Ryan Tubridy at UCD History Society

Contributed by Fintan Hoey

Who would Ryan Tubridy, UCD history graduate, former auditor of the college’s history society, and current favourite of mammies and grannies across Ireland, have on his ideal Late Late Show panel (alive or dead)? Who else? Adolf Hitler, John F. Kennedy and Daniel O’Connell, with Frank Sinatra providing musical accompaniment.

Tubridy was back in UCD on Monday to give a talk to his old society about his current book project on Kennedy’s visits to Ireland and his selection was prompted by a question from the floor. Hitler is apparently Pat Kenny’s ideal guest (a puzzler at first but the idea is oddly compelling), JFK was a natural choice given Tubridy’s project, and the Liberator was chosen by Diarmaid Ferriter (who was in the audience and was asked by Tubridy to chose an appropriate Irish historical figure).

Tubridy spoke for approximately fifty minutes (including questions) in a relaxed and engaging manner on a wide range of topics. These included his fascination with American politics, the recent death and contested legacy of Edward Kennedy, and his pride in his republican ancestry (he is a grandson of Todd Andrews). Given the evident importance of his revolutionary forebears to his sense of identity, he revealed his horror at recently learning, during the filming of the episode of Who Do You Think You Are? on him, that he is also a descendent of King Edward III of England. This prompted, he disclosed, a snide text message from a friend which read, ‘Ya Plantagenet ya!’.