Sean Hayes goes back to his Irish roots! | Who Do You Think You Are? (U.S.)

[@PatrickHarte-t3b]

The Irish weren't welcomed with open arms by the Anglo protestant Americans either. A million Irish starved to death in 5 years in the 1840's while the British shipped tonnes of food out of the country on a daily basis. Many consider this a man made famine and British engineered genocide. So, it was hardly the cake walk you imply. Life was tough and miserable for all poor people. After that you are fighting over degrees of hardship, experiences none of us truly understand.

[@catherinereynolds679]

😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

[@rachelmacgowan86]

Thank you for your accurate account. Its true we've never truly understood the experience of An Gorta Mór but neither have we ever truly sought to understand. And this to our great detriment.

[@MolloyPolloy]

Also, remember the typical, stereotype of the drunk irishman - imagine watching your entire family starve to death in front of your own eyes, getting evicted and having to leave your homeland for a totally alien country. That''s PTSD right there. Anything to stop the pain.

[@PatrickHarte-t3b]

@catherinereynolds679 I think you may have completely missed my point. Hard to tell when you don't use your words. Respectfully.

[@clemfandango619]

Americans had standards back then. Why would they want starving irish refugees?

[@araucariapasquale1]

How can your mind not be blown by the care taken to preserve these documents?

[@davidclarke8750]

Agree sadly here in Ireland a lot of the records were destroyed in the 1916 rebellion so irish people ca t trace their ancestors back to far and here we have irish Americans able to.

[@kc8485]

@@davidclarke8750 Sadly, a great deal of records were lost in June 1922, during the the bombardment of the Public Records Office adjacent to the Four Courts in Dublin. This tragedy occurred in the course of the Irish Civil War, which followed from the Irish War of Independence. The Civil War was perhaps more bitter and fierce than the War against British occupation.

[@davidleonard37]

Ballylongford is in Kerry near Listowel and Ballybunion. Fairly remote near the coast. Lovely place and must have been hard to leave but poverty was a real issue.

[@mag5020]

Live near there, my grandmother is from there!

[@kathyastrom1315]

FYI, if anyone is looking for files from the Cook County Clerk’s office, it’s a two-step process. You go there one day to look through the index records to find your desired case file number, then you have to request the file. That could take several weeks for them to retrieve it from the warehouse, and then they’ll notify you to return to the office so you can look at it and copy/scan the pages. I was looking for a divorce record for my 2nd great-grandmother and had a five-year period in which she might have gotten a divorce, but I live in the suburbs and going downtown would have been a hassle that involved paying for parking downtown for the day, twice if the record was there. I realized that it was cheaper and more convenient to just hire a genealogist who is experienced with the office to look for me. That worked out well, since she ended up not finding the record at all. It only cost me $10 for the index search, 1/3rd the cost of parking for the day! (I think that my ancestor never actually married that husband but just said that she did-I haven’t found a marriage record either.)

[@sfowler1017]

Thanks for sharing!

[@Matt-s3s9t]

It’s called common law marriage.

[@Cian808]

Reveal fun bags

[@dotsydempsey2204]

Irish, Italians,& others treated terrible, by Americans, they forget these mitigates build America, & other countries,

[@JohnOLeary-m9e]

Just like what the Irish people are doing in Ireland right now too the migrants

[@eboyle7367]

@@JohnOLeary-m9eas they are in large parts of the UK and Europe too.

[@eboyle7367]

Not just America, the Church of Scotland have sort of apologised from their treatment of the Irish who they claimed would dilute the Scottish blood. I’m glad my 3 🇮🇪 great grandfathers diluted it. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, but very proud of my Irish bloodline. In many places in the UK into the 1930s signs could be seen “ No blacks, no dogs no Irish”

[@PatrickHarte-t3b]

Where is your evidence of this John? Wasn't the Brits who were planning to ship the off to Rwanda to concentration camps? Not a surprise, it was the Brits after all that invented then.​@JohnOLeary-m9e

[@TheLastAngryMan01]

⁠@@JohnOLeary-m9eWhat are you talking about? Migrants in Ireland generally do very well, and the anti-migrant parties didn’t win any seats in the general election held last week, and very few in the locals earlier this year. Ireland is the only country in Western Europe which doesn’t have a strong anti-migration movement.

[@eamonahern7495]

I grew up in the parish of Ballylongford.

[@3storiesUp]

Tis a kip

[@Eddie36144]

@@3storiesUp Thanks Mr Positive.

[@BASSER81]

@@3storiesUp😂😂😂😂

[@LeeMcDaidDonegal]

4:01 Ballylongford (ford-mouth of anchorage) is a small town in the far North of County Kerry.

[@joalexsg9741]

This is so exciting, Sean is still very handsome to date, in fact, his handsomeness has riped! Somehow, this evoked in my mind the classic Irish song Cerrickfergus, even though it's about a county in the opposite northwest of the state island, actually in what has become Northern Ireland, Antrim, whereas Kerry is in the very southwest from what I read😇😍😇 Looking forward to the follow-up, thanks a bunch for this!

[@dogstar7]

My great grandfather came to Chicago from Ireland during the same period and probably under the same circumstances. The Lords of Ireland used the penal laws to imprison large portions of the population and pressure them into force labor to gain parole. Many Irish were shipped to Chicago to work in the stockyards and as road gangs on the railroad lines weaving through the city

[@michaelg3855]

Nonsense. They're talking about 1901; the Penal Laws had long since been repealed.

