Spice Girl discovers Limerick ancestry in hit BBC TV show

LIMERICK featured in an episode of the hit BBC show Who Do You Think You Are? On Thursday night, as Mel C, also known as Sporty Spice, discovered her roots in the county. 

Melanie Chisholm, one-fifth of the iconic Spice Girls, found out that her great-great-great grandparents were tenant farmers in Croom in the 1800s, until the Famine forced them to emigrate to Liverpool.

Dr Paul O’Brien, a historian and lecturer at Mary Immaculate College, also featured on the programme, and tells the Leader about the excitement he felt seeing an email from the BBC in his inbox whilst on holidays in France: “I saw an email from the BBC and I thought, ‘What on earth is this about?’.”

His holiday was short-lived, however, as around ten days later he was back in Limerick filming his segment for the BBC TV show. 

Dr O’Brien explains that “they didn’t actually tell me who the celebrity was” at first. He was simply given the research their team had done into Melanie’s ancestors, and asked to find out as much as he could about them, without knowing which celebrity they were related to.

He was very excited when he found out, exclaiming, “Oh my God! I saw them (the Spice Girls) years ago in Croke Park!”.

READ MORE: Spice Girl explores Limerick roots tonight on TV

He was surprised to find out that he would meet her for the first time on camera, with the producers explaining to him: “When she turns the corner and you’re standing at the door of the museum, that’s when you meet her”. 

As the show is totally unscripted, Dr O’Brien explained, having the first meeting be filmed live makes it feel more natural.

He sings the praises of Mel C, saying that “She was so unbelievably sound, really chatty, really friendly”. 

She was very down-to-earth, he explains, recounting how, when she asked if he had ever been to a Spice Girls concert, he confessed that while he and his friend did have tickets, they lost track of time in a pub before the concert, and only made it into the venue for the final two songs.

“You were late to the concert because you were at the pub!?” she had exclaimed, and when he gave the excuse that “the craic was ninety”, she laughed and said “I probably would have done the same”.

He was thrilled by how interested she was, saying that she was full of “very informed” questions about both her family history, and Limerick city, which, he was happy to report, “she loved”.

He says that he “felt really privileged” to be able to tell her about a piece of her ancestry and was overjoyed to have Limerick feature in a primetime spot on BBC.

Decades after the famous Spice Girls song was first released, who would’ve thought that the answer to the question ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ would be ‘a Limerick native’!