WDYTYA Series 15

Waitsian · 16-07-2018 10:19pm #1

Anyone watching? It was Lee Mack tonight and the second half was about his mother's people from Ballina. It was fascinating I must say. No spoilers if you haven't seen it yet but one woman in particular they didn't follow up on (she emigrated). I'm going to have a look for her now; dying to know what became of her.

Btw next week is George O'Dowd aka Boy George. I reckon he'll be crossing the Irish Sea too.

Edit: I found her. Intriguing.

pinkypinky · 16-07-2018 10:33pm

There's no spoilers for genealogy! Everyone's dead.

If you missed Olivia Coleman last week, it's repeated tomorrow night quite late on BBC.

Hermy · 16-07-2018 11:14pm

The BBC's love affair with the so-called Great War is sickening.

I'm not sure Lee was so enamoured.

Waitsian · 16-07-2018 11:27pm

Hermy wrote: »

The BBC's love affair with the so-called Great War is sickening. I'm not sure Lee was so enamoured.

Yeah I kinda switched off for the first half. The Tablet technology was interesting though.

spurious · 16-07-2018 11:31pm

pinkypinky wrote: »

There's no spoilers for genealogy! Everyone's dead.

If you missed Olivia Coleman last week, it's repeated tomorrow night quite late on BBC.

I enjoyed that episode. The letters written by the male ancestor to his brother about the lady he had met were like something from Jane Austen, as they said in the show. Such lovely things to have in a family.

Hermy · 17-07-2018 12:01am

mod9maple wrote: »

Yeah I kinda switched off for the first half. The Tablet technology was interesting though.

The tablet technology was great.

But the chap that was with Lee for that part was so pleased that Lee's great grandfather fought in that dreadful blood bath.
How can people still be so blind?

pinkypinky · 17-07-2018 9:22am

I admit I was so switched off to the first part that I don't even know what you mean by tablet technology! Do I need to undelete from my tellybox and watch again?

Hermy · 17-07-2018 9:48am

Lee was given a tablet with a map of the battle field with his position centred on the map and the map moved as he moved.

pinkypinky · 17-07-2018 11:26am

That is pretty cool.

Alicat · 17-07-2018 11:42am

Loved the Olivia Coleman episode. What luck to have those letters!

I was disappointed they didn’t follow up on Lee’s g-grandmother who went to Canada.

Waitsian · 17-07-2018 3:44pm

Alicat wrote: »

I was disappointed they didn’t follow up on Lee’s g-grandmother who went to Canada.

She married twice, had 8 more children, and died in 1936. What they also failed to reveal was that her son, Lee's grandad, 'Joe', went to join her in Canada first, as an adult, in 1933 before going to live and get married in Southport in 1935.

Waitsian · 17-07-2018 3:45pm

Hermy wrote: »

Lee was given a tablet with a map of the battle field with his position centred on the map and the map moved as he moved.

With a flashing red cursor/light. It was pretty geeky.

pinkypinky · 17-07-2018 5:22pm

mod9maple wrote: »

She married twice, had 8 more children, and died in 1936. What they also failed to reveal was that her son, Lee's grandad, 'Joe', went to join her in Canada first, as an adult, in 1933 before going to live and get married in Southport in 1935.

What a thing to leave out! That might have put some closure on all that stuff he said about her abandoning him.

Hermy · 17-07-2018 7:36pm

Maybe there were some relatives who didn't want to be featured.

Something I thought I noticed was when Lee was naming the people in the wedding photo just before he left for Ireland. He started by pointing to the man on the far left of the picture and then the camera moved on to where he begins naming people in the picture and that individual on the left is never mentioned. Maybe he was a friend rather than a relative but maybe not.

carolinej · 18-07-2018 12:51pm

pinkypinky wrote: »

What a thing to leave out! That might have put some closure on all that stuff he said about her abandoning him.

His aunt even said she knew very little of what happened to her grandmother. Funny the family didn't know she married and had 8 children.
Surely someone sometime mentioned cousins in Canada or maybe there is a big family rift still to this day. Who knows what goes on in families.

I suppose we forget in a time before Skype, FB, email and the humble telephone, contact with emigrated family was rare.

My own mother holidayed in England in the 1970's and looked up an uncle who had emigrated 30 years previous after the family had lost contact. She barely had an address for him. How she knew she had the right house was when he answered the door, she saw the family resemblance!