[@sugarkane4830]

@@michaelg3855Yeah but the Irish love to whine.

[@colmd7680]

I think you're mistaking penal laws with something else. Penal laws came about in late 1600s and ended around 1829

[@belfastconor8521]

On his 1930 US Census Record, it references country of origin as “Irish Free State”. People didn’t begin using this term “Free Staters” until 1922 when Ireland was partitioned and achieved partial independence. Also, it wasn’t used with regularity amongst “Free Staters” when referring to themselves. More often, it was used by us Northerners to refer to our compatriots in the South of Ireland. Ireland didn’t officially become a Republic until 1937.

[@sfowler1017]

So basically his politics are showing by giving the info to the census-taker that way?

[@belfastconor8521]

@@sfowler1017 Yes, I think it was definitely political and his family will have been directly involved in Ireland’s struggle for independence.

[@72mossy]

Ireland didn't become a Republic until 1949

[@belfastconor8521]

@@72mossy You’re right Mossy. 1937 was the Constitution and end of The Free State.

[@ciaranowens8141]

In 1948, in a Coalition government (the main party was Fine Gael), it became a Republic. 1937 was the year that Fianna Fail won an election to govern Ireland. In 1937, it made a new Constitution of Laws to govern the 26 counties. From 1937 to 1948, the Fianna Fail party ruled the Free State. Fianna Fail was lead by Eamonn De Valera who did not want Ireland to become a Republic because from the benefits of been part of the Commonwealth.

[@orla99913]

I know Ballylongford, it's between Listowel and Ballybunion.

[@kyarichards2894]

My grandmother was a Hayes, from Limerick, born in 1910... wonder if we're related!

[@cupofsugar]

Probably

[@roryfaherty4375]

where do we watch the rest of this.

[@irishdepartmentofagriculture]

If i had his last name id name my first born Purple.

[@tomjohnston1220]

My friend Paul Hayes is now a magician and comedian who is successful in Germany and the rest of Europe. He uses the stage name, Sonny Hayes.

[@James-js2js]

Would love to know what his great grandfather was imprisoned for in Ireland.

[@123YMR]

Interesting that his great grandparents wrote their place of birth as “Irish Free State” even though it wasn’t yet, and was still under British rule.

[@JohnOLeary-m9e]

My name is John Christopher o leary im 100 💯💯💯💯 British and proud just like Thomas Murphy is proud to be 💯💯💯 irish lets👋 all be proud ove country and grow up

[@PatrickHarte-t3b]

@JohnOLeary-m9e How come you get an extra 💯 to be proud to be British while poor old Thomas Murphy only gets three 💯's to be proud to be Irish. So unfair. 🤣🤣🤣

[@LFire12]

Are you sure you're a *100* percent British? With the surname O'Leary...sounds like a percentage may well be Irish.

[@JohnOLeary-m9e]

@LFire12 well mum was British born dad was from Ireland

[@lizzshields901]

100%

[@Conorguill]

@@JohnOLeary-m9e so not 100%?!

[@DeeStewart-oj2zj]

Watching from Tralee Co Kerry😂

[@mpalmer7800]

Looking at these it’s sad that they came here as Europeans immigrant and were naturalized citizens of 🇺🇸 but Africans who were brought here to build 🇺🇸 without a $ in payment were still not seen as human beings are citizens of the very country they built !!!

[@sandyb1464]

Irish people, fleeing The Famine....Google it!! All immigrants except indigenous people.

[@hellowhocares]

The Irish left since famine times around 1840s, a manufactured famine albeit, built a lot of America whilst living in severe poverty themselves. Worked hard, earned their place in history even though they were not always acknowledged or welcomed. A tiny country who always punches above it's weight in culture, history, literature, music, dance, stories and gained it's own importance through very honest & brave people.

[@lizzshields901]

Really Let it go!

[@lk4136]

everything thing is about you , isnt it.....

[@janetwatson7966]

Actually they passed away. The ones who helped build the USA needs to be thanked for the sacrifice they gave just so their dependents are free..

[@sammyjo8109]

Why are people always obsessed with their father's side of the family and not their mother's side? I found my maternal side so much more interesting then my paternal side. Some will ony do their father's side and stop.

[@hindenpeter2.04]

Hayes' bejaysus. Still far more Irish than anyone planted here in the last decade or so

[@TheCarlocaroline]

Not to me

[@hindenpeter2.04]

@@TheCarlocaroline Alrite, check out actor john cusack on the today show (ireland) He's more Irish on paper than most indigenous homegrown Irish ppl

[@TheCarlocaroline]

@hindenpeter2.04 John Cusak, an American actor.

[@fomora12]

keep him

[@simonbundee8588]

Why did it say his origin was “Irish free state” that only existed from 1922 to 1937.

[@LFire12]

Because the Census was from 1930, right in the middle of the period you're talking about.

[@clemfandango619]

Poor guy. I still like him, though.

[@robertpirsig5011]

Ehhh what?

[@HappyDemocrats]

Immigration back then was as it should be now! Easy and uncomplicated! Whether coming from Ireland, Sudan, Panama or Mexico! But alas, it is not. Why?

[@stevenmc4446]

who?

[@maryoneill9630]

Is he wearing mascara?

[@sandersson2813]

Never heard of this nobody

[@ametbeal]

Sean, I'd have a bunch of children and not give them that last name

[@anthonycollins5305]

What's so great about Ireland?