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US TV host Conan O'Brien traces Irish roots to Galbally in Co Limerick US TV host Conan O'Brien traces Irish roots to Galbally in Co Limerick

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WATCH US TV host Conan O’Brien traces Irish roots to Galbally in Co Limerick

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Conan O’Brien – the US comedian and talk show host pictured above during a visit to Ireland which has seen him tracing his family’s heritage. Picture: @ConanOBrien/X

Conan O’Brien visits ancestral home in Limerick

US television and podcast host Conan O’Brien with Jim Fitzgerald, in Galbally, Co Limerick. Photo: Galbally Community/Facebook.

American chat show host and comedian Conan O’Brien arrived in Galbally this week to find out more about his family tree and got to experience where his great-grandfather is from as he traces his Irish roots. His trip to the South Limerick village will feature on an American TV programme about travel.

Conan O’Brien has fronted three US TV shows since 1993 including Late Night and the Tonight Show.

He has been posting to social media about his travels in Ireland and a meeting with a genealogist.


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Jim Fitzgerald, who runs a community Facebook page for Galbally showed Conan where his great-grandfather lived before he emigrated in the late 1870s. Jim explained to Conan that the village has existed since the 1400s. Their chat is due to be broadcast in the US later this year, showing the comedian touring the O’Brien ancestral home in Limerick.

In a video posted to social media site X on Thursday, O’Brien is seen standing on a piece of land.

“My great-grandfather left Galbally in the late 1870s and we are going to see where his house used to be but this is where it all started and now I’m back,” the former Saturday Night Live writer said.

He opened up about his family history with Ryan Tubridy live on Virgin Radio UK last Friday, when he spoke about sending off a DNA blood sample in 2019, which returned as “100pc Irish”.

O’Brien was writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons when NBC plucked him from relative obscurity to take over from David Letterman on Late Night in 1993. He remained in the role until 2009 when he moved to the Tonight Show. He brought the curtain down on his 28-year career in late-night TV in June 2021.

The four-episode series, which is scheduled to air on television later this year, tracks O’Brien as he chats with people who featured in his video call podcast series Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan.

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Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.