Barbara Windsor Traces Her Irish Roots | Who Do You Think You Are

Barbara Windsor learns about her Irish heritage, tracing her great-great-grandparents back to Cork - the same place as her dear friend Danny La Rue. Whilst there Barbara learns about the working conditions at the time and the Irish potato famine which led them to flee to England.
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Barbara Windsor traces her maternal grandfather to the East London docks and finds that his mother was a matchgirl at the Bryant and May factory. Barbara's father's family has generations of Cockneys, mostly labourers or costermongers and barrow boys. She discovers that her mother's ancestors were Irish, leaving Cork after the potato famine and that she's related to the artist Constable.
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[@catL156]

As an Irish woman I am so thankful that the truth was shared about the famine although I like many others call it the genocide because really that's what it was, it was horrific by all accounts but I wouldn't expect an English person to apologise for things that happened back then but what I would like is for them to know the truth.... The truth isn't even taught here in Ireland in the schools

[@matthewgodwin8308]

Cat, as someone who is Anglo irish I share in your pain about the irish potato famine of the 1840's which as we both know changed Ireland 🇮🇪 for forever. I share your understandable anger about this disgusting, outrageous heartless and callous thing that the British empire imposed on the people of Ireland 🇮🇪 with devastating consequences. I believe that brexit and it's failure is in part God's wrath upon the British for what they have done to the people, our people of Ireland 🇮🇪. My mum's side of the family are from Ireland 🇮🇪, my boyfriend and his family are both Scottish and Irish, from Gweedore in County Donegal Ireland 🇮🇪 which is not to far from the village of Creeslough in County Donegal where that dreadful gas explosion occurred at the petrol station in the village. May all those people, the people of the potato famine and the Addergoole 18 who perished on board the ill fated titanic having survived the potato famine only to end up losing their lives at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean 15th April 1912, may they all rest in peace. Watching the documentaries on KZbin about both the Addergoole18 and the potato famine, I was genuinely incredibly emotional 😢 😭 and want to know what else I can do to support and help my fellow irish people now. What the British did was unforgivable and unforgettable. I long to return home to my ancestors Homeland and obtain irish citizenship and an irish passport and to get involved with the people of Ireland 🇮🇪 and give something back to them.

[@organisationxiv2927]

​@@matthewgodwin8308 Well this message was absolutely disgusting.

[@missj.d9187]

It's shocking it's not taught in British or Irish schools. I was educated about it by an American who was taught it in school. I was so embarrassed. We were taught so much about immigration and integration in East London schools but not one thing about this and I'm guessing half the class was related to this important part of history.

[@deborahoneill3973]

I’m Irish too and i refuse to call it a famine when it was genocide, but like you I’d never blame anybody alive today

[@juliewilliams9441]

Rest in peace Barbara Windsor 💗

[@MrHurley]

Good to see an English production share a more truthful version of the famine, if only English schools would do the same

[@damvid21]

Nice to hear the Irish Starvation (ethnic cleansing) be explained properly.

[@corinnem.239]

She got to know the truth that every American of Irish roots knows from family stories. The Irish went to London, Canada, New York, Boston, and anywhere else they could. Yes, there was a LOT of prejudice for quite a long time. They struggled hard.

[@ew6080]

They were tough people who didn’t cry for handouts & reparations

[@catL156]

Victims of slavery too

[@jharnden7931]

You might watch The Field. Most Irish ended up share cropping on rocky land for the English owner on the better land. In the movie it shows hauling seaweed from the beach to get things to grow. You get things improved and it gets taken away. Back then for sheep or mass farming...similar on Scottish west coast. No stability. Potatoes from America were easier to do on that soil. The Irish had no wheat mills, so even later, wheat sold to charities came unfilled and you usually had to turn Protestant in line to get food.

[@davidwalker8955]

Rest In Love Barbara xx

[@wendymudkins6870]

Good old babs she had a very interesting family tree

[@tiamia0613]

We are taught this as part of American history due to our large Irish populat ion!

[@georgel74]

One of our own..

[@charlottebruce979]

In a land full of plenty no one should have died of starvation. The English had blood on their hands. I'm English and I'm embarrassed and ashamed. Those poor little children crying out for food and their mothers hearing their cries and not being able to do anything about it.

[@jasonwood3377]

I grew up in England with an English father and an Irish mother, and I moved to Dublin in 1993 so I would’ve found out about how the English treated the Irish particularly during the famine, like you the English part of me is embarrassed and ashamed, but what bugs me even more is an unwillingness by too many English people to own up to and feel that shame and feel genuine remorse and regret, far too many times we ignore the parts of English history that aren’t palatable, to call out these times IMO isn’t being anti English or unpatriotic, quite the opposite, it takes guts and character to admit when we’ve wronged.

