Episodes
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On this episode of the Irish History Show we looked at the Birmingham Pub Bombings of the 21st of November 1974 and the long campaign for justice for the six men who were wrongfully convicted of these killings.
To discuss the Birmingham Six we were joined by two special guests. Chris Mullin is an author, journalist and diarist and, from 1987 to 2010, he was the Labour Party MP for Sunderland South in England. His work with Granada Television's World in Action current affairs series, and his 1986 book, Error of Judgement: The Truth behind the Birmingham Pub Bombings, were integral in proving the innocence of the Birmingham Six. Error of Judgement was described by the author and journalist Sebastian Faulks as 'One of the greatest feats in investigative journalism.' A new edition of Error of Judgement has been published this year to mark 50 years since the bombings.
Dr. Michael Flavin is from the School of Global Studies in King's College, London. Michael's novels include The Voice Hearer and One Small Step. He has written many articles on the Troubles and a lot of his writing draws on his experience growing up in the Irish community in Birmingham in the 1970s. Michael's latest novel is Long is the Way and is due to be published next year.
We have started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the show we looked at the McMahon murders. The murders occurred on 24 March 1922 when six Catholic civilians were shot dead at the home of the McMahon family in Belfast. The victims were businessman Owen McMahon, four of his sons, and one of his employees. Two others were shot but survived, and a female family member was assaulted. Owen McMahon (50), Gerard McMahon (15), Frank McMahon (24), Patrick McMahon (22) and Edward McKinney (25) were killed outright while Bernard McMahon (26) died later. The youngest McMahon son, 12-year-old Michael, survived the attack by hiding behind furniture and pretending to be hit. John McMahon (30) survived despite serious gunshot wounds.
Nobody was ever prosecuted for the murders but it is believed the killers were members of the police and Ulster Special Constabulary.
We spoke to Dr. Edward Burke about his recent book, Ghosts of a Family: Ireland’s Most Infamous Unsolved Murder, the Outbreak of the Civil War and the Origins of the Modern Troubles. Dr. Burke investigates the circumstances of the murders and places it in the context of the extreme violence in the city at the time which became known as the Belfast Pogrom.
Edward Burke is an Assistant Professor in the History of War since 1945 at University College Dublin (UCD). He is currently the Director of the International War Studies MA programme and Director of Graduate Teaching at the School of History. Prior to joining UCD, he was an Assistant/Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Nottingham (2017-2022). From 2015 to 2017 Edward was a Lecturer in Strategic Studies at the University of Portsmouth, attached to RAFC Cranwell. He received his PhD in International Relations in 2016 from the University of St. Andrews.
We have started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
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On this episode of the show we were joined by Dr. Aidan Beatty to discuss his new book The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism published by Pluto Press.
Gerry Healy was the Galway born leader of the Socialist Labour League and the Workers Revolutionary Party. He was a key figure in Trotskyism and one of the most controversial leaders on the British left. His legacy is tainted by his expulsion from his own party under accusations of sexual abuse, his use of violence against political opponents and the cult like conditions of his party.
Aidan Beatty is an award-winning historian and lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Private Property and the Fear of Social Chaos, and Masculinity and Power in Irish Nationalism, which was awarded the James S. Donnelly Sr. Prize. He has written for Jacobin, the Irish Times and the Washington Post. He will be the president of the American Conference for Irish Studies in 2025.
We have started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
We have reached a very special milestone on the Irish History Show as this is our 100th episode! We discussed setting up the show and how it has evolved over the years. Our thanks to Near FM for originally broadcasting the show and our special thanks to all the amazing guests we've had over the years. We remember our favourite episodes and subjects we've returned to time and again.
Most importantly we want to thank you the listeners for all the support over the years and hopefully it won't take as long to reach 200 episodes!
We have started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the show, we discussed the Irish Civil War Fatalities Project.
The Irish Civil War Fatalities Project, supported with funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, seeks to identify all of the conflict-related fatalities in Ireland between the opening shots of the Civil War on 28 June 1922 and the ceasefire and dump arms order on 24 May 1923.
For decades, historians of the Civil War have resorted to estimates when surveying the human cost of Ireland's Civil War. Now, for the first time, UCC historian Dr Andy Bielenberg, assisted by John Dorney, has enumerated the civilian and combatant fatalities, allowing for a wide-ranging, sometimes surprising, analysis of the nature and geographic distribution of the casualties and their impact.
In collaboration with UCC’s Atlas of the Irish Revolution Team, the research findings have been cartographically represented in a searchable, interactive Civil War Fatalities map.
The project can be accessed here.
Our own John Dorney discussed his time working on the project and what information is contained on the new site.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we looked at the Plantation of Ulster. The Plantation was the colonisation of Ireland's northern province of Ulster by people from Britain during the reign of James VI and I. The official plantation began in 1609 in six of Ulster's nine counties, Donegal, Coleraine, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh and Cavan. Lands in counties Antrim, Down and Monaghan were privately planted with Crown support.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
The Nine Year War in Ireland took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. The rebellion was led by Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell and was a response to the Tudor Conquest in Ireland. The rebellion began in Ulster but eventually spread throughout the whole country. There were some significant Irish victories such as Clontibret and Yellow Ford but the Battle of Kinsale saw the English win a pivotal victory against the Irish and their Spanish allies.
