Aisling Bea struggles with family's 'shameful' past in Who Do You Think You Are
Aisling Bea revealed that she is 'ashamed' of her family history in tonight's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?
The comedian and actress took a journey through her great-grandfather's history and discovered stories of female resilience in her family's past.
She also found moments of genuine connection in her family tree as she discovered relatives who fought for Irish independence and culture.
However, during tonight's instalment of the BBC show that sees celebrity discover their heritage, historian Dr Richard McMahon told Aisling something slightly darker about her family.
The historian spoke to the Kildare comedian about her great-grandmother Martha Sheehy, who lived during the Irish famine.
Aisling discovered that by the end of the famine, Martha's estate went from being 40 acres to 115.
Richard explained: 'The family have a larger farm by the end of the famine then they had pre famine Ireland.'
This prompted Aisling to ask: 'So during this devastating period in Irish history, which would have such a long terrible legacy for all of us afterwards, how does someone come to have more land if owned than renting so soon after the famine?'
Richard replied: 'During the famine landlords would have evicted 100,000s of people off the land and when they are moved of the land, the land is taken over by farmers like your great great great grandmother Martha.'
As Aisling tried to understand this, she said 'while she might not be evicting them, she maybe using it as an opportune moment'.
Richard responded by saying how many people 'got larger farms on the back of people getting moved off the land'.
Followning this, Aisling could be seen getting upset, before she said: 'That is hard to hear. I'll be honest.
'Having spent all our childhood learning about the Irish famine in our history classes, anyone who, any terrible situation profited.
'It does make me feel a little bit shameful to be honest.'
The latest series of Who Do You Think You Are will see the likes of Andrew Garfield, Diane Morgan, Mushal Husian and Ross Kemp explore their family history.
Last week, Layton Williams broke down in tears as he learned about his enslaved ancestors.
The actor and theatre star, 30, was the latest star to appear on the beloved ancestry show to learn about his family tree, which originated from London and Jamaica.
Layton cried at the end of the episode, after learning about his ancestors who were enslaved, with some forcibly moved from Africa to Jamaica. More Trending
'I'm proud to have come from people who went through that, but came through the other side,' he said through tears.
'It's really beautiful and it's important that we don't forget, because it's real and it happened and it was sad, and I'm sure it was awful, but we've made it here.
'I will look back at this experience for sure and be really happy and really proud of the family that came before me.'
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Who Do You Think You Are? airs on BBC One at 9pm tonight.
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