If anyone were to ask where Sam Neill was from, 99 per cent of people would say New Zealand. Well, they’d be wrong, he was born in Omagh in 1947. Check out these other famous people whose roots are in Northern Ireland.
- One of the world’s most famous soccer players hails from Northern Ireland. So lauded is George Best in his native country that they named an airport after him.
- C.S. Lewis, best known as author of The Chronicles of Narnia, was born in Belfast.
- Not sure where his brown-eyed girl was from, but Van Morrison was born in Northern Ireland
- Rory McIlroy who has taken the world of golf by storm this year, was born in Holywood, the Northern Irish town, not the glitzy US version.
- Formula One racing driver Eddie Irvine is from County Down.
- The gorgeous lilt of Liam Neeson is thanks to his Northern Irish beginnings.
- Shakespearean actor and director Kenneth Branagh also calls the North home.
- And of course, renowned flautist, Sir James Galway was born in Belfast in 1939