Who Do You Think You Are?: July 10

Irish actress Dervla Kirwan, best known for UK drama Ballykissangel, features in Who Do You Think You Are? on SBS ONE.

Kirwan has never spoken about her great-uncle Michael Collins, a national figure who changed Irish history and fought to establish the Irish Free State. Now she wants to find out how her grandfather Finian, Michael’s nephew, fits into the events shaped by his famous uncle.

In the heart of Dublin, Dervla goes to Cathal Brugha Barracks to unearth Finian’s pension records which detail his activities before he joined the Irish Free State Army. She makes an unexpected discovery regarding the IRA, and uses the documents to help her retrace Finian’s steps.

Dervla knows little of her paternal side of the family and meets her father who tells her that her greatgrandfather Henry Kahn was Jewish. Knowing nothing of the Dublin Jewish community, Dervla heads to the Jewish Museum to find out more.

She discovers a Victorian love story, a dismal miscarriage of justice and an act of anti-Semitism that even reached the House of Commons – and inspired an episode in one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, Ulysses by James Joyce.

It airs 7:30pm Sunday July 10 on SBS ONE.