Sporty Spice Melanie C is set to discover her Limerick roots on Thursday's Who Do You Think You Are?

Mel C – also known as Melanie Chisholm – travelled to the city to film an episode of the hit BBC TV series.

Ahead of the screening, it is revealed the UK singer "shed tears" as she discovered her family's connection to Shannonside.

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Helped by Dr Paul Paul O’Brien, she discovered her connection to tenant farmers in Limerick, who endured harrowing hardships in the nation’s history like hundreds of thousands of others.

In the episode, she discovers her great-great-great-grandparents, Patrick Flaherty and Catherine Burns, were tenant farmers in County Limerick when the Great Hunger struck in 1845.

When the couple’s landlord put the farm up for sale, they moved to Limerick City working as “landless labourers”, but as the potato crops continued to fail, the couple emigrated to Liverpool.

As her ancestors tried to start a new life abroad as did so many others, records showed the couple lost their eight-month-old son, Edmund, while finding their way in Liverpool.

Mel C, reflecting on the pain her ancestors faced said it made “so much sense to realise why my grandmother and great-grandmother were so stoic and strong”.

She added: "My three-times great-grandparents Catherine and Patrick had the worst hardships that you could imagine.”

The Spice Girl star noted learning about her family’s history made it clear to her why her family is now “really tough”, she said,

"It just totally makes sense that the family have gone on to be really tough. I know without my family fighting for their survival through the generations, I wouldn’t be here at all," she added.

The episode airs Thursday, August 29, at 9pm on BBC One.

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