Boy George's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, which aired last Wednesday, was one of those episodes which show the true tragedy that many families faced in the past.
This can be exceptionally evident in the case of Irish history.
Men who were hung as traitors under British rule in Ireland are now seen as Irish national heroes - which does show how history is often simply a matter of perspective.
George was clearly affected by the scene of his great-uncle's hanging. With good reason.
Sometimes the past can be truly hard to face, not least in terms of the hardships and harrowing circumstances that members of your own family may have had to live through.
Likewise the poverty faced by many Irish people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is difficult to fathom from where we stand today.
The slums of nineteenth century Dublin were the poorest of the poor, but the places to which children were removed by the NSPCC weren't always better. Often, they were far more abusive than the homes which the children had left, which were poor but loving.
This was an interesting but sad episode, with a highly likeable celeb.
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