Born to an Irish mum and a Jamaican dad, DJ Dev Griffin grew up feeling he didn’t fit in with either community. He hopes discovering more about his ancestors will help him strengthen his own sense of identity and belonging.

Radio presenter Dev Griffin works mostly as a DJ for Heart but has also made his mark in acting roles and (like several other celebrities in this latest series of Who Do You Think You Are?) through an appearance on Strictly Come Dancing. Full name Devin Joseph Jordan Griffin, he grew up in north London but his roots are an interesting mix of Irish and Jamaican – both of which will be explored in his episode of the show. ‘I don’t think I feel Irish or Jamaican,‘ he says. ‘I would like to feel connected.’ Through the journey his episode takes him on, he will be able to feel properly connected to them both.

After a chat with his mother Maggie, who brought him up as a single parent, Dev learns about her parents moving to London from Ireland in the 1950s (and the prejudice they faced as Irish people, similar to that experienced by many Jamaicans in the same era). Dev says he has never been to Ireland but is aware of a family rumour that ‘maybe someone in the family had something to do with the [Irish] civil war’.

It’s off to Ireland, then, and Dev uncovers the momentous events surrounding the lives of his Irish grandmother Jeanne’s dad, his great-grandfather Francis (Frank) Weafer plus Frank’s brother Patrick. It turns out that both men were indeed involved in Ireland’s fight for independence in the early 20th century. Patrick Weafer marched to Dublin to fight in the Easter Rising, a decision that put him in a gunfight on Dublin’s rooftops and in the middle of one of the most significant events in modern Irish history.

Similar to his brother, Frank became involved in the Irish War of Independence, part of the republican movement, and had a role in a cycling corps delivering intelligence messages. Both lived to see the declaration of 26 counties as the Irish Free State.

Using the resources at data website TheGenealogist, we can set the scene for some of these events. For example, we can find an astonishing ‘before and after’ set of images for the events that Dev’s direct forebears were caught up in. Here, in the site’s Image Archive (which has various early 20th century pictures of the city) is the O’Connell Bridge over the River Liffey from only a few years before the republican unrest began in earnest:

Dev’s great-great-uncle Patrick was present at the Easter Rising of 1916, based at Dublin’s historic GPO building, just out of sight in the above picture but next to Nelson’s Pillar, which you can see to the left. Now turn to the Newspapers & Magazine’s collection, and here’s a view of the city from a very similar spot, in the 13 May 1916 of The Sphere – and yet how different it looks:

Here’s one more haunting picture from the Image Archive, too, only a few hundred yards north-east of the above scenes, in Talbot Street:

Helpfully, every image in the Image Archive with a specific location has been geolocated on modern maps – so here, for example, you can see these historic pictures plotted and understand the scene better:

As we learn in the show, Dev’s Weafer ancestors hailed from County Kildare, specifically from Maynooth only 15 miles west of Dublin. A genealogist shows him the 1911 Irish census record for the family, which includes young Pat and Frank, with their parents Thomas and Julia. This census can be searched for free at census.nationalarchives.ie.

And in fact we can see Dev’s great-great-grandfather Thomas – a carpenter, as the census shows – in a trade directory for the Irish province of Leinster (including both Dublin and Kildare) from 1905 available at TheGenealogist:

After the drama of Dublin, Dev travels to Kilkee in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland to learn about his Irish grandfather’s Michael Griffin’s dad – i.e. his other paternal great-grandfather, James Griffin (1870–1955), who was known locally by his Gaelic name Séamus Mór Ó Gríobhtha. As he uncovers Séamus’s involvement with the Gaelic League, Dev learns about the battle to preserve Irish culture and language that was happening during this period. The Gaelic League was founded in 1893 to promote the Irish language and it turns out that Séamus was a founder of a significant college for teaching it in the Clare region.

Again, we can find James/Séamus in a trade directory at TheGenealogist, and he is listed elsewhere in the same edition as a peace commissioner:

Dev is astonished by what he learns about Ireland’s history and reveals how proud he is of his Irish ancestors.

Next, following his father Rodney’s line, Dev travels to Jamaica. An emotional meeting with a close relative leads Dev to an incredible document from the local Baptist church that reveals the day-to-day lives of his great-grandparents Joshua and Annie Riley – including some rather cheeky details and painting an intimate picture of island life in the early 20th century.

Discovering his ancestry uncovers stories of bravery, family and love, and Dev can finally claim both his Irish and Jamaican heritage with knowledge and pride.