Irish History Podcast

This show is 40 minutes of escapism from Covid-19. In the podcast I explore some of the history and historic places within two kilometres of my home in Kilkenny. This journey starts in the 19th century and takes you back 1,000 years. You will hear stories from a 19th century mental asylum, visit a medieval hospital, walk down a medieval street, hear the strange story of a dog whose death symbolised an epoch of Irish history and finish with the story of a forgotten hero. Support the show: www.patreon.com/irishpodcast www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/shop  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Recently I discovered that my great great grandmother Catherine Murphy lost her sister and her daughter within two days of each other in February 1919 during the Great Flu pandemic. This highlighted how disease has long been part of our history. For this episode I decided to catch up with the historian John Dorney who recently published an article on the history of epidemics in Ireland. You can find John's article on epidemics in Ireland and also his great podcast the Irish History Show at theIrishstory.com. Support the show: www.patreon.com/irishpodcast www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/shop  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Great Famine, the Sitcom Friends and Prohibition campaigners in 19th century Belfast all have one thing in common – in some way shape or form influenced the popularity of coffee in Ireland. This podcast which continues the story of coffee in Ireland revealing how modern Irish coffee culture is nothing new. Indeed your great grandparents may well have enjoyed take away coffee as much as you do. This show also includes a fascinating interview with Dr Órfhlaith Campbell on Ireland's first coffee chain in the later 19th century! Dont forget to register for next Saturday's Irish History Quiz Night at www.historyquiz.eventbrite.com Support the show at www.patreon.com/irishpodcast  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Calling Irish History Fans! Test your knowledge against listeners from across the world on April 11th. I will be hosting an online history table quiz on YouTube. Listeners from the US, Canada, the UK & Irleand have already signed up so global bragging rights are on offer! Registration is free but essential at historyquiz.eventbrite.com While the quiz is free but I am urging participants to donate to the Mater Foundation https://www.materfoundation.ie/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Irish coffee industry generates hundreds of million of euros every year. This is a pretty recent development - when I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s the only coffee available was instant coffee.  However Ireland's relationship with coffee did not begin in the last 20 years. If anything this is the second or even third wave of coffee culture to hit this country. In this show I Iook at the early history of coffee tracing the origins of the drink in Ireland back to the 17th century This will bring us inside the coffee houses of 18th century Dublin when coffee was an elite drink in society. This episode also lifts the lid on a darker side to the Irish history of coffee – in the second half of the show I interview Cuban researcher Giselle Gonzalez Garcia who is researching the history of an Irish man who became one of the largest coffee producers in Cuba in the early 19th century.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We are all taking precautionary measures to avoid Covid-19, but this is not the first time humans have faced such threats. This short episode looks at the story of the humorous but frantic preparations that took place in 1900 when Ireland faced an potential outbreak of bubonic plague. Its will sound strangely familiar! The next episode of the podcast is part I of the Irish history of coffee. To get exclusive early access to that episode and all bonus podcasts and audiobooks (including an audiobook on the Black Death in Ireland check out patreon.com/irishpodcast).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Between 1898 and 1902, the Irish playwright John Millington Synge spent several summers on the Aran Islands. Shaped by the harsh environment of the North Atlantic Ocean the islanders lived in a unique society. Old customs and traditions that had died in many parts of Ireland still survived on the islands.  Synge left a mesmerising account of island life and this podcast transports you back to the summer of 1901. You will hear the vivid descriptions of a society so different it is hard to believe it existed into the 20th century.  It is a time and place that is now lost and gone forever. John Millington Synge's words are read by Aidan Crowe http://castawayactors.com/male-actors/aidan-crowe/ www.patreon.com/irishpodcast  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the last episode (A Land to Die For Part I) we followed the story of William Sheehan. Raised in a community obsessed with land he had become involved in a violent dispute over his family farm after his eviction in 1882. By late 1883 Sheehan, wanting a fresh start, had emigrated to New Zealand. However he could not escape his violent past. Within months of his arrival news reached New Zealand he was wanted for murder in Ireland This episode reveals who Sheehan had killed and the sensational trial that followed... Support the show at patreon.com/irishpodcast  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Land has been the cause of some of the most vicious feuds and brutal murders in modern irish history. Often portrayed as the poor tenant farmer against powerful landlords, the real stories were often more complex. In a society where people developed what was an unhealthy obsession with land there were all too many willing to kill friends family and neighbours over it.  