大象传媒

When Colleen Snyder researched her family history during the Covid-19 pandemic, she did not expect to discover a connection to the legend of Irish giants.

Colleen, from Virginia in the United States, suffers from a rare genetic condition called acromegaly or gigantism.

The gene caused Charles Byrne, born in 1761 near Cookstown and known as the "Irish giant", to grow more than 7ft 6in (2.3m) tall.

Medical researchers have previously identified Mid Ulster as a "hotspot" where one in 150 people have the genetic mutation, compared to one in 1,000 in Belfast and one in 2,000 in the rest of the UK.

Julian Fowler reports for Good Morning Ulster