When Meg Daly was a child, her aunt told her, "There are plenty of Dalys in Jamaica but they're all black!" That aunt lived in a big house in East Galway called, Castle Daly.

When Meg grew up and became curious about where the money for the castle came from, she was drawn to Jamaica.

She knew her great-great-great-grandfather, Peter Daly, owned a coffee plantation there. It was in the early 1800s, when people where kidnapped in Africa and shipped across the Atlantic to work on sugar, cotton and coffee plantations - just like his - free labour for the economy of the British Empire.

Meg's other ancestor, Peter Daly's father-in-law, Christopher McEvoy, was one of Europe's most successful slave trader and Meg quotes an ad he published promoting the people he had for sale. "McEvoy Slave Auction! Good quality slaves on offer!"

Meg travelled to Jamaica, with Dymphna Fahy, a friend who had researched the Daly family. They got to see some of the details of Peter Daly's life there.

In the Jamaica National Archives and Library, they were shown the original land grant from the British King George to Peter Daly. It specified he had to own slaves to run the plantation and he had to have a certain number of white men there to control the slaves.

They also saw some of Peter Daly's accounts which showed the prices he got for selling livestock...and slaves.

The documentary hears how the slave trade operated; the wealth Jamaica sent back to Britain.

In the programme, we hear from local Jamaicans who helped Meg in her search and their family connections with slavery. Meg and her family also speak of the profound shame they now feel over the behaviour of their ancestors.

Produced by Chris Nikkel and Ciarán O'Neill with Tim Desmond, Ronan Kelly and the Documentary On One team.

Diary reader: Patrick Dunne

First broadcast on Saturday 2nd February 2026, 4pm, RTÉ Radio 1.