Sure, It’s Only History

Billy Galligan shares the leap from a 23-year career in the Irish Defence Forces to a new life in Georgia, tracing the fear, humor, and culture shock of emigration. From a bewildering bread aisle to a solitary oath of allegiance, he reflects on identity, belonging, and the long road to becoming an American.

This episode traces the overlooked history of Irish migration to America, from Catholic indentured servants in colonial Florida and Virginia to the huge wave of Ulster Presbyterian settlers pushing into the frontier. It also explores how religion, law, and empire shaped Irish life in the colonies and helped set the stage for Irish influence in the Revolution.

This episode traces the devastation of the Irish potato blight, the collapse of communities across Ireland, and the desperate flight that followed. It also explores the brutal reality of the coffin ships and the quarantine stations that greeted survivors in North America.

This episode explores how young Irish women migrated alone to the United States in huge numbers, endured nativist stereotypes like the caricature of Bridget, and survived the isolation of domestic service. It also reveals how they used their bargaining power, sent remittances home, and helped build the next generation of Irish-America.

This episode explores how Irish immigrants transformed hardship into influence through the ward, parish, and union—a survival system that became a political force in American cities. It also traces how machine politics, labor power, and public works turned newcomers into key players in shaping modern urban democracy.

This episode traces how Irish immigrants in America built their own institutions, turned neighborhood organizing into political power, and helped reshape urban machine politics. It also explores the Kennedy breakthrough, the cost of assimilation, and the tension between authentic Irish heritage and modern-day Plastic Paddy nostalgia.

This episode traces how Irish famine migrants arrived in America as desperate laborers, built the canals, railways, sewers, and streets of major cities, and faced brutal anti-immigrant hostility along the way. It also follows their rise from exploited workers to political power brokers who helped shape the modern urban United States.

This episode explores how Irish-American money helped bankroll the Irish revolution, then later shaped U.S. diplomacy during the Northern Ireland peace process. It also follows the relationship into the modern era, from American tech investment in Dublin to the emotional pull of ancestral return.

Two exhausted aviators attempt the first non-stop transatlantic flight in a modified Vickers Vimy, only to touch down in a Connemara bog and stumble into history. The episode follows their triumphant reception, tragic aftermath, and the quiet memorial left behind in Ireland.

Alcock and Brown’s 1919 transatlantic crossing turns into a nightmare of lost radio, blinding fog, and a terrifying upside-down plunge over the ocean. The episode follows Brown’s wing-walking ice removal and the brutal, freezing endurance that carried them to the Irish coast.

Discover how a newspaper challenge launched a desperate race to cross the Atlantic, driving aviation forward through wartime innovation and sheer audacity. The episode follows the underdog Vickers team as they cram a bomber with fuel, fight brutal takeoff conditions, and vanish into the dark with no radio contact.

This episode explores how the 1916 Easter Rising shifted from a damaged rebellion into a national cause after the executions at Kilmainham Gaol. It also follows the survivors to Frongoch and reflects on how Dublin’s landscape still carries the memory of those events.

We trace the chaotic first moments of the Easter Rising as rebels storm the GPO, Patrick Pearse reads the Proclamation, and baffled Dubliners react with laughter, suspicion, and plenty of confusion. The episode explores how a bank-holiday uprising turned into a mix of farce, looting, and the spark of a national revolution.

This episode follows the escalation of the Easter Rising in Dublin, from the HMS Helga shelling Liberty Hall to the firestorm on O’Connell Street and the civilian toll of urban warfare. It also covers the desperate stand at Mount Street Bridge, the surrender at Moore Street, and how public anger later transformed the rebels into martyrs.

Tom Clarke and Seán MacDiarmada rebuild the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the shadows, then race toward rebellion as World War I creates a brief opening for action. When the Aud’s rifles are lost and Eoin MacNeill cancels the Volunteers, Pearse and Connolly still choose to march into a doomed but world-changing uprising.