The Troubles Podcast

This episode focuses on the two major feuds that occurred between the UVF and the UDA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is an introduction to the two largest loyalist groups that took part in the Troubles; the UVF and UDA. This first part focuses how they came to be, their similarities and differences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dessie O'Hare was a Republican paramilitary who was known for his brutality as well as his ability to evade the authorities on both sides of the border. This episode tells the story of his life, and the role he played in one of Ireland's most notorious kidnappings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Colin Ferguson served two tours in Northern Ireland as a soldier with the British army and in this episode of the podcast he talks about what life was like as a soldier in Northern Ireland in the nineties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gusty Spence was the leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force and was also the man who used his military background to shape the paramilitary group. But it would be the time spent in prison, that would cause him to change his view on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For eleven weeks, Shannon Irvine walked to school past protestors who threw bricks, fireworks and in one case a blast bomb, towards her. In this interview, we chat about what she remembers about life in Ardoyne and what it was like walking to school during the Holy Cross Dispute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For eleven weeks, Catholic schoolchildren had to walk to school protected by RUC officers in full riot gear, as they were shouted at and jeered by an angry crowd of loyalists. So how did things get to this point? This is the story of the Holy Cross Dispute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode focuses on the socialist Republican group, the INLA and how their formation deeply angered some members of the Official IRA. Seamus Costello was the man who founded the INLA, but he soon found it very difficult to give orders to men in Northern Ireland, while he himself was living in the Republic and once all hell broke loose, he knew the crosshair would rest firmly on him. Learn more...

Edward Carson was an Irishman, but with a very different view for Ireland. He believed that Ireland belonged wholly in union with Great Britain. Carson was willing to lead the movement against an independent Ireland, and along the way, he would rally hundreds of thousands of people to his cause, which would eventually lead to the formation of Northern Ireland. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

This weeks episode of the Troubles Podcast is about Stakeknife, who was one of the most damaging agents in the history of the Troubles. He was in charge of the nutting squad, which was a squad designed to seek out and execute informers. But little did many know, that he was the biggest, and most treasured informer of the British Army. And when his cover was finally blown, what happened to him was...

The Shankill Road Bombing of 1993 was a bombing which indiscriminately killed men, women and children and threatened to completely derail the burgeoning peace process in Northern Ireland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 1981 Hunger Strike was one of the most important moments in the history of the Troubles. This episode focuses on the strike, the men involved and the political discourse going on outside of the prison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 1981 Hunger Strike was the culmination of a five-year protest which began with Blanketmen and ended with the deaths of 10 men. This episode focuses on the background and the first 1980 hunger strike, which would act as a precursor for the one which took place in 1981 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s late in the evening in the three steps pub, in the small village of Dromintree in the northern Irish County of Armagh. A stranger has come into the pub, saying that he is a member of the Official IRA from West Belfast. He mingles with the locals, and at one stage leaps up on stage to sing a republican song, in front of an amused crowd. But something isn’t right. His story doesn’t make sense a...

August 11th, 2001 and three men are arrested in Colombia. The men were travelling with fake passports and claimed that they that they had been meeting FARC guerrillas to discuss the burgeoning peace process in the country as well as bird watching, but the Colombian security forces had a different view of what they were doing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Troubles Podcast returns in October. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a mid-season bonus, I wanted to release this full interview with Richard Moore. The Richard Moore episode, called Children of the Troubles, received a lot of positive feedback and comments. But the full interview with Richard is a good bit longer than what made it into the episode. So here is the entire interview, virtually unedited. Thanks again and see you in season three. Learn more about yo...

Pat Finucane was a solicitor who defended a number of high-profile republican paramilitaries. It was for this reason he was targeted and killed by loyalist paramilitaries. I may have said it before about previous episodes, but this is up there as being one of the most complicated legal cases in British history. The basic argument is that the 4 main loyalists who killed him were all informants for...

Many children were killed and injured in the conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This episode will first focus on the children who lost their lives during the conflict and then will be featuring an interview with Richard Moore, who was blinded at a young age after he was hit in the face with a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...

It’s August 9th, 1971 in Northern Ireland. The British Army had just launched Operation Demetrius, which was an operation aimed at completely smashing the IRA. Ultimately, the operation was a complete failure, and, in the district of Ballymurphy in Belfast, 11 people would lose their lives at the hand of British soldiers. But it would be almost 50 years later, that the families of the victims woul...

Dolours Price grew up in a staunchly republican family. From an early age, she joined the Provisional IRA and took part in a number of campaigns before being imprisoned and in later years turning completely against the Provisional IRA. At one stage, Dolours and her sister, Marion were two of the most infamous people in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Learn more about your ad choice...

In this episode we’re going to talk a little bit about the Good Friday Agreement, what life in Northern Ireland has been like since the Agreement, the impact of Brexit, the Northern Irish Protocol, coronavirus and how all of these things culminated with the rioting that occurred in early April of 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was a Saturday evening in the New Lodge area of Belfast. There was a jovial atmosphere in the Catholic Owned McGurk's Bar. Outside the pub, a man appeared and placed a parcel at the pub entrance and rushed back to their car before driving off. Moments later the bomb exploded. causing the whole building to collapse, killing and injuring most of the patrons inside. Learn more about your ad choice...

It was around 7 in the evening in the Divis Flats when there was a knock on the door of the McConville’s. The children answered the door to a number of individuals. They asked ‘where’s Jean’ and when she appeared they told her to put on a coat and they took her out into the night. They told the children that she would be back in 30 mins. That was the last time Jean McConville was seen alive. In th...

It was 5.30 in the evening, and sixteen textile workers were in a minibus on their way home from the factory they worked at. Four workers got out at Whitecross and the bus continued on before being flagged down and stopped by a man in a combat uniform. They asked which of the workers were Catholics and the one Catholic man made himself known. He was told to "Get down the road and don't look back"....