Irish History Podcast

This series continues the story of the Great Famine into the notorious year of Black '47 by returning to the town of Skibbereen. Looking at how life in the town changed it details the horrifying lives many had to endure. However starvation was not the only way the famine changed Ireland and the show begins by looking at the unusual story of James Dillon, a coroner in Co Offaly who was tasked with...

As the situation deteriorated in Ireland in late 1846, the two Cork towns of Youghal and Skibbereen experienced the unfolding horrors in very different ways. The people of Youghal, due to local dynamics, were in a position to rise up against some of the causes of famine. Through the Autumn of 1846 they launched an insurrection in a desperate bid to stop food being exported. However at Skibbereen&n...

Many travellers who visited the west of Ireland in the 19th century considered it as a frontier of sorts. They were more often than not deeply racist, yet we still rely heavily on their accounts to reconstruct a picture of life at the time. In this show I question how reliable their accounts are. In an effort to create a more vivid picture of life in the 1840s I have interviewed with two arch...

Join Fin as he treks around Achill island visiting Ireland's newest beach and the ruins of a famine era village. Become a supporter & access dozens of exclusive podcasts Patreon www.patreon.com/irishpodcast Acast https://plus.acast.com/s/irishhistory 📢June 2023 Update - New Walking Tour 📢 I am thrilled to announce my brand new walking tour in Ireland's oldest city, Waterford. Join me and exp...

Through the summer of 1846 Ireland had endured terrible hunger and suffering. However against the odds the numbers who had starved to death were few. As many waited in great anticipation for the coming harvest, disaster struck when the potato blight returned on a much wider scale than in 1845. As the Irish MP Daniel O'Connell stated a 'death dealing famine' was on the cards. This show begins with...

Become a supporter & access dozens of exclusive podcasts Patreon www.patreon.com/irishpodcast Acast https://plus.acast.com/s/irishhistory 📢June 2023 Update - New Walking Tour 📢 I am thrilled to announce my brand new walking tour in Ireland's oldest city, Waterford. Join me and explore 1,000 years of history from the Vikings to Cromwell & Strongbow to the Irish Revolution.  Enhanced...

The summer of 1846 was a tense time in Ireland. As food grew scarce lawlessness, riots and violence became frequent. Everyone eagerly awaited May 15th when the British Government would open it's emergency food depots. Perhaps then the tensions and anxiety at the heart of Irish society would ease? However would the food in these emergency depots be enough to stave off famine until the harvest was r...

This show takes you through the winter of 1845 through to April 1846 as the situation in Ireland deteriorates. Food riots and protests become common, while the Famine crisis facing Ireland is consumed in bitter political disputes around free trade in London.  While the show follows the fate of millions through increasingly uncertain times it begins (as is often the case now) in a quite seclud...

As the harvest of 1845 approached in Ireland, rumours circulated that a mysterious disease was attacking the potato crop. While well informed botanists in London grew increasingly anxious about what lay ahead, many Irish peasants dependent on potatoes had little idea what was happening. When the harvest did fail, the Great Famine had begun. Terror gripped the population and I look at what the...

1845 is famous for one thing in Irish history – the beginning of the Great Famine. However contrary to what you might expect, if you lived in Ireland through most of 1845 there was little evidence to suggest Irish society stood on the brink of one of the greatest famines in history. This episode looks at the highs and lows of life in Ireland as the Famine approached. To this end we follow the life...

Lola Montez, born Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert, was one of the most scandalous women of the 19th century. She took Europe by storm with 'dances' that left little to the imagination - she was known to wear nothing beneath her tutu. Married three times she also had a string of famous lovers including a king, the composer Franz Liszt and the author Alexander Dumas. Were she alive today her friends would...

In 1845 the population of Ireland was heading towards 9 million with many people surviving on a diet of potatoes. This has lead many to claim that the island was overpopulated. In this podcast I head to a remote village of Inver in Erris to see how the population has changed over the past 150 years. I also investigate exactly how many people lived in Ireland, what was the standard of living and wh...

