The Beatles: New podcast explores forgotten Irish connections

The Cavern Club, Penny Lane, Strawberry Field - Liverpool locations which will forever be associated with The Beatles.

But although they hailed from Merseyside, the Fab Four have strong Irish connections which a new podcast argues makes them at least adopted sons of the Emerald Isle.

Give The Beatles Back to the Irish begins on Sunday on Radio Ulster and begins by exploring the deep Irish family roots of the band.

Here are six other lesser-known facts to support the theory that Ireland can claim at least a little of The Beatles' success.

Sounds far-fetched? Maybe, but bear with us here.

The Beatles have deep-rooted Irish family connections.

John's great-grandfather James was born in County Down and his great-grandmother Elizabeth Gildea was from Omagh in County Tyrone.

Paul's family was rooted in County Monaghan. His grandfather on his mother's side was Owen Mohan from Tullynamallow.

Ringo is the most English of the band but there are still family lines traceable to County Mayo.

George's family was originally from County Wexford and were landowners until stripped of their land by Oliver Cromwell.

The family subsequently emigrated to Liverpool. The rest is musical history...eventually.

Indeed in 1963, John Lennon stated in an interview upon landing at Dublin Airport: "We're all Irish!"

The band's appearance in the King's Hall Belfast in 1964 had the largest audience The Beatles ever played to in the UK and Ireland.

As Beatlemania swept the world, they performed two shows on the same day at the home of the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society with a total audience of 16,000.

It was an arena gig before the term was even coined. The highest ticket price on the day was a whopping £1.

The band played three famous gigs in Ireland - one in Dublin and two in Belfast - but did you know they also almost played Drogheda and Portstewart? All is revealed in the series.

The Fab Four had connections with some very interesting showbiz figures down the years.

Many of these were Irish. From "old man Steptoe" Wilfrid Brambell, who was actually a Dubliner, to Irish talk show legend Gay Byrne - who Lennon dismissively referred to as Grey Burke.

You may recall Brambell played Paul's "very clean" grandpa in Hard Day's Night.

The band, especially Paul McCartney was close to the Irish socialite and Guinness heir Tara Browne who was at the centre of the swinging London scene.

Browne's life was cut tragically short in a car accident, later to be immortalised in the classic Sgt Pepper's album song A Day in the Life.

As the song went, "nobody was really sure is he was from the House of Lords", in reference to Browne's aristocratic father.

Baby You Can Drive My Car (with a slightly dodgy Irish driving licence)

Well not so much dodgy, but certainly convenient.

From a local newspaper in 1963: "McCartney who had two previous convictions for speeding this year was told by Alderman W.O. Hanford presiding: 'It is time you were taught a lesson.'"

Anyone could get an Irish driving licence simply by applying for them in the early 1960s.

According to Jason and Stephen in the podcast, Paul had been stripped of his UK driving licence for repeated speeding offences and Ringo simply wanted to get a fast-track but legal means of getting back behind the wheel of his car.

In the Republic of Ireland in the early 1960s, anyone living there could get an Irish driving licence simply by applying for one.

A Dublin "home" address was even provided for the paperwork. Beep beep, beep beep, yeah!

The Beatles guitarist visited Ireland several times as a child to see some of his many cousins.

A tarapicture captured by legendary Dublin street photographer Arthur Fields on the streets of the city in the 1950s is astonishing.

Walking across a bridge with his mother, George stares down the camera lens just like he would later for Fab Four photoshoots, even though he's a tiny kid, aged seven.

Arguably the coolest Beatle, even then.

In the 1970s several Beatles flirted, with varying degrees of controversy, with Irish politics and The Troubles in song.

Give Ireland Back To The Irish went to number one in Ireland, but less predictably, also in Franco's Spain.

John Lennon went even further than singing about Ireland, buying Dorinish island off the west coast intending to retire there with Yoko and his family.

He sent a beautiful old psychedelically-painted gypsy caravan to the island by helicopter in 1967.

While Dorinish had subsequently changed hands from hippes to farmers, Lennon was apparently still interested in finishing his plans which had received local planning permission.

Sadly, Lennon's dream of an idyllic Irish lifestyle would never materialise as he was murdered in New York in 1980.

As he admitted himself in song: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one".

One can only imagine how differently Lennon's life would have panned out had he lived and eventually became an Irish resident.

Give The Beatles Back To The Irish will be broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle at 18:30 GMT on Sunday and on BBC Sounds.