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“You’re killing it – you’re doing a great job,” Conan told Kielty of his role as host, while he also described a meeting with former host Gay Byrne as a “special moment”. O’Brien met Byrne at the US Ambassador’s residence in a past visit to Ireland.
“I’ve been watching clips of you all week and I am filled with rage and envy after them,” O’Brien said to Kielty.
The Massachusetts native is in Ireland to trace his ancestral roots all the way to Galbally in Co Limerick – the village of current hurling manager John Kiely. He said visiting the exact family plot was “an emotional moment” for him, where his great grandfather farmed at the foot of the Galtee mountains before moving to the US and settling near Boston in the 1870s.
“It’s emotional, you know, to go back there and see the exact plot, the Galtees in the background, where my great grandfather farmed,” Conan said.
On his journey to Limerick from Dublin, Conan stopped off in what he described as the “greatest ever tribute to a US President” – Barack Obama Plaza. And as an appreciation for his visit, he was also surprised by the renaming of the ‘Conan O’Brien Air Pump’. “I get 15pc of all sales – I get a piece. I’m not an idiot,” Conan joked.
Asked about his Irish ancestry, Conan said he did a genealogy test two years ago and it came back “100pc Irish”.
“I did a DNA test a couple of years ago. And the doctor said, ‘I’ve got interesting news for you’. He said ‘you’re 100pc Irish’. And my people came over in the 1870s, moved to central Massachusetts and just lived in a very small town.
“So I said, ‘Is this good news that I’m 100pc?’ and he said: ‘I don’t know. I think you’re inbred. I think that’s a lot. 100pc is a lot’,” Conan said.
“I came here and I met people in Dublin and they tell me they have a little bit of Spanish and a little bit of this or that, but still after all this time, I’m 100pc Irish”.
True to his Gaelic roots, Conan will feature in an upcoming episode of long-running TG4 soap Ros na Rún. He said the cast and crew helped him learn Irish phonetically as he doesn’t speak any of the language. “It’s like ye took a load of consonants, threw them in a blender and then put them on a page,” Conan joked.
He said the challenge was a difficult but rewarding one, while full of praise for the programme.
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