The series on the Great Famine got off to a bloody start with the story of Anne Devlin and the rebellions of 1798 and 1803. By the end of the first episode, Ireland had been incorporated into the United Kingdom under the Act of Union.  In this show we will see what life in Ireland was like after the Act of Union. Within a few decades inequality was soaring. Strikes, riots and assassination we...

This podcast, the first in my new series on the Great Famine, gives a background to Ireland in the 19th century. Entitled 'Rebel Island' it focuses on the life of one extraordinary Irish rebel - Anne Devlin. She lived a remarkable life and was involved in the 1798 and 1803 rebellions. These reshaped Ireland and had profound consequences impacting life right up to and during the Great Famine....

Over the past few months I have been preparing a major podcast series on the Great Famine of the 1840s and its finally here! This short episode is an introduction to the series, what you can expect from it and why I am making it. Basically its like an introduction to a book. If this isn't your thing and you want to crack on with the series the first episode - Rebel Island is available for patrons...

In the opening line of his novel The Go Between the writer L.P. Hartley famously quipped ‘ The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there ’. For me history is about attempting to visit this foreign country L.P. Hartley talked about and seeing what life was like. In this podcast I have trawled through eye witness accounts of travelers to early 19th century Ireland to give you...

'Letters from Dakota' is the story of my grandaunt Mollie Dwyer who emigrated to the USA when she was 15 years of age in 1906. Her emigrant experience was very different to most. Within two months she found herself in a convent in South Dakota training to be a nun. She would never return to the town she grew up in, save for the very occasional visit.  However for over 40 years she wrote to he...

I launched my first exclusive patron’s podcast on the Land War yesterday. The Land War is a fascinating struggle between Irish landlords and tenants between 1879 and 1882. Become a supporter & access dozens of exclusive podcasts Patreon www.patreon.com/irishpodcast Acast https://plus.acast.com/s/irishhistory 📢June 2023 Update - New Walking Tour 📢 I am thrilled to announce my brand new walkin...

The Phoenix Park Murders are one of the most famous assassinations in Irish History. On May 6th 1882 Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke were killed in brutal circumstances in the Phoenix Park. The full story is covered in Part I. This episode follows the manhunt for the assassins. While the police quickly identified the likely suspects, they had almost no evidence to make arrests. Thi...

The Phoenix Park Murders are among the most famous political assassinations in Irish History. On May 6th 1882, Lord Frederick Cavendish the new chief secretary for Ireland was assassinated in the Phoenix Park in brutal circumstances. Taking place at the height of the Land War, the fascinating story of the murders is set to the backdrop of riots, protests and other assassinations. In part I, I look...

In this episode I took my recorder and headed around my neighbourhood looking for the history of the Great Famine. Unsurprisingly I didn't have to travel far. With the Women's prison, the North Dublin Workhouse and the residence of the Lord Lieutenant all within a kilometre, this show is full of fascinating accounts recorded at the sites they took place. From the mansions of the powerful to t...

In this final episode on the Maamtrasna murders, we begin by picking up the story of this fascinating murder case in December 1882. Eight men have been sentenced to die in Galway Jail on December the 15th for their role in the brutal killings of the Joyce family. While five get their sentences commuted to the life imprisonment three are set to die. However at the last minute new evidence emerges....

In Part I of this series on the Maamtrasna murders I looked at one of the most brutal killings in 19th century Ireland when the Joyce family were attacked in their remote home in Maamtrasna on the Mayo-Galway border. This podcast follows looks at the trials. While the police made a major break through within days of the murder a botched attempt at swift justice would see the story of the trials be...

Prior to 1882, Maamtrasna a remote townland in the west of Ireland, was known to few outside Co. Galway. That all changed on the night of August 17th 1882 when one of the most brutal murders in 19th century Ireland took place there. Five members of the Joyce family were killed in a horrific and disturbing attack. In a deeply unnerving aspect of a case still shrouded in mystery, the perpetrators we...

Medieval outlaws have captured the human imagination for centuries. The story of Robin Hood who famously robbed from the rich to give to the poor has proved the most enduring. However most were ruthless individuals, many were willing to rob from the rich but few ever gave their bounty to the poor. This podcast is about a Irish man who was an outlaw in all but name. While Jack would avoid being dec...