Fair City star Clelia Murphy is trying to confirm her great-great granddad was found abandoned in an Italian herb garden.
The TV actress – who plays Niamh Cassidy in the Carrigstown – has started researching her unusual family history after a promise to her
late grandmother.
And Clelia, 38, said it all started because of her grandmother’s bid to prove why her last name was Oregano.
She said: “I’m having great fun at the moment, this is something I promised her I would do.
Research: Clelia wants to know family history | VIPIRELAND.COM
“She always wanted to know where her family name came from because she’s Clelia Oregano.
“She was told, and she believed it, that her grandfather, an Italian man, was a foundling.
“He was found in a herb patch in a convent in Italy and they named him Savino Oregano after the herb.
“Is that a true story? I haven’t a clue but I’d love to find out. So I’m starting to do that.”
Open: Clelia spoke to Miriam O’Callaghan
And Clelia admitted that she emotionally struggled after her beloved grandmother passed away in 2010.
She told Saturday Night with Miriam: “I went quietly downhill. I put on weight and I wasn’t my better self or anything like that. I was heartbroken.”
