Conor McGregor's genes show fighting history

When it comes to tattooed “fighting Irish”, Conor McGregor is top of the tree. A trawl through his family background shows he didn’t lick it off the stones.

New research conducted by family history website, findmypast.ie, has also found that in at least one instance, body ink also runs in McGregor family.

The website constructed a family tree for the MMA champion that stretches back six generations and among that number is the Dubliner’s paternal great-grandfather, Albert McGregor, born in Dún Laoghaire, then known as Kingstown, to Albert McGregor (Sr) and his wife Mary in 1905.

The 1911 census shows the couple living in Kingstown’s tough South Dock district on Clarence Street with their young children, Albert Jr, Mary Ellen, Michael and Maggie.

Albert Sr was born in 1878 and enlisted in the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1896 after serving a brief stint in Dublin’s Kilmainham prison for possession of “concealed” goods.

His British army service record contained a detailed physical description that shows a similar penchant for body ink to that of his descendant, noting a large tattoo of a “man’s head” on his left forearm, his name written on his right forearm and a “dot” tattooed onto the back of his right hand.

He left the army in 1899 and later that year was charged with assaulting his young wife and sentenced to 14 days in Kilmainham Gaol, and in 1902 was back in jail after being sentenced to one month for assaulting a police constable.

In 1905 Albert was assaulted by his 19-year-old brother in law, Joseph Ryan, and the following year he was back in Kilmainham after being caught stealing a side pound of bacon, and later served a seven-day sentence for drunkenness.

www.findmypast.ie/explore-your-irish-ancestry/