Irish History Podcast

This episode is the first of four that looks at a series of related feuds that ripped Ireland apart in the late Middle Ages. 'Fatal Feuds' begins in the late 13th century when the de Burgh and FitzGe…

In 1895 Bridget Cleary made international news after she was burned to death in South Tipperary. Rumours circulated she had been accused of being a witch. Could this be true? On the eve of the 20th c…

Mary Doheny was born in Ireland in the 1820s. A ruthless, mysterious and controversial woman she gained notoriety in the 1860s. In 1864 she stood trial for organising one of the most bizarre scams of…

The Irish Free State remained neutral in World War II. Nevertheless the country and its people still faced attack. In 1941 the Nazis bombed the North Strand in Dublin. However the most lethal explosi…

Hubert Butler (1900-1991) is a forgotten Irish hero. In 1938-39 he traveled to the Nazi Third Reich to help Jews escape persecution. While he ultimately helped save 150 people from the holocaust, he …

'1348: A Medieval Apocalypse' will immerse you in a fascinating and forgotten world. Late medieval Ireland was a land ravaged by invasion, famine and disease where history proves stranger than fictio…

In 1921 the War of Independence came to an end. Many had high hopes for what the future held in store for them in an Independent Ireland. However while people lived in what was officially called the …

In 1919 the War of Independence broke out in Ireland. In Castlecomer, Ireland’s largest mining community, this had a profound effect. While the I.R.A. fought the British Army in the surrounding count…

'The Road to War' returns to my series on the Castlecomer Coalfields. It takes you on a gripping journey through life in one small Irish town and the surrounding coalfields between 1894 & 1918. From…

The turkey only arrived in Northern Europe in 16th century so what did people eat for Christmas Dinner? In this episode I look at the foods available in medieval Ireland. This includes everything fro…

Strange as it may sound, if you lived in the Northwest of Ireland 1000 years ago you may well have witnessed your king attempting to mate with a horse! Medieval Ireland was a very strange place and t…

Its Christmas and to celebrate I am releasing three podcasts this week. This episode looks at the Ireland's hidden hand in history - Irish people who you have never heard of but nevertheless played k…

In the aftermath of the famine the people of Castlecomer were shell-shocked, reeling from years of death, disease and emigration. However by the 1880s this had changed. When yet another famine threat…

In 1845 life in the Castlecomer Coalfields was racked by economic recession and grinding poverty. When the potato crop, the staple diet of millions across Ireland, failed disaster struck. In the foll…

For three centuries the town of Castlecomer in North Co. Kilkenny staged one of the most fascinating but forgotten struggles in Irish history. Miners who worked in some of the most harsh working cond…

Fin hasn't joined a Black Metal band. However this episode is a break from the usual format and explores three very different topics. The Black Death section takes you through the medieval equivalent…

By 1190 the Normans were utterly dominant throughout much of Ireland. As undisputed masters they set about tranforming their lands into societies modelled on their homelands in Wales and England. Gae…

In this episode the Normans push far into the North and North west. There they come up against one of the greatest powers in medieval Ireland - the kingdom of Tyrone and its ruling families - the O’N…

The Kingdom of Connacht in the west of Ireland represented one of the greatest obstacles to Norman domination of Ireland. The ruling family, the O'Connors had resisted Norman intrusion into their kin…

Part XX sees us enter the 1190s and the Norman Invasion enters what might be called end game. In this decade they begin to advance in to the far west of the island. The Gaelic Irish response is at ti…