US TV host Conan O’Brien traces Irish roots to Co Limerick village

US comedian and TV host Conan O’Brien has visited an Irish village where his great-grandfather is from as he traces his Irish roots.

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.

He also met a local man in the village of Galbally, Co Limerick, who showed him where his great-grandfather lived before he emigrated in the late 1870s.

Jim Fitzgerald told him the village had been in existence since around the 1400s.

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

“This is where my great grandfather Thomas O’Brien lived and he left this piece of land, came to America, moved to central Massachusetts,” O’Brien said.

“And the rest is a disaster. But anyway, cool to be back.”

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.