{"id":632579,"date":"2026-10-16T16:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632579\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:34:08","slug":"carson-greeted-in-ireland-by-group-of-dalys-after-learning-his-family-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632579\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Greeted In Ireland By Group of Dalys After Learning His Family History"},"content":{"rendered":"

TODAY\u2019s trip to Ireland<\/a> has doubled as a homecoming for Carson Daly. <\/p>\n

The TODAY co-host not only learned more about his family\u2019s roots on the Emerald Isle, he was also surprised with heartwarming hugs from a group of Dalys in Kenmare in County Kerry, including his actual distant cousin. <\/p>\n

It turns out that hundreds of years before Carson and his late mother became known for their work on television, the Daly family were coal miners in Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is every person\u2019s dream is to figure out a little bit about where they come from,\u201d Carson said on TODAY Oct. 16. <\/p>\n

The TODAY co-host is one of more than 32 million Americans who claim Irish ancestry, a number six times greater than the entire population of the Emerald Isle. <\/p>\n

To gain more insight into his family\u2019s history, Carson enlisted the help of genealogist Fiona Fitzimons. She is the director of the Irish Family History Center at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin. <\/p>\n

Unlike genealogy sites like Ancestry.com or the personal genetics company 23andMe, which use DNA to trace family origins, Fitzsimons and her team rely on birth, marriage and immigration records. <\/p>\n

Carson\u2019s sister, Quinn Daly, has served as his family\u2019s historian over the years, and she was just as eager as Carson to find out more about their roots. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the Ancestry test, but we don\u2019t actually know the history,\u201d Quinn said on TODAY. \u201cLike we know the DNA part of it, but we don\u2019t know the context.\u201d <\/p>\n

Their father, Jim Daly<\/a>, died of bladder cancer in 1979 when Carson was 5 years old. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost our dad at a very young age, and I think our family tree has been kind of a difficult one for us to track down,\u201d Carson said. <\/p>\n

Carson was able to see historical documents listing moments in his family\u2019s history, thanks to Fitzsimons. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got your family back to the early 1800s,\u201d she said. \u201cWe found that your Dalys are colliers. They\u2019re coal miners.\u201d <\/p>\n

That skill was particularly crucial for the family at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 1840s, we had a great famine, but your ancestors, because they were colliers, because they were skilled laborers, they actually had opportunities,\u201d Fitzsimons told Carson. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is just blowing my mind,\u201d Carson said. \u201cYou\u2019re basically saying that my family was able to survive obviously one of the most devastating things that\u2019s ever happened to the country because they had a skillset of a trade. I tell my kids who are going to college all the time. I\u2019m always reminding them of the trades.\u201d <\/p>\n

Carson also learned that the woman his great-grandfather married in 1903 was named Mary Quinn, whose last name is now Carson\u2019s sister\u2019s first name. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know if we knew it was a family name,\u201d Carson said. <\/p>\n

Fitzsimons mapped out Carson\u2019s lineage to three regions in Ireland \u2014 Ballinagleragh and Kiltoghert in County Leitrim, and Crettyard in County Laois. <\/p>\n

She pinpointed that his ancestors on his mother and father\u2019s sides both immigrated to America and met in New Jersey. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes me an absolute badass by bloodline,\u201d Carson said. \u201cThe families come together and survive and thrive and fight wars in India, and then all end up drinking Guinness in New Jersey, and ultimately this kid\u2019s born in California.\u201d <\/p>\n

Carson also learned that he may have relatives who remained in Ireland. Daly is one of the 15 most common last names in the country. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that there are some Dalys still in the same parish and even in the same townland that your family came from,\u201d Fitzsimons said. \u201cCertainly, up until the last five years, so it\u2019s possible that you have family members that remain behind, that survived and continued.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carson wondered if one of those relatives might be Paul Hewson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there any chance I\u2019m related to Bono?\u201d he asked. <\/p>\n

\u201cStatistically, it\u2019s totally possible, but, ummm…\u201d Fitzsimons said while laughing. <\/p>\n

Savannah Guthrie surprised Carson on the streets of Kenmare with a meet-up among a group of Dalys. After sharing hugs, he was presented with a framed flag of Ireland by a local senator and met face to face with a distant cousin from his paternal grandfather\u2019s side named Lorraine. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place like home,\u201d Lorraine told Carson in Gaelic. \u201cAnd the other thing I wanted to say is, \u2018You may leave Ireland, but Ireland will always be with you.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Sponsored by Tourism Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TODAY\u2019s trip to Ireland has doubled as a homecoming for Carson Daly. The TODAY co-host not only learned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-632579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}