Irish History Podcast

The history of the Great Hunger is often recounted through statistics and impersonal narratives. There are many reasons for this, but one significant factor is that many survivors were reluctant to s…

Typhoid Mary has inspired books, movies, and even a Marvel character, but the history of the Irish woman behind the name is less well known. Mary Mallon was born in County Tyrone in the late 19th cen…

By 1855, over two million Irish people had fled Ireland to escape the devastation of the Great Hunger. The journeys of these emigrants were often harrowing, and the term "Coffin Ship" has become syno…

Being hard drinkers is one of the most common stereotypes of Irish people around the world. While Irish consumption of alcohol is nowhere near the highest in Europe, there is no question beer and pub…

In May 1170, a small group of mercenaries landed in a remote corner of County Wexford, setting the stage for a dramatic chapter in Irish history. Just fourteen miles away, in the medieval city of Wat…

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Over a century after his death, Michael Collins remains one of Irish history's most iconic figures. Yet, his life and untimely death are still shrouded in myth and conspiracy. In this compelling epis…

Margaretta Eagar is a little-known figure in Irish history. In the early 20th century, she worked as a governess to the last Romanov Tsars of Russia. Eagar was just one of thousands of Irish people w…

St. Brigid is one of Ireland's most well-known saints. While Christian churches have experienced a crisis of faith in recent decades, she seems to buck the trend. People of all faiths and none can id…

In March 1939, James Murphy, a Cork man, became a wanted figure in Nazi Germany. As Europe hurtled towards war, Murphy published an unedited English translation of Hitler’s notorious book, Mein Kampf…

Over the past three decades, the Catholic Church has been engulfed by numerous sexual abuse scandals and accusations of power abuse. This has prompted many to question how it initially gained such in…

Winston Churchill is one of the most famous figures of the 20th century. Hailed in Britain as the man who won the war, his legacy in Ireland is far more complex. In this episode, I delve into history…

Victorian London was a city of immense wealth, but also shocking poverty. The historian Jerry White described it as "a metropolis of wealth, grandeur, culture, and sophistication alongside a hell of …

During the Great Hunger of the 1840s, one million Irish perished from starvation and hunger-related diseases. However, Ireland is surrounded by some of the best fishing grounds in Europe. This begs t…

Life expectancy in Ireland has doubled over the past 200 years, but why was it so low for so long? In this podcast, I delve into the factors that kept life expectancy down in Ireland's history and wh…

In 1719, the 17-year-old Polish Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska was seized by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. While the move shocked many in Europe, in the following months a group of Irish exi…

In this episode, I explore the ruins of a Temple and the intriguing concept of societal collapse and its relevance to Irish history. Often depicted as dramatic and apocalyptic, societal collapse is a…

Check out my new podcast 'Transatlantic: An Irish American History Podcast' with Damian Shiels https://linktr.ee/transatlanticpod

In this captivating episode, I explore the enigmatic world of prehisto…

By the late 1950s, over 20,000 individuals in the Republic of Ireland were confined in asylums—a staggering figure equivalent to 1 in every 133 Irish people at the time. This episode delves into how …

In 1900, the life expectancy in Dublin was a mere 49 years, a stark indicator of the city's dire living conditions. The Victorian city was notorious for its filth and disease, which proved an ideal b…