Tom Cruise's Irish Roots Honoured In Dublin

Actor Tom Cruise has received a certificate to mark his Irish roots after researchers discovered one of his ancestors restored evicted tenants to lands just before the famine.

Patrick Russell Cruise, his great-great-great grandfather, returned from America to Ireland after his land agent forced families from farms in Co Westmeath in 1843.

Cruise was in Dublin for the premiere of his latest blockbuster Oblivion at the Savoy cinema, engagements with the Irish Film Board, a Late Late Show interview and a visit to the Guinness brewery.

The Hollwood A-lister was honoured for his Irishness with a reception hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Tourism Ireland, where he was presented with a certificate.

Cruise was born Tom Cruise Mapather IV in 1962.

Research commissioned by Tourism Ireland on behalf of The Gathering - an initiative to attract the Irish diaspora to visit Ireland through 2013 - revealed that the Cruise and Mapather families had settled in Ireland, with roots going back 800 years.

The Cruises and the Russells were old English families who refused to conform to the Protestant faith and lost their lands in Ireland when they rebelled against Oliver Cromwell.

The families were united by marriage in 1766 and all subsequent relations including Patrick Russell Cruise had the double-barrelled surname.

His ancestor, Patrick Russell Cruise, was himself honoured publicly for his compassion for farmers on his land when a dinner was held in the town of Clonmellon in November 1844.

Other ancestors include Cruise's paternal great-great-grandmother Mary Pauline Russell-Cruise and his great-great grandfather Dillon Henry Mapother whose family were from Kilteevan, Co Roscommon.

The Mapothers were Elizabethan settlers originally from Dorset, England. Dillon Henry Mapother moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and on his death Mary Pauline married an Irishman called Thomas O'Mara and the couple had a son called Thomas O'Mara Junior.

On the ! death of Thomas Senior, his son took the name of his mother Cruise and his half-brother, Cruise Mapothor, becoming Thomas Cruise Mapother I.

Tom Cruise is his great-grandson and the fourth member of the family to carry the name.

After the certificate presentation at Iveagh House, Dublin, Cruise said he had been taken aback by the extent of his ancestry.

"To learn about the history of my family - it was incredible," he said.

"I knew I was Irish but I had no idea where it went and the depth of it. It goes all the way back to the 12th century."

Tom Cruise will be in London at the IMAX on Thursday for the premiere of Oblivion, his latest sci-fi movie about a veteran soldier sent to a distant planet to destroy the remains of an alien race.