[@loadsbutty]

Tbf, as an Irish man, I think we can't be harsh about what our ancestors did to/ suffered from at the hands of others. The sad thing is that almost all of human history involves brutalisation and suffering of others

[@conlaiarla]

I'm Irish and don't feel that you or anyone alive today shares any responsibility. However, the British Empire was unconscionable evil in its actions. Have a nice guilt free day .😊

[@TitaniumG756]

Very fascinating

[@willrichardson519]

During the "English Civil War, or the 3 kingdoms one, 25-50% of the Irish population died...it's amazing how little bitterness the Irish have about that, bar the henchman Cromwell.

[@jgriffin282]

And they talk about reparations! How about some for the Irish!

[@briandoherty245]

@@jgriffin282 ya I could do with a bit of money what my kin folk b suffering!

[@Isabeladesign]

I didn't know about this famine that happened in Ireland. That was terrible.

[@brendancronin4445]

Google. The Irish Potato Famine 1847.The Irish population has never recovered since then.

[@auntiedough2488]

@@brendancronin4445 😔. It’s so very heartbreaking 💔

[@peterflanagan5901]

It was genocide not famine ☘️

[@JSL2000]

My family actually did really well out of the famine. A lot of land had been cleared during the famine, several landlords had been declared bankrupt or were nearing bankruptcy, and skilled beef farmers were needed as rent paying tenants. Beef prices were quite high in Britain at the time which was fuelled by a rapidly emerging affluent middle class in England. My ancestry were beef farmers who were offered a vacant farm which is still in our family name all these generations on.

[@sophiee.h]

Rip Babara Windsor

[@lorrainedance2945]

Omg how terrible was it for them in Ireland.x

[@Greenwillow]

Don’t be so bloody patronizing🙄

[@lorrainedance2945]

@@Greenwillow what is patronising it was awful what happened or perhaps you don't think so!!!!

[@Greenwillow]

@@lorrainedance2945 i’m Irish. It could easily have been avoided but it wasn’t. Its in the past.

[@lorrainedance2945]

@@Greenwillow so is my family and I agree .

[@WakaWaka2468]

@@Greenwillow Don't be so miserable. Go back to reddit

[@dozenrosas2136]

I ❤️ Barbara’s fashion style. Does anyone know the name of the handbag she’s carrying (2:05)?

[@shettyanket95]

British era famines in India were on another level of cruelty

[@thedarkhugheshughes2640]

The great famine (1845)

[@peterflanagan5901]

Genocide genocide genocide

[@hj1651]

Genocide for the love of god call it was it actually was . It’s unreal how it’s still called a famine , british went to India and the same outcome came about , is it a coincidence how 2 countrys that the brits went to just automatically died from starvation

[@organisationxiv2927]

Pff, India is the country with the largest and most thorough institution of slavery that was never, ever expunged. It still exists to this day. What else is the caste system? Conveniently left out. Why aren't you getting angry about the Egyptian Empire? The Ottoman Empire? Rome? What of the dekulakization in Soviet Russia, which was famine on a whole other level and resulted in all likelihood over one-hundred million deaths? That's NEVER talked about. Mao's China? It's treatment of Tibet? These things all happened within the last one-hundred or so years. Here's a news flash for you: Britain isn't the originator of all of the world's evils! There was no need for the British Empire to erect a system of commercial slavery in Africa, because when it got there it found that the Africans already had an extensive one in place! The slaves were left on the shores in cages, ready to be picked up, by their own people. People are so ignorsnt about the history of the world it's unbelievable.

[@aineegan9541]

British weren't very nice to us Irish

[@willrichardson519]

There's an interesting 3 part series The Normans that looks at how that ruling class colonised southern England first and moved on from there, including Ireland. As an example, the harrowing of the north, of England, was a scorched earth of locally approaching genocidal proportion ..those families have got form, one could say.

[@GeminieCricket]

Many came to America as well, we now number in the millions of Irish descendents.

[@paullooney2522]

@@willrichardson519 Those bloody Normans have alot to answer for.

[@paullooney2522]

A certain class of British were not to kind to anybody,bet most of them were of Norman origin.

[@sully1865]

The Normans though intermarried with Irish natives and became “more Irish than the Irish themselves”. It was the landed Anglo-Irish gentry that was the problem.

[@oisinmtom]

"British Foreign Policy" Ive noticed you all seem to forget at that time we were apart of the UK but not when it suits you.

[@philwhitehouse5982]

Such a beautiful looking lady Rip

[@pattysmyth3210]

So sad how the irish were treated like dirt,

[@antokent]

Nobody died or left due to famine. They died or left due to British genocidal politics. There was plenty of food. It was stolen

[@joegee6434]

The food was sold abroad for higher prices than what they could get locally. It wasn't stolen.