Irish History Podcast

This episode returns to the series Partisans - Irish stories from the Spanish Civil War. This show looks at the two groups of Irish fighters who traveled to Spain - the Irish Brigade better known as the Blueshirts and the antifascist International Brigades. Over the last eight decades they have been among the most controversial figures of 20th century Irish history. The podcast seperates the fact...

St Peter’s Church in Drogheda Co Louth contains what has to be one of the most unsettling religious relics on display anywhere in the world. This is the head of an Irish man - Oliver Plunkett - who was hanged drawn and quartered in London in 1681. For religious catholics, the head of Plunkett, who was later declared a saint, is believed to have supernatural powers and can cure illnesses. The story...

The Deaf community are rarely mentioned in general histories of Ireland. Prior to making this episode I knew almost nothing about their rich history. In this podcast I interview the historian Cormac Leonard from Trinity College Dublin. Cormac reveals the fascinating history of the Deaf Community in Ireland. He provides vivid accounts of deaf people struggling against authorities in workhouses and...

How well do you know your Irish history? Nows the time to find out! In this podcast, I read out 63 history questions. As I read each question you select the correct answer from five options in the online answer sheet here www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/quiz. Once you submit your answers you will get your score and the correct answers automatically sent your email! The top score so far is 52/63. Can yo...

This show is 40 minutes of escapism from Covid-19. In the podcast I explore some of the history and historic places within two kilometres of my home in Kilkenny. This journey starts in the 19th century and takes you back 1,000 years. You will hear stories from a 19th century mental asylum, visit a medieval hospital, walk down a medieval street, hear the strange story of a dog whose death symbolise...

Recently I discovered that my great great grandmother Catherine Murphy lost her sister and her daughter within two days of each other in February 1919 during the Great Flu pandemic. This highlighted how disease has long been part of our history. For this episode I decided to catch up with the historian John Dorney who recently published an article on the history of epidemics in Ireland. You can fi...

The Great Famine, the Sitcom Friends and Prohibition campaigners in 19th century Belfast all have one thing in common – in some way shape or form influenced the popularity of coffee in Ireland. This podcast which continues the story of coffee in Ireland revealing how modern Irish coffee culture is nothing new. Indeed your great grandparents may well have enjoyed take away coffee as much...

Calling Irish History Fans! Test your knowledge against listeners from across the world on April 11th. I will be hosting an online history table quiz on YouTube. Listeners from the US, Canada, the UK & Irleand have already signed up so global bragging rights are on offer! Registration is free but essential at historyquiz.eventbrite.com While the quiz is free but I am urging participants to don...

The Irish coffee industry generates hundreds of million of euros every year. This is a pretty recent development - when I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s the only coffee available was instant coffee.  However Ireland's relationship with coffee did not begin in the last 20 years. If anything this is the second or even third wave of coffee culture to hit this country. In this show I Iook...

We are all taking precautionary measures to avoid Covid-19, but this is not the first time humans have faced such threats. This short episode looks at the story of the humorous but frantic preparations that took place in 1900 when Ireland faced an potential outbreak of bubonic plague. Its will sound strangely familiar! The next episode of the podcast is part I of the Irish history of coffee. Becom...

Between 1898 and 1902, the Irish playwright John Millington Synge spent several summers on the Aran Islands. Shaped by the harsh environment of the North Atlantic Ocean the islanders lived in a unique society. Old customs and traditions that had died in many parts of Ireland still survived on the islands.  Synge left a mesmerising account of island life and this podcast transports you back to...

In the last episode (A Land to Die For Part I) we followed the story of William Sheehan. Raised in a community obsessed with land he had become involved in a violent dispute over his family farm after his eviction in 1882. By late 1883 Sheehan, wanting a fresh start, had emigrated to New Zealand. However he could not escape his violent past. Within months of his arrival news reached New Zealand he...

Land has been the cause of some of the most vicious feuds and brutal murders in modern irish history. Often portrayed as the poor tenant farmer against powerful landlords, the real stories were often more complex. In a society where people developed what was an unhealthy obsession with land there were all too many willing to kill friends family and neighbours over it.  The sentiments which fu...

