Three Castles Burning

The Liffey Swim is a beloved painting, and one of the most visited works in the National Gallery of Ireland. A century ago, it led to the first Olympic medal of the new Free State. With calls for the creative arts to return as a competitive dimension of the Olympics, this episode explores Jack B. Yeats and the cultural and political context of his win. Support TCB at www.patreon.com/threecastlesbu...

At the Irish Museum of Modern Art, a new exhibition explores the life and work of artist Hilary Heron.  Like many, I came away from it amazed that this important modernist sculptor was not better known here. Born in Dublin in 1923, her work achieved international recognition in her own lifetime. Dr. Billy Shortall is the author of an essay on Heron in the exhibition catalogue, and has done great w...

More than just one of Ireland's most beloved musicians, Martin Hayes is also the author of Shared Notes: A Musical Journey. In his memoir he introduces us to a host of brilliant characters, ranging from childhood friends and relations in East Clare to those who would become central to The Gloaming. One figure we meet is Tommie Potts, a Dublin firefighter from the Coombe and a fiddle player. The Li...

Orson Welles made his stage debut in Dublin. To him, The Gate Theatre would always be a part of the story of his own life development and professional career. Later, he returned to scenes of protest against the same theatre for hosting him. In time, all was forgiven and Welles would deliver an astonishing Q and A before a packed Dublin crowd who quizzed him on everything from American politics to...

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Red Roses For Me, the first album from The Pogues. Borrowing its title from Sean O'Casey, it also carries literary influences like Ulysses and Brendan Behan proudly. As an exhibition on the London-Irish currently runs in Dublin's EPIC emigration museum, what better time to discuss this defining London-Irish band who still mean so much? Here Comes Everybody b...

We know it as 'On Raglan Road', but the journey of the song that began life as a poem tells us a lot about Bohemian Dublin in an earlier time. In the Bailey tent at the Luke Kelly Festival, playwright Jimmy Murphy takes us through the story of the Kavanagh masterpiece Luke Kelly made his own. We also get a great rendition from Fergus Whelan (with a little help from Patrick Kavanagh in the recordin...

Like his father Jim Hand before him, promoter Brian Hand would build a real and lasting relationship with The Dubliners over many years. For singer and actor Phelim Drew, the band were like an extension of family. In this discussion, recorded live at the Luke Kelly Festival, we get into great personal memories of The Dubliners and what the band still mean today. Contains some bad language.

Fifty years ago today, a series of no-warning car bombs erupted across Dublin and Monaghan.  This would prove to be the bloodiest day of the Troubles. Immediately, questions were raised about how this event had come to pass. In a new documentary, director Joe Lee and producer Fergus Dowd explore what happened on 17 May 1974. Warning: This episode is quite graphic in describing the day. This episod...

Temporary interventions into the Dublin streetscape have a curious history. This week, the livestream portal with New York made international headlines. For me, it recalled the CowParade, Bowl of Light and other such things. When you put something out there on the street, there's no way of telling how people will respond. Support TCB: www.patreon.com/threecastlesburning

In 1970, the outdoor rock festival was a totally new idea in Ireland. Amidst press coverage of Woodstock and the Isle of Wight, focused on LSD and exagerated crowd trouble, the booking of Mungo Jerry, Thin Lizzy and others for Richmond Park would be the first Dublin experience of such a festival here. Why did this festival fail? And how, just a few short years later, had the festival become such a...

To the Dublin press, the American Civil War veterans in Dublin cut an unusual shape. These 'Yankee' characters looked different, but they also behaved differently. Under the direction of Captain Thomas J. Kelly, these men would be centrally important to the Fenian uprising of 1867. While history remembers this as a skirmish on a hill in Tallaght, much more happened in March 1867 than that.

The story of Mount Jerome Cemetery is the story of Victorian Dublin. There, many of the great innovaters of the city are at rest. If Glasnevin brings to mind the Irish revolution, Mount Jerome instead makes us think of the nineteenth century. Still, there is great diversity in who is (and isn't) buied there. This is a story that touches on everyone from Charles Stewart Parnell to the so-called 'Ge...

