Arthur Griffith, ‘father of us all’
So said Michael Collins, yet despite his central role in the development of the Irish nationalism from which the Irish State would emerge, Arthur Griffith has had to settle for a side-line role in the...
12 Aug 20221h 20min
The life and times of Harry Boland
One of the most engaging figures of the revolutionary period, Harry Boland, along with his brother Gerry, joined the IRB in 1904 and participated in the 1916 Rising. He was centrally involved in the s...
5 Aug 20221h 11min
The assassination of Sir Henry Wilson and the Irish Civil War
On 22 June 1922 Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson, former Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Unionist MP for North Down, was assassinated outside his London home in Eaton Square. The anti-Treaty I...
22 Jun 20221h 13min
The ‘Belleek/Pettigo triangle’, May/June 1922
As part of the so-called ‘Northern Offensive’, on 27 May 1922, a combined force of pro-Treaty National Army and anti-Treaty IRA occupied the ‘Belleek/Pettigo triangle’, an enclave of Fermanagh/Norther...
3 Jun 202255min
Sister against sister—women, the Treaty split and the Civil War
(Recorded @ Phizzfest [Phibsborough Community Arts Festival], Sun 15 May 2022, Glasnevin Cemetery Museum) Given their activism in the revolutionary period, now widely acknowledged by historians, why ...
20 Mai 20221h 29min
Ulysses in history—history in Ulysses
In this centenary year of its publication, the History Ireland Hedge School considers James Joyce’s Ulysses, set in Dublin on a single day, 16 June 1904. What was the history of the book? What is the ...
6 Mai 20221h 17min
Burning the Big House—the story of the Irish country house in a time of war and revolution (Yale University Press)
Over the course of the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, nearly 300 ‘Big Houses’ (those belonging to aristocrats with in excess of 2,000 acres), 20% of a total of c. 1,500, were burned to the g...
29 Apr 202237min
The internal politics of the IRA before the Civil War
The Anglo-Irish Treaty sparked turmoil within the IRA. Some accepted it and joined the ranks of the Provisional Government’s new ‘National Army’; some remained neutral; the majority opposed it, but wi...
8 Apr 20221h 9min
