Boy George retraces relative's execution on grim WDYTYA

From Digital Spy

Boy George's deep familial links to the Troubles were uncovered in a gripping and unsettling edition of Who Do You Think You Are?.

The BBC One factual series recently returned for a new series with episodes featuring Olivia Colman and Michelle Keegan, both of which struck a mostly inspiring and hopeful tone.

The Culture Club singer's dive into his family history was much more disturbing, as he discovered his descendants' links to the IRA and the struggle for Irish independence.

In his Who Do You Think You Are research, it emerged that Boy George's grandmother's relative was the Irish rebel Thomas Bryan, an early recruit of the Irish Republican Army involved in an attack on the Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserve in 1921.

The group were apprehended and ultimately executed at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin by British law enforcement in 1922, and were later dubbed the Forgotten Ten because they were buried with unmarked graves.

Boy George learned that Thomas Bryan's wife was pregnant at the time of his arrest, and the couple's child died only a few days before Bryan was executed. His wife Annie never remarried and died nine years later.

"It's amazing to think my great-aunt Annie marries Thomas Bryan and, within four months, he's arrested and he's in prison," he marvelled. "But I imagine that she knew what she was getting involved in. Maybe that's what attracted her to Thomas?"

The cameras followed Boy George as he toured the prison where Bryan was kept, read aloud from a letter he wrote contemplating his death sentence and walked the same gallows where his relative was executed. He even gripped the hangman's handle that sealed Bryan's fate.

"It's macabre theatre," Boy George said in one emotional moment.

The musician admitted that he felt both "sad" and "proud" to have been linked to such a controversial event in Irish history, adding: "It's like an Irish lament. It's like a really sad song... I've proved beyond any questionable doubt that I'm part of Irish history. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it."

In the end, watching Boy George re-live such a tragic story resonated with many viewers:

There were also viewers who were uncomfortable with the show portraying the IRA in a sensitive light:

Who Do You Think You Are? continues next week at 9pm with an episode featuring Shirley Ballas.

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