Irish History Podcast

In 1303 the Earl of Ulster, Richard de Burgh, amassed a large army in Dublin which was destined for Scotland, where they would fight none other than William Wallace (a.k.a. Braveheart). However getting this army of thousands from Dublin to Scotland created a logistical nightmare. In the podcast we look at a forgotten story of [...]

In 1090 Muirchertach O Briain, grandson of Brian Boru, faced the darkest moment of his rule as King of Munster. Defeated and vanquished by his rival the king of Ulster, Domnal McLochlainn, he faced two options; either accept his fate or try and claw his way back to power. Within a year he was at [...]

In February 1317 Dublin faced its greatest crisis. A huge army lead by Robert the Bruce, the victor of Bannockburn, was making its way to lay siege to the city. There was no Norman army to save Dublin. The city’s inhabitants were effectively on their own. However everyone in the city could not be trusted, [...]

In 1316, Hugh Lawless penned a famous letter describing life for Anglo-Normans in the Wicklow Mountains as being in a ‘confined and narrow part of the country namely between Newcastle and Wicklow where they have the sea between Wales and Ireland for a wall on one side and the mountains of Leinster and divers other [...]

In 1072 the aging King of Leinster Diarmait Mc Mael na mBó died. His death saw the descendents of Brian Boru try to follow in the footsetps of their famous ancestor and dominate Ireland but there was a queue of people waiting to stop them.  Although initially Ireland witnessed a certain amount of stability the [...]

Episode 16. The year is 1067. Godwin Godwinson the son and heir to the dead Saxon king Harold Godwinson fled to Ireland after the Norman Invasion of England. This podcast looks at the world he found in Ireland. How did he travel to Ireland? What did Dublin look like, sound like and smell like? What [...]

Episode 15 is a story of murder and injustice, set in 19th century Ireland. In a country struggling to recover from the famine tenants despised landlords and their agents who had treated them brutally during the famine. When an agent John Ellis was assassinated in north Tipperary in 1857 almost everyone in the area became [...]

 Episode 14 see Gaelic Ireland struggle to deal with the crisis and chaos that followed the death of the high king Maelseachnaill Mac Domnaill. This podcast journeys through a highly uncertain world where war was frequent and life had little value as several kings battled to control the island. We will see many try and [...]

In 1597 Dublin was ripped apart by a massive explosion that killed over 1% of the city’s population. This podcast looks at the background to the incredible events of March 1597. Set to the backdrop of  The Nine Years War when tensions ran high in Dublin as the English Army used the city as a [...]

Episode 12. This episode looks at the fascinating story of Dennis Doherty. Born in Derry in 1814, Doherty would spend most of his life in Australian prisons or trying to break out of them. His story is remarkable – he was flogged 3,000 times and spent years in solitary confinement but yet he continually struggled [...]

Episode 11. Brian Boru is without doubt Ireland’s most well known medieval figure while a battle he fought in 1014, the Battle of Contarf, is Irelands most famous medieval conflict. In this podcast we look at the real story behind Brian and the Battle of Clontarf. How did he become high-king? Was he really the [...]

Episode 10 sees the emergence of a titantic struggle between the two major players of the late 10th century – the O Neill High King, Maelseachnaill II and Brian Boru, the King of Munster. This war was without question one of  the greatest conflicts in early medieval Ireland. In a story full of intriguing naval [...]

I’m currently writing an audiobook on the Black Death in Ireland. The audio will focus on one particular town – Kilkenny. In focusing on a specific area I hope to detail what the impact of the plague was on individual people something that is too often lost in statistics and the incomprehensible death rates. Due [...]

Over the last week archaeologists have begun to excavate the remains of a shipwreck from the Spanish Armada. Lying off the coast of County Donegal, the timbers, musketballs and pottery found so far  reveal a tantalising glimpse of what else may lie on the sea bed. In this podcast, first released in 2010, you can [...]

Episode 8 sees medieval Ireland stand of the edge of a precipice. A rootless struggle for control of the O Neill kingdom breaks out in the North,  while in Munster a new comer to the podcast – the Dal Cais challengthe King of Munster for power in the South. While Ireland is on the verge [...]