Vices and Volumes | Navigate Irish and British History's Absurdities from 1800s Books

Richard Maher, author of Sir Charles Wogan: Jacobite Soldier, Royal Agent and Man of Letters , joins Vices & Volumes to tell the extraordinary story of one of Ireland's most overlooked historical figures — a man from Kildare who smuggled a royal princess out of an Austrian palace in a snowstorm, and a researcher who spent eleven years and several trips to Spanish, French, and British archi...

Mayo and Galway, 1852. Five years after the Famine — the roofs are still off, the faces still marked. Sir Francis Bond Head, retired soldier and former Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, arrives in the west of Ireland with a firman from the constabulary, a carpet bag, and a deeply personal grievance against the Irish jaunting car. He wanted to see the real Ireland — not the tourist route, but th...

Found in a Dublin antique shop, this 1851 Victorian survey of London's poor contains one of the most vivid records of Famine-era Irish immigrants ever written — and it was penned by a Punch magazine co-founder who couldn't quite escape his own bias. Donate a Coffee https://ko-fi.com/vicesandvolumes More info at https://vicesandvolumes.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vicesandvolumes...

Support the show and buy me a Coffee https://ko-fi.com/vicesandvolumes Visit the National Maritime Museum Ireland https://www.mariner.ie/ In 1857, a copper wire left Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, bound for America. It did not quite arrive. The Atlantic telegraph cable was the most ambitious communications project in history — 2,600 miles of copper wrapped in Malaysian tree sap, coiled in a repurpose...

Three Georgian conduct books, one pocket-sized gift from 1827 London. Dr. Gregory's advice to his daughters: keep your intelligence "a profound secret — especially from the men." The perceptive women who read him had a rather different interpretation. Bound together by J.F. Dove in 1827, this dainty little volume contains three enormously influential texts: Hester Chapone's Letters on the Improvem...

Inside Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare — one of Ireland's finest Palladian houses — archivist Nicola Kelly opens over a thousand private Georgian letters, and Lady Louisa Conolly turns out to be magnificent company. Married at 15 in 1759, Louisa wrote to her younger sister Lady Sarah Lennox for over sixty years. She documented the renovation of Castletown's dining room and long ga...

Help support the show https://ko-fi.com/vicesandvolumes In 1845, Britain proposed repairs to a seminary it had built in Co. Kildare. Westminster duly lost its mind. A barrister printed his conclusions in capital letters. A Protestant Queen privately noted that the Protestants were 'a disgrace to the nation.' Gladstone resigned from Cabinet over the vote, then voted for it anyway. James Lor...

In 1878, Chambers Edinburgh Journal catalogued the Victorian gentleman at his most tedious—while women were forbidden from mentioning themselves at all. To contribute a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/vicesandvolumes to Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vicesandvolumes/ This week: Lord Erskine, so consumed by self-regard he asked what the great Irish orator Grattan said "of himself"—and rec...

In William Carleton's 1845 County Tyrone, Mary Murray arrived at farmhouses in a crimson cloak carrying matrimonial schemes that would shape entire parishes. This professional matchmaker convinced Biddy Sullivan and Paddy M'Cabe they were each dying of love for the other—they married while both believing the other had lied, only discovering their genuine affection at the altar. Carleton&#3...

A Yorkshire manufacturer's 1810 love letter compares himself to "a weeping hermit emerging from a cave" and ends with an advertisement for bridle cutlery. Victorian romance required industrial-scale stationery production, template letters from Mrs. Beeton, and navigating courtship protocols more complex than military campaigns. This episode explores how the 1840 Penny Post revolution...

In 1884, Irish born Lady Colin Campbell published articles in Cassell's Family Magazine teaching young women how to become "the perfect lady." Two years later, she'd be in court defending herself in the divorce scandal of the century—her intimate life dissected in newspapers across Britain. This episode explores the impossible standards Lady Colin Campbell outlined for Victorian women: white-heade...

In August 1852, Sir Francis Bond Head arrived in post-Famine Dublin and hired a local cabman as his guide. What followed was a tour where historical accuracy took a backseat to the ancient Irish tradition of entertaining visitors—a cultural practice rooted in Brehon Law's requirement to provide travelers with oigidecht: hospitality that included food, shelter, and importantly, entertainment. T...

Ever wondered how people survived winter before central heating? Spoiler: they didn't always. This episode takes you inside the Georgian and Victorian bedchamber, where staying warm could literally cost you your life. We're talking about warming pans filled with poisonous fumes, feather beds crawling with insects, and bed curtains so tightly drawn you could suffocate before morning. One household...

What if you could never mention yourself or your enemy in conversation? Victorian ladies' tongues required "constant restraint." Matilda Ann Mackarness' 1888 conduct book taught young women that conversation was actually a masterclass in silence. Discover why ladies could only discuss servants and babies after dinner while men debated politics. Learn how "awfully," &quo...

Two hounds clung together all night on a hedge surrounded by freezing floodwater. When the water receded, they were found "closely clasping each other—the friendly warmth that kept both alive." Peter Beckford in crisis reveals his true character. Part 2 explores Georgian veterinary practices: effective mange treatments (sulfur, whale oil, turpentine) versus deadly quicksilver remedies th...

In a Westport, County Mayo bookshop, an American tourist watched Avril read passages about dogs "emptying themselves" from an 1787 hunting manual and said: "You should do a podcast on old books." This is that book. Peter Beckford's "Thoughts on Hunting" (1781) elevated Georgian fox hunting into literary art, blending practical instruction with classical quotations...

How do you judge if a woman will make a good wife? Georgian radical William Cobbett's 1829 answer: watch her eat a mutton chop. Firm, decisive biting indicates good character. Tentative squeezing indicates disaster. Discover Cobbett's bizarre physical tests: walking speed reveals capacity for love (quick step = good, sauntering = cold-hearted mother), jaw movements predict industriousness,...

In 1645 England, Matthew Hopkins declared himself "Witch Finder General" and executed more people in two years than the previous century combined. His secret? Systematic methods for detecting familiar spirits—demonic creatures with names like Pyewacket, Vinegar Tom, and Grizel Greedigut. This second part of our witch trials series moves from legal corruption to examine the supernatural e...

From Salem, Massachusetts to Scotland and England, witch trials transformed courtrooms into instruments of systematic prosecution. Part 1 explores how the pursuit of witches corrupted entire legal systems, abandoning every principle of justice to hunt invisible enemies. Witness how spectral evidence made defense impossible—accusers claimed spirits attacked them while the accused's body was mil...

How did civilization's greatest achievement—the rule of law—become humanity's most efficient killing machine? In Colonial Salem, 1692, young girls screamed that invisible spirits were attacking them. The accused sat physically present in the courtroom, yet prosecutors claimed her spirit had separated from her body to commit diabolic violence miles away. This was spectral evidence: testimon...

A fox screaming at 3 AM outside your window sounds terrifying—but in 18th century Ireland, there was something far more chilling: the Banshee's whale announcing death in your family. When a midnight fox raid on host Avril's henhouse left her wide awake at 3 AM, she picked up an 1847 issue of the London Journal and discovered chapters on Irish supernatural folklore. What followed was a deep...

What do you get when a dishonorably discharged soldier, debtor's prison survivor, and perpetual scandal writes a fishing guide? A Victorian bestseller that went through 17 editions. In 1886, Captain John Joseph Dunn (writing as "Hi Regan") published "How and Where to Fish in Ireland"—ostensibly a practical fishing manual, but actually a hilarious window into Victorian Irela...

Ever wondered what happens when someone with dyslexia, an aggressive browsing habit in vintage bookshops, and absolutely no qualifications in English history decides to start a podcast? You're about to find out. Welcome to Vices and Volumes, where host Avril Clinton-Forde reads from her personal collection of books spanning the 1700s through the 1920s—and dives headfirst into the wonderful rab...