The year 1916 is known for one event in Irish history – the Easter Rising. However as that fateful weekend approached most Dubliners were oblivious to the fact that their city stood on the threshold of history. This podcast focuses on three of those Dubliners, and takes look around their city on the eve of the rising, revealing what the city looked like, sounded like and even smelled like! Th...

This podcast transports you back to Ireland during the summer of 1963. This was a fascinating time; JFK visited Ireland, 1% of the population were priests or nuns and instead of downloading Tinder you found love in the classifieds of a newspaper! Rumours of hidden Nazi treausre from World War II was headline news while a Third World War with the Soviet Union seemed imminent. Become a supporter &am...

First built in 1582, the Hole in the Wall pub in Kilkenny was the perfect location to record this episode. I was joined by DJ Walsh of the podcast Snugcast and we looked at the history of drinking in Ireland.  Starting in the late Middle Ages, this podcast is a whistlestop tour through Irish drinking habits over 800 years. Myself and DJ talk about what Irish people drink and how this has chan...

This history of Dunmore cave is mysterious and gripping. Around the year 930 the Vikings massacred large numbers of people in a battle fought around the cave. By the 18th century some of the earliest explorers found large numbers of human remains scattered across this extensive tunnel system. While this may be evidence of a brutal Viking massacre, recent archaeological excavations and analysis hav...

I have exciting plans for 2020. Amongst other things I will be starting a major series on the Irish War of Independence. However I need your advice on what shape this wil. Tune in to find out whats coming up in the next few months and how you can help me design this new series. www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/survey Become a supporter & access dozens of exclusive podcasts Patreon www.patreon.com/ir...

When creating episodes I normally try to tell wider events in Irish history by focusing on the lives of an individual person. This podcast takes a different approach. I interview Dr Mark Clinton about the history of one specific place - Carrickmines Castle. Mark lead the excavations that unearthed the ruins of the castle destroyed in the 17th century. By focusing on this castle we were able to hav...

In July 1936 Peadar O'Donnell, a veteran of the Irish war of Independence and civil war travelled to Spain on holiday. He was among those caught up in the opening stages of the Spanish Civil War. He witnessed the chaotic opening phase of the conflict providing gripping eye witness detail. As this podcast reveals O'Donnell was in Barcelona and was both inspired and horrified by what he saw. The cit...

In this episode we continue the story of the Irish people who fought in the Spanish Civil War. Our focus turns to the life of Bob Doyle. A member of the IRA and later a communist his life explains why people went on to fight against fascism in Spain. Beginning with his early childhood set to the backdrop of grinding poverty in Dublin slums, the podcast is an evocative and fascinating journey throu...

This is the second episode in the series Partisans - Irish Stories from the Spanish Civil War. In this podcast we meet our first partisan Aileen O'Brien, a 22 year old Irish American who moved to Ireland in 1935. O'Brien was always a mysterious figure - her contemporaries were never quite sure what to make of her. Some considered her a fascist, others thought her a naive catholic while intelligenc...

This is the first episode of Partisans, a new weekly series created by myself and Stewart Reddin. While the series focuses on the experiences of Irish people in the Spanish Civil War, this episode sets the scene. It explains the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, the crisis that consumed Spanish politics in the 1930s and the far reaching implications of that conflict not least for people in Irelan...

This bonus show looks at a famous event that haunts Irish history - the Four Courts Explosion. In June 1922 during the opening phase of the Irish Civil War, the Public Records Office was destroyed in a massive explosion that rocked Dublin City Centre. Several centuries of Irish historical records had been stored in the building, most of which were incinerated. In this episode I explain the backgro...

On November the 18th my new podcast series 'Partisans' begins. Created by mysef and Stewart Reddin it looks at the fascinating stories of Irish people who fought in Spanish Civil War. Tune in to find out more... Thanks to Keith Hynes for the Artwork Badges available at www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/shop Become a supporter & access dozens of exclusive podcasts Patreon www.patreon.com/irishpodcast...