Glamorous TV presenter traces her roots to Dunlavin

Celebrity Big Brother and The Voice presenter Emma Willis recently visited Dunlavin on the Kildare border to trace her roots for the Who Do You Think You Are programme. [caption id="attachment_179482" align="alignnone" width="2000"] WARNING: Embargoed for publication until: 06/01/2014 - Programme Name: The Voice - TX: n/a - Episode: n/a (No. n/a) - Picture Shows: ***EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01hrs 6th JAN 2014*** Emma Willis - (C) Wall To Wall - Photographer: Ray Burmiston[/caption] The Birmingham native (41), whose maiden name is Griffiths, is married to Busted singer Matt Willis and they have one son Ace and two daughters Isabelle and Trixie Grace. The Who Do You Think You Are programme revealed that Emma's great-great-grandmother Margaret Kirwan had been born in Ireland to Michael Kirwan and Harriet Fowler who father was from Dunlavin. Emma wasn't aware that she had any Irish ancestry on her father's side and so she headed over to Ireland to continue the research. At the Registry of Deeds in Dublin, Emma uncovers the fact that Michael Kirwan's and Harriet Fowler's marriage in 1861 was a mixed denomination marriage. Michael Kirwan was a Catholic, while Harriet Fowler was a Protestant. There was also a difference in the social station of the couple's fathers. Michael Kirwan's father, also named Michael Kirwan, had the occupation of marble mason. Harriet's father, on the other hand, was Richard Fowler who was recorded on the marriage certificate as a gentleman. Research into Richard Fowler finds that he was from Dunlavin on the Kildare/Wicklow border. By searching Griffith's Valuation of Ireland, the father of Richard Fowler was found.   This is Emma's 5-times great-grandfather and in 1790 he was a protestant landholder in Dunlavin. The area was a Protestant enclave at a time of sectarian tension in that country. Emma visits Dunlavin  Emma visits Dunlavin to do more research on Richard Fowler Sr. and she unearths a 1797 article published in a newspaper that referred to her 5-times great-grandfather as a notorious informer and a murderous Orangeman. Another newspaper from the same year, tells a disturbing description of how Richard Fowler and others had raided the house of a Catholic man, the local blacksmith, and dragged him and his son from their beds, before stabbing, beating and torturing them. Emma is shocked to find this out. In 1797 the British ruled Ireland and they feared a rebellion by the United Irishmen who were a group that had been inspired by the revolutionaries of America and France. Their aim was to break Ireland away from the United Kingdom and establish an independent Irish Republic. In those times people who were suspected of being United Irishmen were targeted by the loyalists. Emma is appalled by her ancestor's actions. While being sickened by this discovery about her ancestor, Emma takes some comfort that two generations later Richard Fowler's granddaughter Harriet (Emma's 3 times great-grandmother) fell in love with and got married to the Catholic Michael Kirwan. When Emma returns to Dublin, where her 4 times great-grandfather had once had his workshop, she finds out that he became both a champion of Irish home rule and also of the rights of workers. From the Dublin Almanac and General Register of Ireland 1846 on TheGenealogist we can see that he was a well established Dubliner.