivan
'He has a very pivotal role to play, not just in keeping the company together, communicating with headquarters, organising military drills and training – and at the same time he's juggling his teaching role', says historian Dr. Daithí Ó Corráin.
The Bafta-winning actress, who grew up in Co. Kildare with her mother, Helen, and sister, Sinéad, after her father, Brian, died when she was three, filmed an episode of the hugely popular series around Ireland when she was expecting her first child.
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. Aisling Bea with her father Brian O'Sullivan. Pic: BBC/Wall to Wall/Máire Ní Shuilleabhain
Documents from the Bureau of Military History reveal her father's grandfather Pádraig led Ballyferriter and Dingle men on a night march across the Conor Pass to Tralee, aiming to join the Easter Sunday rebellion.
Reading about his involvement, Aisling says: 'I'm pretty sure my granduncle Seán was born in 1916. He couldn't be more than a couple of months old at this stage,' referring to the brother of her grandmother, Eibhlín Ó Briain. '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 Ireland.'
When the Aud, a ship carrying arms, was intercepted off Kerry that weekend, the planned rebellion in the county was called off, although the Rising went ahead in Dublin on Easter Monday.
Aisling says: 'He was part of the Easter Rising, even if they didn't make it to that Monday. And it does make me really proud that he was part of that small group of people.' Eibhlín Ó Briain. Pic: BBC/Wall to Wall/Máire Ní Shuilleabhain
Aisling traces her maternal ancestry to a farm near Adare, Co. Limerick. She learns that her three-times great-grandfather, James Sheehy, was attacked by a mob in February 1841 and later died of his injuries.
A police report described 20 to 30 armed men breaking into his home at midnight and destroying his threshing machine. It reveals how the farmer, who had a relatively large farm of 40 acres compared to the one- and two-acre holdings of most farmers, was robbed of an old gun, a case of pistols, and two swords.
Historian Dr. Richard McMahon explains violent incidents against landlords, agents and wealthier farmers were common.
'The threshing machine that they destroyed suggests they're a bit angry about new machinery being brought in, taking away work from them. There is a lot of anger about the commercialism of farming,' he says. Aisling Bea. Pic: BBC/Wall to Wall/Justin Evans
James later died of his injuries, leaving his widow, Martha, to raise five children alone. Aisling is taken aback to learn that, after the Famine, Martha grew the family farm in Ballycannon to 115 acres.
'During the Famine, landlords would have evicted hundreds of thousands of people,' says Dr McMahon. 'And when they're moved off the land, that land has been taken over by farmers like your great-great-great-grandmother.' He adds: 'Some people got larger farms on the back of people being moved off the land.'
Aisling sighs and says, 'That does make me feel a little bit shameful to be honest.'
But Dr McMahon says: 'There are elements of Martha which I think are very admirable. Her husband has been killed. She herself has gone through a traumatic experience. So there's that sense of her as a fighter.'
Aisling later reflects: 'I suppose when we look back at history, we're judging it by our current standards and what we think we might have done, but it's almost like judging people for their actions during wars or terrible situations, as if they had more choice than they had.'
[e-mail] ? Who Do You Think You Are? will be shown on BBC One on Tuesday, May 20.