Boy George next week and I think a strong Irish element seeing as both his parents were Irish.

pedroeibar1 · 18-07-2018 1:06pm

It’s not about 'Genealogy' or for genealogists, it’s about entertainment for the masses, a voyeuristic gawk into a subject’s ancestry. As the series grow in number, the guests are decreasingly ‘famous’ and the producers are driven to hone in on one of 64 gggggparents which is rather meaningless in an overall picture of a family. The more salacious the tale the better, but it has to be politically correct. The producers miss (ignore?) many opportunities to comment on social history. I have no doubt that the Canadian element was known by the guest & producers, a decision was taken not to include it.
I found it odd that they brought Diarmuid Ferriter to Ballina just for a couple of sentences on the Civil War. Has he appeared before?

Waitsian · 25-07-2018 10:16pm

I really enjoyed that episode. The Henrietta St coincidence was freakish! And the man that showed him the execution chamber at Mountjoy was a tad insensitive, just a wee bit (!)

"Sure have a go yourself." Sweet holy mother.

But all in all an interesting story set in Dublin. We got to see a fair few documents too.

DamoRed · 25-07-2018 10:47pm

Just watched the Boy George episode and it was pretty shocking to hear about his grandmother being picked up by the NSPCC, just a stone's throw of her own home when she was only 6, and was declared to have been found 'wandering the streets' and sent to Goldenbridge, where she stayed until she was 16. The historian revealed that they were known as 'The Cruelty People' in the area. According to her personal records there, she was a kind and bright child and George concluded that she appeared to have accepted life there and got on with it.

I wonder what it was like to go back to see her own family when she left Goldenbridge and how difficult and emotional that may have been, to return as almost a stranger, having been taken from them at just 6. Presumably there was no contact, such as a letter to or from home, when she was there.

The latter part was about his great uncle, Thomas Bryan, whose baby died the day after birth as he was waiting to be hanged along with Kevin Barry and 6 others at Mountjoy.

Pretty sad all round, but the number of related documents, especially the letter written by Thomas Bryan, was remarkable, and really helped George and everybody else have a greater insight into the stories.

jos28 · 25-07-2018 10:50pm

Very good episode overall. I knew George had Irish roots but had no idea they were so extensive. BBC bringing on Diarmuid Ferriter last week and Catríona Crowe this week - impressive. I could listen to Catríona for hours, she is so easy to listen to.
I would love to see if there is a connection with George's Kinahans and other well known Kinahans. It's quite possible considering the areas of Dublin mentioned.

pinkypinky · 25-07-2018 11:01pm

Very sad episode. I'll refrain from my usual grumble about not enough genealogy.

That letter must surely be still in the family, otherwise it's a huge find. I also presume it was not a coincidence that they took him to Henrietta St.

Hermy · 25-07-2018 11:02pm

Not a Boy George fan so had no intention of watching it but glad I did - very interesting collection of stories.

pinkypinky · 26-07-2018 11:04am

Interesting shade in a follow-up piece in today's Irish Times.

I thought the Glynn's father was called Richard, and he had served in WWI but clearly lived, to receive that letter from his son-in-law in 1921.

Did the article just get this wrong?

Jellybaby1 · 26-07-2018 3:29pm

mod9maple wrote: »

I really enjoyed that episode. The Henrietta St coincidence was freakish! And the man that showed him the execution chamber at Mountjoy was a tad insensitive, just a wee bit (!)

"Sure have a go yourself." Sweet holy mother.

But all in all an interesting story set in Dublin. We got to see a fair few documents too.

I felt very upset about the Hanging Room sequence. Not just a tad insensitive, awful, just awful. It should have been cut or redone to be more sensitive. Anyone would have been horrified to have been asked to 'have a go yourself'. A word in that chap's ear is necessary as he probably does this for tourists on a regular basis and who knows what connections there may be.

pinkypinky · 26-07-2018 3:40pm

It was hugely insensitive.

I didn't even know Mountjoy's hanging room still existed. Given the prison is fully functional, I doubt it gets any tourists.

CassieManson · 26-07-2018 10:49pm

pinkypinky wrote:

I thought the Glynn's father was called Richard, and he had served in WWI but clearly lived, to receive that letter from his son-in-law in 1921.

Her father died in the war and her mother remarried to her husband's brother Richard. Richard was referred to as her father in the show but was really her stepfather/uncle.

Waitsian · 26-07-2018 11:05pm

In fact the guy at Mountjoy was very insensitive, and it was awful to put George in that position. I was trying to be sarcastic and failing miserably, as so often happens typing on the Internet. I really felt for George then.

DamoRed · 24-08-2018 12:04pm

I've just seen on Twitter that Mick Jagger has a son who's younger than his great-grandson! :eek:

https://twitter.com/qikipedia/status/1031979249475829760

One great response was 'This'll make for one heck of a 'Who Do You Think You Are' episode one day. But that's only one of countless brilliant posts.

WDYTYA Series 15

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