Irish History Podcast

This week see the release of the first major movie set during the Great Famine. Starring James Frecheville, Stephen Rae, Jim Broadbent & Hugo Weaving Black '47 is one of the most eagerly awaited Iris…

This week sees the launch of the movie Black '47 & my return to the Great Famine series.

So whether you want to find out the history behind the movie or catch up on the series to date this is podcast …

The Mulranny Police Conspiracy is a little-known story that took place in the west of Ireland at the turn of the 20th century. The setting is Mulranny – a stunning village along the Wild Atlantic Way…

The Iniskea Islands are among the most remote places in Ireland. Although deserted today, throughout the 19th century the lives of the islanders were the source of bizarre rumours. Numerous outsiders…

In the 1830s the British politican George Lewis described the fate of an informer in ireland as a man "doomed to certain death....he would be hunted through the country like a mad dog every hand woul…

Did the experiences of the Famine drive Irish people insane?

In this episode I look at the story of the famine survivor John Thompson who ended up in the Rainhill asylum in Lancashire in the 1860s. In…

The Great Hunger is not something we associate with war and certainly not wars in other countries. However the Famine is inextricably linked to the story of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Around…

After Ireland, no country was more affected by the Great Famine than the USA. Millions of Irish people emigrated to the United States during and after the Great Famine. This is their story. Through t…

Coffin Ships are one of the most enduring images from the Great Famine. This was the name given to the boats that carried Irish Famine emigrants to North America in 1847. This sinister title comes fr…

As people across the world prepare to mark St Patrick's day this podcast looks what at happened on St Patricks Day during the worst year of the Great Famine. Celebrations were not cancelled but on a …

This short podcast explains the Dublin Famine Tour, my new interactive historical experience which launches on St Patricks Weekend.

On this walking tour I guide you through Victorian Dublin, explainin…

Emigration is arguably the greatest legacy of the Great Irish Famine. Between 1846 and 1851, 1.25 million Irish people passed through the port of Liverpool alone to escape the Great Hunger. This exod…

Over the course of the Great Famine, hundreds of thousands of Irish people were evicted from their homes.

As ruthless landlords showed no pity, eviction was a death sentence for many starving tenants …

This episode marks a return to the Great Famine Series. Coming podcasts will detail the later phase of the Famine including emigration and the bitter struggle that broke out between lanldords & tenan…

Isabella Cadel, Grace O Toole, Fynyna O Toohig. These are all women forgotten by history who lived intriguing and fascinating lives. The three had one thing in common - they were all rebels in mediev…

The last podcast looked at the arrival of the one time Nazi Commando Otto Skorzeny in Ireland in 1957 and the welcome he received from some of the most influential people in Dublin. This podcast cont…

This is the first of two podcasts which looks at the story of Otto Skorzeny, a notorious Nazi with a long but forgotten connection to Ireland.

It is set in the aftermath of World War II to the intrigu…

Believe it or not the first Irish person to visit China left Europe in 1318 arriving. His fascinating journey would take several years. Known only as 'James of Ireland' this a story embroiled in the …

Over the coming weeks I am taking a break from the Great Famine Series to make a mini series entitled 'Outsiders'. These podcasts will focus on people who for one reason or another lived at the perip…

The crumbling ruins of workhouses are one of the last visible reminders of the horrors of the Great Hunger in the Irish landscape. During the Great Famine they became home to the unwanted in Irish so…