The labour leader Jim Larkin was international news when he departed Ireland in 1914. In America, Larkin would cross paths with the FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover, landing in prison for 'Criminal Anarchy'. What did all of this mean back in Dublin? My guest is Ronan Burtenshaw, author of a recent piece on Larkin for Jacobin magazine: https://jacobin.com/2024/01/jim-larkin-ireland-labor-150

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jim Larkin. In this two-part special, Ronan Burtenshaw (author of a recent piece exploring Larkin for Jacobin magazine) joins me to discuss this important and divisive revolutionary figure. Larkin in Dublin means 1913, but where did he come from? This story brings us from Liverpool Cathedral to the streets of West Belfast. Ronan's piece: https:...

Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc is no stranger to this podcast. While his latest book explores 'The Disappeared' (launching this month from Merrion Press), he has also been undertaking a study of the far-right in Ireland historically. Moving beyond the familiar, like the Army Comrades Association ('the Blueshirts'), Pádraig's study begins with some more overlooked groups. Even before Oswald Mosley, the Britis...

SEASON 3! A recent television debate on the Irish language in schools reminded me of a curious story from history. The Language Freedom Movement touches on many widely known figures in 1960s Ireland, including John B. Keane and the broadcaster Gay Byrne. In the Mansion House, a meeting descended into chaos.

2023 marks the 200th anniversary of the Royal Hibernian Academy, an institution which has moved across the Liffey owing to the flames of Easter Week, and which has championed the visual arts through an ever-changing Ireland.  Cristín Leach is the author of a new creative study of the body, which weaves history and art to tell the story.

Over five generations, one family have played a unique role in the story of the Phoenix Park. More than that, the Flanagan family have a history that stretches back even earlier in the story of this beloved space. Joyce maintained that in the particular is contained the universal - can we tell the story of a place through this one unique tale? The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park is available now...

Brendan Kelly is the author of a new history of Grangegorman and the asylum located there for generations. This conversation was recorded within the grounds of the site. What was the life of a patient in an asylum really like? Through letters, medical records and doctors' notes, Brendan Kelly gives us a glimpse inside Grangegorman and the lives of those who lived and worked there. Not a particular...

Ridley Scott doesn't seem to get on with historians, but here is a nice little story all about Napoleon and his surprising Dublin connections. One of the most revealing and personal insights into Napoleon came from a Dublin doctor who spent time with him on the island of St Helena. My Name Is Napoleon Bonaparte by Dónal Lunny and Frank Harte was released in 2001.

Nicola Pierce is the author of O'Connell Street: The History and Life of Dublin's O'Connell Street. It is a book as much about people as buildings, which charts the unique story of Ireland's most famous street. Now illuminated in a unique way as part of Dublin Winter Lights, we walked the street together on a busy evening chatting about its statues and landmarks. Thanks to the team at Dublin Winte...

James Morrissey has produced a beautiful and important book exploring the history of Claddagh Records and Garech Browne. 'Real to Reel' explores a record label which championed not only Irish folk and traditional music, but also poetry and the visual arts. Now, the label has returned with great new talents including OXN. Both me and James Morrissey will be appearing at 'Banter' at Other Voices thi...

Roger Doyle has made an incredible contribution to Irish music across decades. In this discussion he talks about everything from his own musical beginnings to Operating Theatre, and from The Diceman (Thom McGinty) to James Joyce. Roger Doyle's music is available from https://rogerdoyle1.bandcamp.com/ This edition of the podcast is dedicated to the memory of my friend Hughie Friel. (Image Credit: T...

Irish supernatural writing did not begin or end with the great Bram Stoker. Indeed, even within Stoker's own family there were other great writers. In this very special edition of the podcast, actor Kathy Rose O'Brien brings to life four extraordinary authors, while Brian J. Showers of Swan River Press talks us through this genre. www.swanriverpress.ie

This December - most likely - marks the centenary of the birth of Anthony Cronin. His memoir of Bohemian Dublin, Dead As Doornails (1976),  remains a masterpiece. With Jimmy Murphy, I went through the book and its importance. With thanks to Ian Dunphy at the Museum of Literature Ireland for sound. P.S, 'The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park' is out now!: https://www.kennys.ie/shop/pre-order-categor...