Irish History Podcast

Family history is often where the heroic version of the past falls apart. We like to imagine our ancestors standing on the right side of history. Someone in the GPO in 1916 or in the IRA in 1920. We like to think they made brave choice when it mattered. But most people were not heroes, revolutionaries or figures from the history books. They were ordinary people trying to survive events they could...

In the summer of 1907, the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from the heart of British power in Ireland, under the noses of the police, the military and the political establishment. Worth £50,000 at the time, their disappearance made headlines around the world. It was also deeply humiliating for the British authorities, coming just days before King Edward VII was due to visit Dublin. On the surface,...

Irish republicans had many natural allies during the War of Independence. Irish communities in the United States offered vital support, while revolutionaries in India and Egypt were also fighting for freedom from the British Empire. But the search for allies also led Irish republicans into far more complicated territory. Across the British Empire, they courted support not from colonised peoples, b...

Liverpool and New York haunt the story of Irish independence in a way few other places do. Though separated by more than 5,000 kilometres of ocean, both ports were part of a wider Atlantic world in which Ireland occupied a central place. By the 1920s Liverpool and New York were among the most Irish cities on the planet. Both had been transformed by generations of Irish migration and in both cities...

Ogham is Ireland’s oldest known writing system, dating back more than 1,500 years. If you have ever seen strange lines carved along the edge of an old stone, you may have been looking at ogham. But what did those marks mean? Who carved them? Were they gravestones, boundary markers, family claims to lands or something else entirely? In this episode, I speak with ogham expert Dr Nora White about how...

'We are doing this because you are doing it in Ireland'. These were the words of an IRA volunteer in Manchester explaining attacks in Britain during the Irish War of Independence. During the conflict, Britain and particularly England became a major battlefield. Britain was not only geographically close to Ireland, it was also home to large Irish communities in many major cities. Between 1919 and 1...

In August 1882, a brutal mass murder in a remote valley in the west of Ireland shocked the world. At Maamtrasna, a family, the Joyces, were attacked in their home. The victims ranged from a teenage girl to an 80-year-old woman. The police quickly suspected that the killers had been neighbours and even relatives of the Joyce family. However, a motive was elusive. As wider Irish society was shocked...

A recent hospital visit means there is no new episode this week, but it reminded me of this classic from early 2024! Tune in to find out more How difficult was life in the Middle Ages? This is something archaeologists and historians have debated for decades. In recent years, new techniques, including genetic analysis, have given us new insights into the lives of our distant ancestors in the Mediev...

Dublin is famous for its Georgian squares, medieval cathedral, castle and revolutionary history. But the cornerstone of Dublin's history is undoubtedly the port. Nearly 1,200 years ago, the Vikings established a settlement on the banks of the Liffey, and from that moment, Dublin's fate was tied to the sea. The port became the gateway where Ireland met the wider world. Ships carried goods, armies,...

As the Irish Revolution broke out, Europe was gripped by political upheaval, fear of revolution, and rising antisemitism. In conservative and right-wing circles, the so-called “Jewish Question” loomed large. Claims that Jews were secretly fomenting revolution across the world became increasingly common, feeding conspiracy theories that shaped how many people interpreted events from Russia to Irela...

Between 1641 and 1653, Ireland was engulfed by devastating war. It was a period of extraordinary violence, famine and social collapse. The death toll was staggering. As many as 25% of the population may have perished. At the heart of this conflict was siege warfare. Across Ireland, towns, castles, forts and fortified houses came under attack. Some were taken by storm, while others were blockaded u...

During the Irish War of Independence, republicans in Ireland looked far beyond Britain and America for support. In Egypt and India, they found allies. Secret meetings took place between IRA representatives and Egyptian revolutionaries, while Irish republicans also made contact with Indian nationalists who were waging their own struggle against British rule. Across the Empire, activists began to se...

In 1939, Ireland declared itself neutral in the Second World War. But neutrality did not mean the island was safe. Indeed, both Germany and Britain developed plans to occupy the entire island. This episode focuses on Operation Green, Hitler's secret invasion plan for Ireland, and Plan W, the Irish government's defensive strategy. Historian James Doherty joins me to explain this intriguing aspect o...

