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Mel C’s Limerick connection uncovered in ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

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7 months ago

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Mel C uncoveres her Limerick connection in ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’. Picture: Wellbeck Publishing in promotion of Melanie Chisholm’s book, ‘Who I am’ released in 2023

Spice Girl Mel C ‘shed tears’ during an upcoming episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ as she discovered her family’s Limerick connection

Spice Girls

One-fifth of the world famous girl group The Spice Girls, Mel, known as ‘Sporty Spice’ descended on the Treaty City to film an episode of hit BBC tv series ‘Who do you think you are?’.

It airs next Thursday, August 29, at 9pm on BBC One and Spice Girl Mel C says she “shed tears” during a deeply emotional journey on an episode of BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ where the singer learned of her family’s Limerick connection and history of resilience and activism.

In episode three of season 21, which is due to be aired on Thursday, August 28, Melanie Chisholm, known as Mel C, discovered her connection to tenant farmers in Limerick, who endured harrowing hardships in the nation’s history like hundreds of thousands of others.


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Melanie learned her great-great-great-grandparents, Patrick Flaherty and Catherine Burns, were tenant farmers in County Limerick when the Great Hunger struck in 1845. When the couple’s landlord put the farm up for sale, they moved to Limerick City working as “landless labourers”, but as the potato crops continued to fail, the couple emigrated to Liverpool.

As her ancestors tried to start a new life abroad as did so many others, records showed the couple lost their eight-month-old son, Edmund, while finding their way in Liverpool.

Mel C, reflecting on the pain her ancestors faced said it made “so much sense to realise why my grandmother and great-grandmother were so stoic and strong”.

She said, “My three-times great-grandparents Catherine and Patrick had the worst hardships that you could imagine.”

The Spice Girl star noted learning about her family’s history made it clear to her why her family is now “really tough”, she said, “It just totally makes sense that the family have gone on to be really tough. I know without my family fighting for their survival through the generations, I wouldn’t be here at all.”

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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.