To celebrate legendary musician Bruce Springsteen's Irish heritage, IrishCentral has planted a native tree in Ireland in his honor.
Bruce Springsteen was born on September 23, 1949, in New Jersey. Despite his surname being of Dutch origin, thanks to explorations into Springsteen's ancestry, fans of "The Boss" now know that the legendary rock singer also lays claim to strong Irish roots.
Bruce Springsteen's Irish roots
His great-great-great-grandparents Christy Garrity and his wife Catherine Kelly married in the parish of Rathangan, Co Kildare in 1827. They settled in Mountprospect (southwest of the main town of Rathangan), where they reared their children one of which was Anne Garrity, Springsteen's great-great-grandmother.
In 1850, most likely due to the devastating effects of the Famine, Christy Gerrity and his sons left for the United States and settled in New Jersey. In 1853 the Gerrity women followed suit and stepped off the Arctic S.S. in the Port of New York before joining their family in New Jersey and they all lived near each other for the rest of their lives.
Celebrating Bruce Springsteen's Irish roots by planting a tree in Ireland. Credit: Getty
Ann Garrity's grandaughter Martha O'Hagan married Antony Springsteen in 1899 and this couple became Bruce Springsteen's grandparents.
Further back it's been established that Springsteen has Farrell, McNicholas, Sullivan, O’Hagan and McCann ancestry.
Speaking in an interview last year, Springsteen shared that he hopes to plant a tree in his great-great grandmother’s home of Rathangan on his next trip to Ireland.
"I'm very connected to [that part] of Ireland. Spiritually, I feel a great warmth there and our Irish audience is a very special audience to us,” he said.
Until then, IrishCentral is delighted to plant an Irish Heritage Tree in Bruce Springsteen's honor to celebrate his Irish ancestry and the joy his music has brought to Irish fans since he first played a concert here in Co Meath in 1985.
H/T: Bruce Springsteen’s Irish roots
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