Later beluisteren
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Join Lorcan Collins for the final part of the Blanket Protest, this episode covers the 1981 Hunger Strikes led by Bobby Sands in which ten IRA and INLA Volunteers died in Long Kesh Prison (The H-Blocks). Lorcan is joined by Laurence McKeown who spent 70 days on his hunger strike and Gerry Adams who knew Bobby Sands. Music at the end, Bobby Sands Rhythm of Time by kind permission of Damien Dempsey.
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In this episode, Lorcan Collins examines the escalation of the Blanket and No Wash Protest in Long Kesh (H-Blocks) into the Irish Republican Hunger Strikes of 1980 and 1981. This is part one which deals specifically with the 1980 Hunger Strikes in which no protestor died. In this episode Lorcan also examines the life of Bobby Sands who leads the next Hunger Strike in 1981 which will be discussed in the next episode, part two. Lorcan is joined here by Seanna Walsh who was Bobby Sands' great friend.
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In this episode Lorcan Collins is joined by Blanketmen Séanna Walsh and Laurence McKeown. From 1978 the Blanket Protest escalated into the refusal to slop out and the No Wash protest. Lorcan Collins examines the reasons behind this escalation which led to Republican prisoners smearing excrement on their cell walls leading to international attention focusing on the Blanket Protest. This episode covers the years 1978 to 1980 just before the Hunger Strikes began.
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In 1976 Ciaran Nugent became the first man to refuse to wear the prison uniform when Political Status was removed from Republican and Loyalist prisoners. Ciaran and hundreds of prisoners who came after him wore nothing but the prison blanket. Lorcan Collins examines the history of the five year battle for POW Status for IRA and INLA prisoners in Long Kesh Prison. Special guests are Blanketmen Chopper McCotter and Laurence McKeown who endured a 70 day hunger strike in 1981. This is part one which deals with the period 1976 to 1978 when the No Wash Protest began.
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The Ambush of Kilmichael is the subject of this podcast episode. Lorcan Collins is joined by Joe Connell. Music at the end by Pol MacAdaim.
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Join Lorcan Collins for an episode on the life of Michael Joseph O'Rahilly, known as The O'Rahilly who was killed leading a charge against a British machine gun on Moore Street in Dublin during teh Easter Rising of 1916 in Ireland. The O'Rahilly was the Director of Arms for the Irish Volunteers and drove around Ireland cancelling the 1916 Rising only to join in when he discovered it was going ahead.
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Join Lorcan Collins as he recounts the story of how the IRA purchased the first Thompson Sub Machine guns in America and how that iconic weapon was intertwined with the fight for Irish freedom.
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Jimmy Gralton was deported from Leitrim, Ireland in 1933 after a campaign against him orchestrated by the Catholic Church. In this episode Lorcan Collins examines the reasons why an IRA Volunteer ended up being banished from the country of his birth. Special guest Donal Fallon.
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Join Lorcan Collins for part two of the podcast on James Connolly, detailing his life from his return to Ireland from the United States in 1910 to his eventual execution on 12 May 1916 in Kilmainham Gaol.
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Join Lorcan Collins for a podcast on the revolutionary socialist republican James Connolly who was wounded during the Easter Rising in 1916 and executed in Kilmainham Gaol. In Part One Lorcan traces Connolly's life, examining his early years in Scotland, how he joined the British Army, his family life in Ireland and his emigration to the United States in 1903 culminating with his return to Dublin in 1910.
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Join Lorcan Collins for a short podcast on the shooting of Cork's Lord Mayor Tómas MacCurtain in March 1920. The IRA take their revenge on District Inspector Swanzy, the RIC man who was one of the killers. This in turn has repercussions for the people of Lisburn and Belfast in August 1920.
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In this episode Lorcan Collins speaks with Dr Conor McNamara about the mutiny of Irish (and some English) soldiers in the British Army who were stationed in India. The mutiny began at teh end of June 1920 when the Black and Tans were rampaging around Ireland. When word got to India about what what happening in Ireland the soldiers of the Connaught Rangers downed arms and refused to serve the King with deadly consequences.
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Sinn Féin scored a massive victory in the December 1918 General Election in Ireland. In this episode Lorcan Collins is joined by Donal Fallon to discuss the factors that led to the rise in popularity of radical republican ideology in Ireland in the aftermath of the Easter Rising.
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Join Lorcan Collins as he traces the history of the infamous Black and Tans and their reign of terror during the fight for Irish Freedom in 1920/21. Topics include the Sack of Balbriggan, Bloody Sunday and Clonmult.
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In this story, we tell the tale of the Galway man whose murder was the centre of a political scandal.
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In this episode, we tell the story of how a giddy promise led to a man hunt, a murder, two executions, an opera, a play, a best selling novel and three major films.
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The story of one of the men behind one of the great prison breaks
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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 we were joined by Dr. Brian Hanley to discuss one of the biggest political scandals in 20th century Irish history, the Arms Crisis. On the 6th of May 1970 the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, sacked two of his most senior ministers, Charles Haughey and Neil Blaney and another minister, Kevin Boland, resigned in protest.
Haughey, Captain James Kelly, John Kelly and Albert Luykx were put on trial and charged with illegally importing arms into the state for northern nationalists. After the first trial collapsed, the defendants were all acquitted at a second trial. The crisis was to cause deep divisions within Fianna Fáil for the following twenty years. With the recent 50th anniversary of the trials many of the accepted narratives of the crisis are being challenged and in particular the role of Jack Lynch and what he knew about the plans to import arms at the time.
Dr. Brian Hanley lectures in 20th century Irish History in Trinity College, Dublin. He has written several books including The IRA 1926 – 36, The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party and Boiling Volcano – The impact of the Troubles on the Republic of Ireland 1968 – 79.
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 Seán Russell, the former Chief of Staff of the IRA. Russell continues to be a deeply controversial and divisive figure to the present day and his statue in Fairview Park, near Dublin's city centre, has been frequently vandalised, and at one stage decapitated.
Russell joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and fought in the Easter Rising. After being interned in Frongoch, he fought in the War of Independence, rising to become IRA Director of Munitions in 1920. He fought with the Anti - Treaty IRA in the Civil War and was interned by the new Irish government. He remained with IRA after his release and became Quarter Master General.
It was his actions during the Second World War that would lead to his continuing notoriety. As chief of staff he oversaw the ill fated bombing campaign in British cities in 1939. In 1940, following a tour of the United States, he travelled to Genoa and then onto Berlin where he held discussions with German military intelligence and received explosives training with the Abwehr.
As he was travelling back to Ireland aboard a German U - Boat he suffered a burst stomach ulcer and died.
Gerard Shannon is a historian from Skerries in Co. Dublin and a graduate of the School of History and Geography in DCU. He is currently working on a biography of the IRA Chief of Staff during the Civil War, Liam Lynch for Merrion Press. You can find his website at gerardshannon.com
Gerard has written two articles on Russell for the Irish Story website which are available here: https://www.theirishstory.com/2020/07/02/the-only-irishman-that-was-incorruptible-sean-russell-and-the-ira-part-one-1893-1930/#.YL_5tvlKjIU
https://www.theirishstory.com/2020/07/13/worthy-successor-of-tone-and-casement-sean-russell-and-the-ira-part-two-1931-40/#.YL_52_lKjIU
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive. - Laat meer zien