(Unfotunately, when we were discussing the marriages of Hugh O'Neill, we referred to Mabel Bagenal as the former wife of Henry Bagenal. She was Henry's sister and she eloped with Hugh O'Neill, much to the anger of Henry Bagenal.)
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
The Desmond Rebellions occurred in 1569–1573 and 1579–1583 in the Irish province of Munster. They were rebellions by the Earl of Desmond, the head of the FitzGerald dynasty in Munster, and his followers, the Geraldines and their allies, against the threat of the extension of the English government over the province. The rebellions were motivated primarily by the desire to maintain the independence of feudal lords from their monarch but also had an element of religious antagonism between Catholic Geraldines and the Protestant English state. They culminated in the destruction of the Desmond dynasty and the plantation or colonisation of Munster with English Protestant settlers.
Two articles here from the Irish Story website on the Desmond Rebellions:
The First Desmond Rebellion.
The Second Desmond Rebellion.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we discussed the 1923 General Election in the Irish Free State. The election for the fourth Dáil was held on the 27th of August 1923. It was the first general election held since the establishment of the Irish Free State on the 6th of December 1922. The election was held in aftermath of the Irish Civil War, which had only ended a few short months before.
UCD Press has recently published a new book on the 1923 election called Vying for Victory. The book is edited by Mel Farrell, Elaine Callinan and Thomas Tormey and we were very pleased to be joined by Mel and Elaine on the show.
Both Dr. Elaine Callinan and Dr. Mel Farrell lecture in Irish history at Carlow College, St. Patrick's.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we discussed the Irish Army Mutiny of 1924. In March 1924 about 50 officers of the Free State’s National Army, who were set to be demobilised in the post- Civil War reduction of the Army, seized weapons and abandoned their posts. Led by erstwhile Army Director of Intelligence Liam Tobin and Charles Dalton, they delivered an ultimatum to the government, demanding that the Army Council, headed by Richard Mulcahy, resign and that they and their associates be given prominent commands.
They also demanded that the Army be purged of former British Army officers and that progress be made towards Michael Collins’ ideal of an all-Ireland Republic. Some contacts were made with interned anti-Treaty IRA prisoners to make common cause against the Free State government, though they were generally rejected by the anti-Treatyites, Civil War wounds being very fresh at the time.
Today the mutiny is often dismissed as a mere farce. These were however very dangerous men. Most had served in Collins’ IRA Squad and Intelligence Department in the War of Independence.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we discussed the Civil War in Kerry. We discussed Kerry during the War of Independence and the situation in the county at the time of the Truce, the reaction to the Anglo - Irish Treaty by the Republican movement and how the Civil War progressed in the county.
We covered the atrocities that were carried out in Kerry during the Civil War and the personalities involved.
Here is a link to a recent article by John Dorney about reprisals during the Civil War.
Apologies as there are some issues with the audio during the podcast.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we were joined by Gerard Shannon to discuss his new biography of Liam Lynch.
During the War of Independence, Liam Lynch was the officer in command of the Cork No. 2 Brigade of the IRA and later commander of the First Southern Division. He opposed the Anglo - Irish Treaty and during the Civil War he was Chief of Staff of the Anti - Treaty IRA.
Gerard Shannon is a historian from Skerries in Co. Dublin. In 2019 he wrote his MA thesis, for the School of History and Geography in Dublin City University, on Liam Lynch. Gerard has also written numerous articles for the Irish Story website.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show, John Dorney was joined by Dr. Terry Dunne to discuss the land question and agrarian radicalism during the revolutionary period.
Dr. Terry Dunne is a sociologist and historian and was Laois County Historian in Residence in 2021 and 2022. He is the host of the Peelers and Sheep podcast which is available here.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive.Audio Player -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we looked at executions carried out by the Free State government during the Irish Civil War.
The executions were made possible by legislation known as the Public Safety Bill, which was passed in the Dail on September 27, 1922. The emergency legislation gave to the National Army powers of punishment for anyone ‘taking part in or aiding and abetting attacks on the National Forces’, having possession of arms or explosives ‘without the proper authority’ or disobeying an Army General Order.
Military Courts could impose the sentence of death, imprisonment or penal servitude on those found to be guilty of such offences.
The Provisional Government, which was in place only to enact the Treaty and oversee the handover from the British administration to the Irish Free State, technically had no legal right to enact new legislation without assent of the Governor General, but this post had yet to be filled. Indeed, the Free State itself did not formally exist until December 7, 1922.
So, the Public Safety Bill was technically not a law but simply a resolution passed in the Dáil. It was not until August 1923 that the Free State would pass an Act of Indemnity for all actions committed during the Civil War and also passed new, formal legislation that it would retrospectively legalise what it had enacted in 1922.
