NEW mommy Nicole Kidman will pass on some Irish blood to baby Sunday Rose. In a nice coup for the Irish Echo newspaper in Australia, Kidman, through her publicist, delved into her Irish roots.

"My paternal grandmother's side were Irish," Kidman told the paper. "They were from Co. Clare and came to Australia as free settlers in the mid-1800s with a pioneering spirit, a typically Irish sense of optimism and humor, and a determination to carve out a new life for their family in a new country.

"Their big family spawned generations of proud Irish Australians, myself included. At family gatherings many stories are recounted about our Irish beginnings."

Undoubtedly another topic of discussion among the Kidmans will be the newest arrival to the clan. Reports surfaced before Sunday's birth that Kidman was insistent on having the music of only two performers wafting through the air as she screamed and shouted - that of her husband, Keith Urban, and Irish flautist James Galway.

"She has always loved James Galway, particularly his classical albums. Whenever you go to her house, she has Galway on. There is one Prokofiev sonata that is her favorite," a friend told the Daily Mail newspaper in Britain.

Kidman spent plenty of time in Ireland, Co. Kerry in particular, back in the early nineties while she filmed the stinker Far and Away with ex-hubby Tom Cruise. It was a pretty horrible flick set in the 1800s, but the then golden couple had a ball on location, taking in all the sights and making nice with the locals.