The Irish War of Independence & Revolution saw the IRA pitted against Crown forces across the island. However, on the ground in Ireland, allegiance was often more complicated than is sometimes remembered. Ireland had a long tradition of service in the British Army, and during the conflict thousands of Irishmen served not only in British military ranks but also in the police forces sent to crus...

How did Ireland become an English-speaking country? Was it colonialism, the Great Hunger, the education system or emigration that drove the shift from Irish to English? In this episode, I am joined by Dr Nicholas Wolf to explore one of the biggest questions in Irish history: how Irish, once the dominant language of the island, lost ground over the centuries.  Nicholas explains how this is a m...

“The Irish fight for liberty is the greatest epic of the modern age… those suffering together under British imperialism must learn to coordinate their effort before they can hope to be free.” These words from the Black radical Cyril Briggs captured how many people of colour viewed the Irish War of Independence. Today, the Irish Revolution is usually remembered as a struggle shaped by empire, natio...

Irish funerals and wakes are one of the more famous aspects of our culture. Often taking the form of a celebration, it has been said we do death well. However the modern Irish funeral is not the timeless tradition we often imagine. In this episode of the Irish History Podcast I explore the strange history of Irish funerals and the lost world of 19th-century death customs. Drawing on folklore and f...

"Intercourse between Bolshevism and Sinn Féin" These were the words one British newspaper used to describe the relationship between the Irish Republican movement and the fledgling Soviet Union during the Irish Revolution. It was an unlikely pairing. Ireland became a deeply conservative, Catholic country where communism was viewed with suspicion and fear. Yet during the Irish War of Independence, a...

For Dublin's gay community, Irish Independence and the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 heralded anything but freedom. While the new state promised change, the gay community faced decades of repression, arrest, and severe punishment. Yet despite this, they continued to build lives, relationships, and communities in the shadow of fear. In this episode, I am joined by historian Averill Earls...

“Keep handing it to the Micks. The Roman Catholic Irish are, and always have been, the only un-Americanised people in the United States.”   These words came from a supporter of Admiral William S. Sims, an ardent opponent of Irish republicans in the United States in the 1920s.  This episode of  Brothers in Pain  explores the crucial battle for American public opinion d...

At the outbreak of World War II, Ireland declared itself neutral. But neutrality didn't mean the country was untouched by the conflict. Known as the The Emergency, the war left people in Ireland facing invasion fears, severe rationing, and an uncertain future. Thousands of Irish men and women crossed the Irish Sea to serve in Allied armies and work in British wartime industries. The memories of Ir...

"There were spies, informers and degenerates of every kind and we were here to do business." These were the words an IRA activist describing his desperate, shadowy quest to source weapons for the IRA in Europe. But who were these people who traded weapons and information to support the IRA campaign in Ireland. \ In this episode of Brothers in Pain: The IRA in a Revolutionary World , Dr. Brian Hanl...

The Irish War of Independence often conjures images of guerrilla fighters on lonely mountainsides, on the run from the Black and Tans. While that is part of the story, Ireland’s struggle for independence unfolded against the backdrop of a world in total crisis. As empires frayed and global movements for equality surged, the IRA sought out their own 'Brothers in Pain' navigating a shadow world of s...

On March 17th, thousands of St. Patrick's Day Parades take place across the globe. New York's parade, dating back to the 1760s, draws three million people and reinforces the stereotype that the parade is an American invention. Yet parades have been taking place since at least the early 17th century. The real origins of St. Patrick's Day Parade are far more complicated, and far more contentious, th...

Éamon de Valera is one of the most influential figures in modern Irish history. Born in New York in 1880s and raised in rural Limerick, he rose from obscurity to become a central figure in the Irish Revolution. He played a major role in the 1916 Rising, became the most internationally recognised Irish figure during the War of Independence, and was central to the Treaty split that led to the Civil...