John Dorney wrote an article on the executions for the Irish Story which is available here.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we discussed the current commemorations of the Irish Civil War and how it is being remembered 100 years on. We covered:
How the Irish Civil War is being commemorated (or not) 100 years on.How the conflict is interpreted today – democrats vs dictators or the unfinished revolution?The enduring mythology surrounding Michael CollinsThe difficulty in commemorating 1922 in an all-Ireland contextHow atrocities of that era can be remembered today.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
In the wake of the February 24, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, much attention has focused on the history of Ukraine. Nadia Dobrianska is a Ukrainian lawyer and human rights activist as well as a scholar of modern Irish history. She is also currently (August 2022) a refugee in Ireland, fleeing war in Ukraine.
Here we talk about the history of Ukraine and the parallels (and many differences) with Irish history.
Both countries have an important Viking medieval past.
Both were largely peasant nations, in which religion and language intertwined in traditional identity.
Both experienced Wars of Independence in the wake of the First World War, though in Ukraine’s case unsuccessful.
Both experienced catastrophic famines that are also remembered in part as attempts to exterminate the nation.
We have recently started a Patreon page for The Irish Story website and The Irish History Show. Please follow the link and your support is greatly appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=29204818
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show, John Dorney was joined by Dr. Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh to discuss the Civil War Memory Project, an oral history project in association with the National Folklore Collection (UCD), RTÉ and Scratch Films.
For many years the Irish Civil War of 1922-23 was a taboo topic in Ireland, rarely raised in public, except in a partisan manner.
Now 100 years on a project is underway to collect family and local memories of the conflict to recover how it was remembered at the local and family level.
The National Folklore collection is mounting a major project to collect such memories and these will also be recorded in a documentary, currently in production by Scratch films.
Those who are interested in the project and who wish to contribute can contact the National Folklore Collection at [email protected] or Scratch films at [email protected]
Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh is an Archivist for the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin. His research interests are vernacular architecture, traditional boats and fishing, the cultural landscape (especially those of Atlantic island communities), as well as folk drama and oral literature. He is joint editor of New Survey of Clare Island: v. 1: History and Cultural Landscape (1999).
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show John Dorney was joined by John Joe McGinley to discuss the Irish American Mob and orgainised crime from the 19th century onwards.
We speak about: the early gangs from the influx of Irish immigration after the Great Famine.
The Prohibition era when many Irish gangsters made fortunes and also their conflict with Italian crime organisations.
Famous Irish American criminals such as Vincent ‘Mad Dog’ Coll and Owney Madden.
The relationship of the ‘Irish mob’ with the broader Irish American community.
Later Irish gangs such as the ‘Westies’.
The demise of organised crime in the era of the RICO Act.
John Joe McGinley is a Donegal historian and a regular contributor to the Irish Story, Irish Central and Ireland's Own. His book Irish Wise Guys is available here.
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we were joined by journalist and author Ed Moloney to discuss the life of Ian Paisley.
Reverend Ian Paisley was the founder of the Free Presbyterian Church and the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party from 1971 to 2008. In 2007 he became the First Minister of Northern Ireland.
We discussed Paisley's rise to prominence in Northern Ireland during the 1960s; the political and religious traditions he came from; his American influences; his opposition to ecumenism, liberalism and the Civil Rights Movement; his relationship with Loyalist paramilitaries; his longevity and popularity in Northern Irish politics; power sharing with Sinn Féin, and the end of his leadership of both the DUP and the Free Presbyterian Church.
Ed Moloney is the former Northern Editor of both the Irish Times and the Sunday Tribune. He has published work in a variety of newspapers and magazines in Ireland, the UK, and the United States, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Economist, The Independent, The Guardian and The New Statesman.
Moloney is the author of three books dealing with aspects of the Irish Troubles, A Secret History of the IRA (2007), Paisley: From Demagogue to Democrat? (2008) and Voices from the Grave: Two Men’s War in Ireland (2010). He has also helped to produce documentaries for the BBC, Channel Four, London Weekend Television and a recent RTÉ documentary, Voices From the Grave, which was based on his book and was shortlisted for best documentary prize by the Irish Film and Television Academy.
Ed Moloney's website is available here. -
On this episode of the Irish History Show we were joined by Cían Harte to discuss Irish Army deserters during the Second World War. When the Second World War began the Irish government declared neutrality. As many neutral European nations were to find out, neutrality was no guarantee to avoiding invasion. In the episode we discussed the state of the Irish Defence Forces at the outbreak of war; the massive recruitment campaigns undertaken by the state forces; the conditions and morale of soldiers; reasons for desertion; serving soldiers deserting and joining the British military and the repercussions for these deserters after the war. Cían Harte is an historian, a serving officer in the Irish Defence Forces and self-published author of works such as 'Heroes Or Traitors? Irish Deserters of WWII', 'Soldiers of Sligo' & 'The Lost Tales: Riverstown's Great War, 1914-1918' among others.https://www.cianhartehistorian.com/Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive.
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