Robert De Niro has Irish roots. Three of his four grandparents were of Irish descent. So a teenage De Niro came here in 1962 and hitched his way around Ireland. "I hitchhiked from Dublin to Galway and took the ferry to the Aran Islands, then I went down through the south. People gave me blankets for sleeping outside and I had breakfast with them in the morning. They were very friendly." Photo: De Niro playing Irish-American gangster Jimmy 'The Gent' Conway in Goodfellas.