Irish comedy star Brendan O’Carroll has spoken about the eeriness he felt when he stood opposite the house of the man who murdered his grandfather.
The Mrs Brown actor was speaking to Ray D’Arcy about a documentary he has made looking into the roles his uncles played in the Easter Rising.
He revealed that following the recording of the documentary, one of the crew members pointed out to him the house where his grandfather’s killer lived.
O’Carroll was understandably emotional by the stunning and personal news. He has previously explored his family’s involvement in the Irish fight for independence.
In 2015, O’Carroll appeared on the BBC show ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’. He discovered that his grandfather was murdered by an undercover British agent Major Jocelyn Lee Hardy during the War of Independence.
He was asked how he felt when he was told where Major Hardy had lived: “Really eerily, when we were done with the premiere of the movie in London, Universal Pictures brought us back to a club for a party afterwards.
“I went out onto a balcony for a cigarette and one of the guys from Universal came out and stood next to me and he said ‘do you see that house over there? That’s where Hardy lived, that was his home.’
“I was standing across the road from the guy’s house who had murdered my grandad.”
O’Carroll explained that after the War of Independence in Ireland, Hardy went on to become chairman of Lloyds Bank and was best friends with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
In his family search during Who Do You Think You Are?, O’Carroll discovered that his grandfather, Peter, was shot dead by Hardy after he refused to inform on his two sons who were members of the IRA.
O’Carroll’s latest documentary investigates the role those two sons, his uncles Paedar and Liam, played in the Easter Rising.
He explained he wanted to do it to raise the awareness and educate people about what actually happened during the Rising, and how it affected the lives of ordinary people.
O’Carroll said: “The idea of the British public in particular seeing a story about 1916 through my family’s eyes gave me a bit of a kick.
“It took ten days to make, but it was well worth it.”
The documentary will be broadcast on both RTÉ in Ireland and the BBC in Britain.
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