It took me some time to get started, I had no idea where he was born and Thomas PARRY is rather a common name! It was his WWI record that gave me the clue that let me find the rest of his family.

Whenever we have anyone with Irish ancestry the story is always similar. I am fully aware of Irish history, but the English, Scots and Welsh peasants were also not treated any better by their aristocratic landlords, and famines existed in England too.

Oh, I assumed from the comments that I'd missed something, but I wasn't going to go back and re-watch the whole program to prove it one way of the other.

Well imagine that, would that be because their Irish ancestory took in the famine years and therefore is part of their history. Sorry but you don't seem to comprehend the concept of the show, the past cannot be reqritten to make it more entertaining for the viewer.

As for famines in England, Scotland and Wales, nothing comparable to the Irish situation...but being knowledgeable about Irish history you would know that, right.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that she didn't know that Mussolini had formed an alliance with Hitler, it's just that many are surprised that she didn't appear to know about the internment camps. I would have thought it was fairly common knowledge for someone of her age with Italian ancestry.
But I've thought the same with other celebrities, surely some things crop up in everyday conversation when you are talking to older members of your family ? I think it's more likely that the celebrity has to "feign" surprise to make the programme more interesting for the viewer.

Didn't this happen with Emilia Fox? "Oh, i never knew that" she said, but her website or wiki page clearly implied that it WASN'T new. Something, IIRC, to do with the theatre in Harrogate?

I'll have to put my hands up and admit that she never explicitly says she was unaware. It's about 9 minutes into the programme when she's talking to granny about her great grandad. The expression of confusion and shock she puts on when granny first starts talking about WWII led me to believe she was unaware that Italy was even on the other side. Mulling it over I'm now wondering whether she was just practicing her 'outrage at poor loyal grandad being interned' look a little too early. That's the trouble with actors, never sure when they are acting!

Of course, by always having it rammed down our throats by the Irish. Surely they could find other interesting things to research, for instance Chris Moyles Irish grandfather was killed in WW1 and that made a very interesting programme.

When Tamzin went to see her Grandmother and Grandma produced a copy of Tamzins Great Grandads birth certificate, the certificate is dated 19th June 2013, presumably when the research was carried out, the certificate must have then been presented to Tamzins Grandmother ready to show Tamzin!

Errm yes, I wouldn't think anyone would be surprised that the BBC and their researchers might obtain copies of some documents, if the family didn't have them or the condition wasn't good enough to be used on camera.
The people featured do have to give the BBC clearance, it doesn't come out of the blue for them or family members.

I wouldn't be surprised if they gave them a nice dossier of their research and the family tree all nicely produced too.

You only have to compare the demographics to see what actually happened. The population of England in 1841 was 13m rising to 30m in 1901.

The population of Ireland in 1841 was 8m dropping to 5m in 1901, meaning the 19th century was a quite catastrophic period in it's history (when it was supposed to be an integral part of the UK).

For the life of me I cannot recall where I saw this, (Possibly BBC Breakfast??)
I am fairly certain WDYTYA researchers start by looking in to the records of certain 'celebs', just general family tree research and then research each family member (looking at criminal/army and other records)
If they uncover what they believe could be an interesting history they then approach the 'celeb' with what they have found, from there the actual programme you see is constructed.

I think even people who help with subjects that are not used, receive a copy of the research. Some friends, whose tree I have researched, have a Grandparent who was step-brother of the Grandparent of a famous singer, some in that line received copies of the research.

I liked tonight's one.
I cannot abide Mrs Brown; not at any price, but I thought Brendan O'Carroll came across really well. Seems like a lovely man. And he actually listened when he was being told things - which a lot of these celebs seem to find nigh on impossible - and it was a pretty interesting tale.

Fascinating stuff.

I don't usually enjoy so much when they concentrate on one person, but that was gripping. And how evil did Hardy look in that photo! Such cold eyes.

I'm afraid I found tonight's programme thoroughly tedious. It gave the impression that the British were the " baddies" while the IRA were angels. Sadly, there was as much violence on both sides and, of course, the IRA carried that violence forward for many years after the 1920s.
How many more programmes must we have about Ireland and it's hardship? Surely the BBC can find more interesting people than O'Carroll!

The Black & Tans were indeed 'baddies' as you put it. You might want to read up on them, it's really quite fascinating.

Great episode!

I note that Jocelyn Hardy has had a Wikipedia page since 2012.
It was updated earlier this evening, one minute before the show was broadcast.
It now includes a reference to the murder of Peter O'Carroll.
I suspect Brendan, or one of his family, must have updated the page.

like you, perhaps?

Anyone know if this will be shown on RTE ?

Exactly, this really is quite black and white issue. Look at Bloody Sunday number 1. Where the Black and Tans randomly opened fired on GAA players and fans just as a retaliation. Frankly you could find a plethora of Black and Tans crimes against civilians.

So people can stop with the revisionist jingoistic views of this period of time.

I didn't think it was really a WDYTYA episode but it was an interesting programme in it's own right nonetheless. It's true that there have been several episodes on the subject of Ireland but I think this one was justified by it's uniqueness.

I hope next week we can go back to tracing the subject's family tree beyond the people they already know because I tend to enjoy those more.

Me too. It was a very interesting story tonight but, like you said it's better when they discover interesting things about family members they didn't know anything about.

I agree. It was interesting but it shouldnt have been shown as part of the series. The fascinating thing about WDYTYA is when they find out about their ancestors whereas Brendan just wanted to find an answer about who mudered his grandfather.

Im struggling to find this series interesting.

Tonight's episode was definitely the best episode of this series by a long way. Fascinating story and I'm glad that Brendan got to a conclusion.