On The Verge of Disaster: Ireland 1845 | The Great Famine IV
1845 is famous for one thing in Irish history – the beginning of the Great Famine. However contrary to what you might expect, if you lived in Ireland through most of 1845 there was little evidence to ...
8 Mars 201730min
The Scandalous Life of Lola Montez
Lola Montez, born Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert, was one of the most scandalous women of the 19th century. She took Europe by storm with 'dances' that left little to the imagination - she was known to wea...
20 Feb 201725min
Was Ireland Overpopulated in 1845? | The Great Famine III
In 1845 the population of Ireland was heading towards 9 million with many people surviving on a diet of potatoes. This has lead many to claim that the island was overpopulated. In this podcast I head ...
31 Jan 201723min
Rents, Riots and Volcanoes | The Great Famine II
The series on the Great Famine got off to a bloody start with the story of Anne Devlin and the rebellions of 1798 and 1803. By the end of the first episode, Ireland had been incorporated into the Unit...
24 Jan 201732min
Rebel Isle (1750-1803) | The Great Famine I
This podcast, the first in my new series on the Great Famine, gives a background to Ireland in the 19th century. Entitled 'Rebel Island' it focuses on the life of one extraordinary Irish rebel - Anne ...
18 Jan 201742min
The Great Irish Famine Series - An Introduction
Over the past few months I have been preparing a major podcast series on the Great Famine of the 1840s and its finally here! This short episode is an introduction to the series, what you can expect fr...
10 Jan 20175min
Hitchhiker's Guide to 1820s Ireland
In the opening line of his novel The Go Between the writer L.P. Hartley famously quipped ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there’. For me history is about attempting to visit ...
21 Dec 201617min
Letters from Dakota
'Letters from Dakota' is the story of my grandaunt Mollie Dwyer who emigrated to the USA when she was 15 years of age in 1906. Her emigrant experience was very different to most. Within two months she...
13 Dec 201627min
