Hollywood legend Meryl Streep has been invited to Ireland to stay with a long lost relative who has recently discovered their family connection.
The discovery was made by genealogy company Eneclann. Eneclann were also the company that discovered that US President Barack Obama had Irish ancestry.
Now they have discovered that the Oscar winning star shares a great-great-great-grandmother with her closest Irish relative, Jimmy Lafferty.
Streep was aware that her ancestors had come from Donegal. She named her daughter, Grace, after her great-great-grandmother, Grace Strain.
Eneclann discovered that Grace Strain’s niece, Ellen Strain, was the grandmother of Lafferty.
Lafferty, who runs a holiday home business in Dunfanaghy, a small fishing port town in Co Donegal said that his famous fourth cousin would be welcome to visit.
He said: “This is such a nice surprise. The old Strain house where Grace lived has been tumbled but I built a lovely new holiday home in its place and if Meryl Streep wants to come and see us all, she’ll get the traditional cead mile failte and she can stay in the house.”
Streep has intended to find out more about her Irish roots for a long time. She could learn plenty from her fourth cousin. Lafferty said: “Ms Streep is a fine actress and it would be wonderful to meet her. I can tell her about three generations back of the family here that stayed in Donegal.”
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling
