Irish History Podcast

On a freezing January morning in 1785, four cannons echoed across Dublin. Thousands of people abandoned their work and flooded into Ranelagh to watch Richard Crosbie step into a wicker basket, untie the ropes, and drift into the sky.

To the stunned crowd below, they were watching the dawn of a new age.

Except they weren't. When Crosbie died forty years later, travel in Ireland was just as slow and gruelling as it had always been.

Today, we are constantly told we are living through unprecedented, breakneck change. The ground feels...

The supernatural is viewed with healthy scepticism today but not so in the past. This episode looks at what our ancestors really believe about ghosts and the supernatural? Historian Dr Clodagh Tait joins me to explore why the supernatural was so important to Irish society and how they were woven into every day life.

First released in October 2023, this listener-favourite episode examines why the supernatural mattered in Irish history.

On November 11 my new series, The Shepherds' Secrets begins. This series explores the history of the Ireland's notorious Magdalene Laundries through the story of...

Every November, the Royal British Legion organises remembrance ceremonies and millions of people wear red poppies. Often portrayed as a way to remember the dead of the World Wars, these commemorations have a far more complicated history in Ireland and Britain. They have been contested since their inception.

In the 1920s, remembrance ceremonies in Dublin became a focus for unionist demonstrations after independence, provoking considerable unrest. During the Troubles, commemorations honouring the British armed forces became contentious in new ways given the British Army’s role in the conflict in the North.

In th...

On Christmas Day 1929, postman Larry Griffin disappeared from Stradbally, Co. Waterford. His bicycle was found abandoned outside the village. While evidence suggested his disappearance was suspicious, the case became an enduring mystery.

In this episode, I’m joined by Fachtna Ó Drisceoil, author of The Missing Postman: What Really Happened to Larry Griffin?, to explore a case that became a national scandal. From an illicit Christmas party to a troubled Garda investigation, dramatic arrests and retracted testimony, the story challenges the often idealised image of village life in post-independence Ireland.

At its heart lies an uns...

Childhood in the past was hard, but how children were treated and what their lives were truly like is often left out of Irish history.

In this episode historian Frank Hopkins joins me to look at the darkest corners of childhood in 18th and 19th century Ireland: the boys sold to master chimney sweeps, the trade in stolen children's clothes and the poverty that could lead to infanticde. 

We explore how children were viewed Irish society, why people sold and bought children, how the courts treated child criminals as adults and how reformers eventually won t...

In the late 1960s, the Provisional IRA and what became modern Sinn Féin emerged from a bitter split in the Irish republican movement. This split would shape not only the Troubles but also Irish politics down to the present day.

However, for the last five decades, the story of how and why that split occurred has been clouded by enduring conspiracy theories.

The most prominent of these claims that the Irish government in Dublin orchestrated the split to create a more conservative force in the Provisional IRA and neutralise left-wing republicanism. Many o...

The 18th century was a golden age of Irish smuggling. It's estimated that as many as one third of all luxury goods entering Ireland were brought in by smugglers. Far from being a fringe activity, smuggling was woven into the wider economy and remarkably was often a community enterprise with entire villages involved. It's very different than we imagine: while perhaps less glamorous, it was far more lucrative and important to the Irish economy. In this episode I'm joined by historian James Doherty to explore why smuggling boomed in the 18th century, who was involved and why entire communities...

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On 26 August 1940, two German aircraft crossed the coast of County Wexford and flew towards the small village of Campile. One aircraft dropped bombs near Ambrosetown, while the other attacked the tiny village of Campile a few miles further east. Three women, Mary Ellen Kent, Catherine Kent and Kathleen Hurley were killed. 

The bombing shattered the belief that Ireland’s neutrality could protect it from the Second World War. It also ignited a debate that has lasted for decades: Was the attack intentional or were the pilots lost...

On 7 May 1915, the passenger liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off the coast of County Cork. The enormous ship sank in just 18 minutes, killing over one thousands people.

The sinking became one of the most controversial events of the First World War, provoking questions that remains the source of debate today. 

Why did the Lusitania sink so quickly? What caused the second explosion reported by survivors? How much ammunition and war material was the ship carrying? Did this cargo make the ship a legitimate military target or was the a...

Every year, fragments of long-lost ships wash ashore on Irish beaches. They are remnants of the thousands of shipwrecks scattered around our coast, dating from Prehistory to the Second World War. Each wreck has a fascinating story from how they went down to their rediscovery often centuries later. 

In this episode, I speak with Dublin Port Heritage Director Lar Joye at a new exhibition exploring the shipwrecks of Dublin Bay. Our conversation explores several disasters including the famous cases of the Leinster, the Dorset and the Tayleur.

We discuss the stories behind these sh...

In 1922, Ireland gained its independence. The new state promised to revive the Irish language. A century later, English still dominates daily life. What went wrong?

In this episode, I speak to John Walsh of the University of Galway, author of One Hundred Years of Irish Language Policy, 1922–2022, about why a movement that had real momentum in the years before independence stalled in the decades that followed.

John traces the high ambition and lofty ideals to the failed policies of successive Irish governments. He also reveals how at times outright hostility to the language within the po...

In the 1920s, the newly established Irish Free State embarked on one of the most ambitious engineering projects in its history: the Shannon Scheme at Ardnacrusha.

This was a state-of-the-art hydroelectric plant that paved the way for the electrification of Irish society. The scheme developed an almost mythic reputation, becoming a powerful symbol of independence, progress and modernisation.

But behind the concrete and turbines was a darker story. Thousands of poorly paid labourers worked in brutal conditions, dozens were killed and hundreds suffered life-changing injuries. Many were left in poverty while Irish society celebrated...

A video version of this episode is available on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/irish-history-podcast/id363368392

On the day Hitler invaded Poland, another Hitler was making headlines in Britain. It was not the dictator, but his Irish sister-in-law, Bridget Hitler, who had been hauled before the courts in London over a mundane, unpaid electricity bill. This episode explores the life of this woman and the strange reality of the "Irish Hitlers."

For eight decades, the story of Bridget and her son has been muddied by sensational claims: that she hosted...

Family history is often where the heroic version of the past falls apart.

We like to imagine our ancestors standing on the right side of history. Someone in the GPO in 1916 or in the IRA in 1920. We like to think they made brave choice when it mattered. But most people were not heroes, revolutionaries or figures from the history books. They were ordinary people trying to survive events they could not control.

That is what makes family secrets so revealing. They show us how people actually lived through history, without knowing how things...

In the summer of 1907, the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from the heart of British power in Ireland, under the noses of the police, the military and the political establishment. Worth £50,000 at the time, their disappearance made headlines around the world. It was also deeply humiliating for the British authorities, coming just days before King Edward VII was due to visit Dublin.

On the surface, it seemed like the perfect crime. The jewels were never recovered, and more than a century later, it remains unclear exactly when the theft even took place.

But behind t...

Irish republicans had many natural allies during the War of Independence. Irish communities in the United States offered vital support, while revolutionaries in India and Egypt were also fighting for freedom from the British Empire. But the search for allies also led Irish republicans into far more complicated territory.

Across the British Empire, they courted support not from colonised peoples, but from European settlers and their descendants in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, many of them with Irish roots. In Europe, they looked to the Vatican, despite the Catholic Church’s long-standing suspicion of re...

Liverpool and New York haunt the story of Irish independence in a way few other places do. Though separated by more than 5,000 kilometres of ocean, both ports were part of a wider Atlantic world in which Ireland occupied a central place.

By the 1920s Liverpool and New York were among the most Irish cities on the planet. Both had been transformed by generations of Irish migration and in both cities Irish politics shaped everyday life.

During the War of Independence, these communities became crucial to the republican movement. Money, weapons, propaganda...

Ogham is Ireland’s oldest known writing system, dating back more than 1,500 years. If you have ever seen strange lines carved along the edge of an old stone, you may have been looking at ogham.

But what did those marks mean? Who carved them? Were they gravestones, boundary markers, family claims to lands or something else entirely?

In this episode, I speak with ogham expert Dr Nora White about how this ancient writing system worked, where it came from and what it reveals about early Ireland. These short inscriptions preserve some of the earliest evidence of...

'We are doing this because you are doing it in Ireland'.

These were the words of an IRA volunteer in Manchester explaining attacks in Britain during the Irish War of Independence.

During the conflict, Britain and particularly England became a major battlefield. Britain was not only geographically close to Ireland, it was also home to large Irish communities in many major cities. Between 1919 and 1922, the IRA made sustained efforts to bring the conflict across the Irish Sea, carrying out hundreds of attacks, most of them in England.

This forgotten front of the war...

In August 1882, a brutal mass murder in a remote valley in the west of Ireland shocked the world. At Maamtrasna, a family, the Joyces, were attacked in their home. The victims ranged from a teenage girl to an 80-year-old woman. The police quickly suspected that the killers had been neighbours and even relatives of the Joyce family. However, a motive was elusive. As wider Irish society was shocked by the killings, injustice was followed by injustice.

Indeed, the trials would soon overshadow the crime itself, unfolding into one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in...

A recent hospital visit means there is no new episode this week, but it reminded me of this classic from early 2024! Tune in to find out more

How difficult was life in the Middle Ages? This is something archaeologists and historians have debated for decades. In recent years, new techniques, including genetic analysis, have given us new insights into the lives of our distant ancestors in the Medieval Era. Their findings are unsettling. Life in the Middle Ages was far more difficult than we imagine.

My guest in this episode is Prof. Eileen...

Dublin is famous for its Georgian squares, medieval cathedral, castle and revolutionary history. But the cornerstone of Dublin's history is undoubtedly the port.

Nearly 1,200 years ago, the Vikings established a settlement on the banks of the Liffey, and from that moment, Dublin's fate was tied to the sea. The port became the gateway where Ireland met the wider world. Ships carried goods, armies, ideas and people in and out of the city, connecting Dublin to Britain, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean and the far reaches of empire.

But Dublin Port's history is far more than...

As the Irish Revolution broke out, Europe was gripped by political upheaval, fear of revolution, and rising antisemitism. In conservative and right-wing circles, the so-called “Jewish Question” loomed large. Claims that Jews were secretly fomenting revolution across the world became increasingly common, feeding conspiracy theories that shaped how many people interpreted events from Russia to Ireland.

In this episode of Brothers in Pain, Dr Brian Hanley explores how these ideas influenced perceptions of the Irish Revolution. Leading British figures repeatedly claimed that Jews were secretly behind unrest in Ireland, reflecting the wider antisemitic beliefs circulating in Brit...

Between 1641 and 1653, Ireland was engulfed by devastating war. It was a period of extraordinary violence, famine and social collapse. The death toll was staggering. As many as 25% of the population may have perished.

At the heart of this conflict was siege warfare. Across Ireland, towns, castles, forts and fortified houses came under attack. Some were taken by storm, while others were blockaded until starvation and disease did their work. Defenders faced cannon fire, tunnelling, psychological warfare and the terrifying prospect of what might happen if the walls were breached. Meanwhile, thousands of civilians had no escape...

During the Irish War of Independence, republicans in Ireland looked far beyond Britain and America for support. In Egypt and India, they found allies. Secret meetings took place between IRA representatives and Egyptian revolutionaries, while Irish republicans also made contact with Indian nationalists who were waging their own struggle against British rule. Across the Empire, activists began to see their causes as connected, bound together by a common enemy and a shared desire for freedom.

But this was never a simple story of solidarity. For generations, Irish people had also served the British Empire in India and...

In 1939, Ireland declared itself neutral in the Second World War. But neutrality did not mean the island was safe. Indeed, both Germany and Britain developed plans to occupy the entire island.

This episode focuses on Operation Green, Hitler's secret invasion plan for Ireland, and Plan W, the Irish government's defensive strategy. Historian James Doherty joins me to explain this intriguing aspect of the Second World War in Ireland. We begin by exploring why Ireland was important to both sides in the war. Then James details the German invasion plan and the why the British were determined...

The Irish War of Independence & Revolution saw the IRA pitted against Crown forces across the island. However, on the ground in Ireland, allegiance was often more complicated than is sometimes remembered.

Ireland had a long tradition of service in the British Army, and during the conflict thousands of Irishmen served not only in British military ranks but also in the police forces sent to crush the revolution. Even the Black and Tans, remembered as outsiders and occupiers, included surprising numbers of Irish recruits.

This episode explores the uncomfortable and often forgotten story of the...

How did Ireland become an English-speaking country? Was it colonialism, the Great Hunger, the education system or emigration that drove the shift from Irish to English?

In this episode, I am joined by Dr Nicholas Wolf to explore one of the biggest questions in Irish history: how Irish, once the dominant language of the island, lost ground over the centuries. 

Nicholas explains how this is a multifaceted story, beginning in the wars of the seventeenth century but continuing through the Great Famine of the 1840s and beyond.

While he explores the impact c...

“The Irish fight for liberty is the greatest epic of the modern age… those suffering together under British imperialism must learn to coordinate their effort before they can hope to be free.”

These words from the Black radical Cyril Briggs captured how many people of colour viewed the Irish War of Independence. Today, the Irish Revolution is usually remembered as a struggle shaped by empire, nationalism and religion. But race also haunted this history. As Ireland fought for freedom, racial tensions were erupting across the world. In 1919, the United States was convulsed by the Red Summer, when w...

Irish funerals and wakes are one of the more famous aspects of our culture. Often taking the form of a celebration, it has been said we do death well. However the modern Irish funeral is not the timeless tradition we often imagine. In this episode of the Irish History Podcast I explore the strange history of Irish funerals and the lost world of 19th-century death customs.

Drawing on folklore and first-hand accounts, I explore the history behind the banshee (bean sí) and other less well known death omens. I also trace the strange a...

"Intercourse between Bolshevism and Sinn Féin" These were the words one British newspaper used to describe the relationship between the Irish Republican movement and the fledgling Soviet Union during the Irish Revolution. It was an unlikely pairing. Ireland became a deeply conservative, Catholic country where communism was viewed with suspicion and fear. Yet during the Irish War of Independence, as British forces fought republicans across the island, whispers of Soviet support and communist sympathy rippled through both Dublin and London.

But how real was this link? Did the IRA truly seek Soviet weapons and backing? A...

For Dublin's gay community, Irish Independence and the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 heralded anything but freedom. While the new state promised change, the gay community faced decades of repression, arrest, and severe punishment. Yet despite this, they continued to build lives, relationships, and communities in the shadow of fear.

In this episode, I am joined by historian Averill Earls to discuss her book Love in the Lav, a fascinating history of the community in Dublin in the decades after Irish independence. While repression is central to the story, this conversation also uncovers a...

“Keep handing it to the Micks. The Roman Catholic Irish are, and always have been, the only un-Americanised people in the United States.”  

These words came from a supporter of Admiral William S. Sims, an ardent opponent of Irish republicans in the United States in the 1920s.  This episode of Brothers in Pain explores the crucial battle for American public opinion during the Irish War of Independence. 

While the equivalent of over one hundred million dollars was raised for republican organisations and for victims of the war of independence in Ireland, there was also strong oppo...

At the outbreak of World War II, Ireland declared itself neutral. But neutrality didn't mean the country was untouched by the conflict. Known as the The Emergency, the war left people in Ireland facing invasion fears, severe rationing, and an uncertain future. Thousands of Irish men and women crossed the Irish Sea to serve in Allied armies and work in British wartime industries.

The memories of Ireland's wartime experience is now at the cusp of living memory. In 2025 Waterford Treasures Museum, talked to those who had memories of the war. In this episode, I speak with...

"There were spies, informers and degenerates of every kind and we were here to do business." These were the words an IRA activist describing his desperate, shadowy quest to source weapons for the IRA in Europe. But who were these people who traded weapons and information to support the IRA campaign in Ireland. \

In this episode of Brothers in Pain: The IRA in a Revolutionary World, Dr. Brian Hanley goes beyond the battlefields to uncover the hidden networks of the Irish Revolution. From the dangerous underworld of the continent to clandestine shipments across the Atlantic, we...

The Irish War of Independence often conjures images of guerrilla fighters on lonely mountainsides, on the run from the Black and Tans. While that is part of the story, Ireland’s struggle for independence unfolded against the backdrop of a world in total crisis. As empires frayed and global movements for equality surged, the IRA sought out their own 'Brothers in Pain' navigating a shadow world of smugglers, gun runners, and unlikely international allies from the Soviet Union to the United States.

This overlooked international dimension is the focus of a new series on the Irish Hi...

On March 17th, thousands of St. Patrick's Day Parades take place across the globe. New York's parade, dating back to the 1760s, draws three million people and reinforces the stereotype that the parade is an American invention. Yet parades have been taking place since at least the early 17th century. The real origins of St. Patrick's Day Parade are far more complicated, and far more contentious, than anyone imagines.

In this episode, originally released on Transatlantic, the Irish American history podcast I make with Damian Shiels, we explore this history with Dr. Cian T. McMahon from th...

Éamon de Valera is one of the most influential figures in modern Irish history. Born in New York in 1880s and raised in rural Limerick, he rose from obscurity to become a central figure in the Irish Revolution. He played a major role in the 1916 Rising, became the most internationally recognised Irish figure during the War of Independence, and was central to the Treaty split that led to the Civil War. Although defeated in that conflict he returned to politics as a founder of Fianna Fáil and, in 1932, began the long era in which he dominated Irish public li...

In the late nineteenth century the United States pushed west and its expansion unleashed devastating violence against Native Americans. Forced from their lands and herded onto reservations Native communities faced a relentless campaign of dispossession and massacre. Thousands of miles away in Ireland deep poverty drove many to enlist in the US Army and they became participants in these same frontier wars. This contradiction is stark. People who had been pushed from their own homes by hardship helped push Native Americans from theirs and in some cases took part in atrocities.

In this episode Damian Shiels...

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, lions, tigers and even elephants toured towns and cities across Ireland. Long before modern zoos, travelling menageries brought wild animals from across the globe into marketplaces, fairgrounds and urban streets. For many people, this was their first encounter with creatures they had only ever seen in books or sermons.

In this episode, I’m joined by historian Karina Holton to explore the fascinating and largely forgotten history of Irish menageries between 1790 and 1840. We discuss what these exhibitions were, how they differed from circuses and modern zoos, and what it...