Research traces Hollywood star’s ancestral roots to North Galway

He’s famous for roles in big box office hits like High Fidelity and Being John Malkovich – as well as starring in a host of Woody Allen movies – but right up to last week John Cusack was blissfully unaware that he has Galway roots!

The Illinois star always believed his Irish ancestry could be traced to Meath and Kerry – but two intrepid RTÉ reporters discovered that the Cusacks actually originated in Ballygar.

Film-makers and journalists, Naoimh Reilly and Denise Lavelle, also work on The Today Show on RTÉ1 – and they set off last week to try and doorstep the Hollywood star….by luring him in with a forensic analysis of his roots.

“We heard John was speaking at an event for the Belfast Film Festival; we knew it would be difficult to get near him so we decided to commission a genealogy report on his family,” explained Naoimh.

It worked – because they were given access to the star turn the next day and it got even more interesting when the duo revealed his family history.

“He initially didn’t believe the story. He was told his whole life by his mother that it was the other way around that his father’s family was from Kerry and his mother’s family was from Meath. Our report showed that this was incorrect. He discovered things that he never knew.”

The genealogists believed that Dennis Francis Cusack was born in the parish of Ballygar – and that John’s maternal Carolan ancestry originated in the parish of Nobber and Kells in Co Meath.

“All four of John’s grandparents – Cusack, McFeeley, Carolan and McGillen – are of Irish descent. Moreover six, and possibly seven, of John’s eight great-grandparents are Irish born. All of John’s sixteen great-great-grandparents are of Irish origin. He is as Irish as it gets,” added Denise.

The report was conducted by Eneclann who also carried out research on Barack Obama and Tom Cruise.

“John was called away to the event he was speaking at but asked us to stay around after so he could talk to us more about his family heritage. We had a long chat with him after that and he was very thankful to us for giving him the report. He also said we may have caused a war within his family!” said Naoimh.

The interview was aired on RTÉ’s Today Show last week, when Cusack also revealed that he was in pre-production with a film project which he plan to film in Ireland soon.

The movie will be about Irish revolutionary Thomas Francis Meagher, based on the award winning biography by Timothy Egan called The Immortal Irishman.

In his short life, Meagher, who died 43, spent much of his life outside of Ireland. He made a significant contribution to both Irish nationalism and to the preservation of the United States and particularly to the assimilation of the Irish into American society.

The Waterford native was a leading figure in the Irish independence movement, lead the legendary Irish Brigade in the American Civil War.

Cusack – who was on the periphery of the original Brat Pack – is known for his individualism, and he frequently ensues big budget projects in favour of more esoteric projects.

He has become a perennial favourite of the legendary Woody Allen, starring in recent big successes like Bullets Over Broadway and Shadows and Fog.

Other acclaimed roles came in Con Air, True Colors, the Grifters and High Fidelity, the screen version of Nick Hornby’s best-selling book.