The sentiments which fuelled this were epitomised in John B Keane play and later an Oscar nominated movie The Field, where the central the Bull McCabe who commits murders over land says  It's my field. It's my child. I nursed it. I nourished it. I saw to its every want. I dug the rocks out of it with my bare hands and I made a living thing of it! My only want is that green grass, that lovely green grass, and you want to take it away from me, and in the sight of God I can't let you do that. While the Bull McCabe was a fictional character that story was based on real life events. Indeed every county in Ireland had its own story of a land related murder. This podcast tells one - a feud over a farm outside the East Cork town of Castletownroche. Taking places in the decades after the famine this dispute resulted in the deaths of four people. Buried for nearly a century and half this story is told for the first time in this two part podcast.  Support the show at patreon.com/irishpodcast  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The year 1916 is known for one event in Irish history – the Easter Rising. However as that fateful weekend approached most Dubliners were oblivious to the fact that their city stood on the threshold of history. This podcast focuses on three of those Dubliners, and takes look around their city on the eve of the rising, revealing what the city looked like, sounded like and even smelled like! This podcast is a journey into the houses of the most wealthy citizens to the homes of those struggling at the margins. We will move from prisons to workhouses and garner a sense of what Dublin was like on the eve of the most famous chapter in its long history.  Tickets for the 10th anniversary live podcast are available now at irishhistorypodcast.eventbrite.ie. Merch is available at www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/shop  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This podcast transports you back to Ireland during the summer of 1963. This was a fascinating time; JFK visited Ireland, 1% of the population were priests or nuns and instead of downloading Tinder you found love in the classifieds of a newspaper! Rumours of hidden Nazi treausre from World War II was headline news while a Third World War with the Soviet Union seemed imminent.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

**I have a live show coming up at Kino, Cork on February 6th, 2020. You can get tickets here https://uticket.ie** First built in 1582, the Hole in the Wall pub in Kilkenny was the perfect location to record this episode. I was joined by DJ Walsh of the podcast Snugcast and we looked at the history of drinking in Ireland.  Starting in the late Middle Ages, this podcast is a whistlestop tour through Irish drinking habits over 800 years. Myself and DJ talk about what Irish people drink and how this has changed. We also picked apart the reasons for Ireland's deeply problematic atttitude to alcohol.  The podcast finishes with a discussion on drinking habits in Ireland in the 21st Century.  Thanks to DJ Walsh of Snugcast!  You can hear DJ's podcast below  iTunes   Spotify Follow Snugcast on twitter  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tickets for my upcoming show in Cork City on Feb 8th 2020 are available now at https://uticket.ie/event/irish-history-podcast-qbp202 ********************************************************** This history of Dunmore cave is mysterious and gripping. Around the year 930 the Vikings massacred large numbers of people in a battle fought around the cave. By the 18th century some of the earliest explorers found large numbers of human remains scattered across this extensive tunnel system. While this may be evidence of a brutal Viking massacre, recent archaeological excavations and analysis have suggested the full story may be more complex. In this episode myself and the archaeologist Neil Jackman joined guide John McInerney and ventured into Dunmore Cave to record a show in this fascinating location and look at its dark and gripping history. Neil Jackman is the host of Amplifiy Archaeology a podcast on Irish Archaeology. I can't recommend this show enough. https://www.abartaheritage.ie/amplify-archaeology-podcast/  John McInerney is the head guide at Dunmore Cave. You can find out more about Dunmore Cave at https://www.heritageireland.ie/en/south-east/dunmorecave/ Help create the upcoming series on the Irish War of Independence - www.irishhistorypodcsast.ie/survey  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I have exciting plans for 2020. Amongst other things I will be starting a major series on the Irish War of Independence. However I need your advice on what shape this wil. Tune in to find out whats coming up in the next few months and how you can help me design this new series. www.irishhistorypodcast.ie/survey  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When creating episodes I normally try to tell wider events in Irish history by focusing on the lives of an individual person. This podcast takes a different approach. I interview Dr Mark Clinton about the history of one specific place - Carrickmines Castle. Mark lead the excavations that unearthed the ruins of the castle destroyed in the 17th century. By focusing on this castle we were able to have a wide ranging conversation that covers centuries of history. We began with the Norman Invasion, made our way through the origins of sectarian tensions in Ireland before looking at a brutal siege and massacre during the 1640s. Then we finally finished by looking at the destruction of archaeological sites in Ireland in the 21st Century. You can get Mark's book Carrickmines Castle - Rise and Fall in all good bookshops. This is the final episode for 2019. Thanks for tuning in throughout the year - it means alot to me. I hope you and yours have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Fin  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.