George Clooney said he had a "wonderful time" meeting his relatives in Ireland and hopes to bring his children, now six years old, on a trip again.
Clooney spoke fondly about his time in Ireland during a chat with Miriam O'Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1 on January 7 while he was promoting his newest film "The Boys in the Boat."
"I went and visited [Ireland] and I had a really wonderful time," Clooney, speaking from London alongside "The Boys in the Boat" stars Callum Turner and Joel Edgerton said.
"I saw a bunch of Clooneys, which was fun to see."
He added: "It was a funny thing, I got there, and the minute you get there, you start to see all these people who look like all of your family and you're like 'oh my god, we're actually really related.'
"We all left during the Famine, the potato famine, our family did."
Indeed, Clooney's family can be traced back to Ireland in the 1850s when his great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Clooney, was a small farmer in Windgap, Co Kilkenny. His ancestor was one of the many cottiers who fell foul of "middlemen" who tried to force farmers off the land so they could amalgamate small holdings into bigger farms.
Old Irish court records prove that in 1852 George’s great-great-grandfather was violently assaulted and for months was harassed through the court system. He fled Ireland for a better life in America.
When the Irish American Hollywood star was asked if he'd return to Ireland, he said "Of course!"
He added, jokingly: "I had to leave because I had to take my liver out and wash it after my week in Ireland, it almost killed me but we had a great time.
"I love it there," he continued. "The crazy thing is I got there in February and it was 40 degrees and sunny the whole time I was there. Unbelievable."
Later, when asked about his next visit to Ireland, Clooney said: "It won't be this year because I'm working.
"We took my kids there, but they were two when we went. They're six now, I'd like them to go back and see it when they can understand what all of my family members are saying."
Clooney was chatting with RTÉ Radio this week to promote the movie "The Boys In The Boat," which he directed. The sports drama, set during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, stars Joel Edgerton, Callum Turner, and Peter Guinness.
The movie tells the true story of how a rowing team from the University of Washington made it to the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The team was very much the underdog. Clooney said that was what drew him to the story.
"Sure. I think all good sports movies, all the sports movies I grew up watching like Hoosiers and Pride of The Yankees, the underdog is the good part of telling a good sports story.
"So, when I read the book, I loved it but I thought it was going to be a hard film to make and it was a hard film to make! But when you have all these really smart, talented, and athletic young actors we were ok."
"The Boys In The Boat" was released in the US in December 2023. It will be released in Ireland on January 12, 2024.
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