On this episode of the Irish History Show we were joined by Liz Gillis and James Brady to discuss the IRA in Dublin during the War of Independence.
Liz Gillis is an historian and researcher on RTE’s History Show. She is the author of seven books covering the Irish Revolutionary period 1916-23 including ‘Ireland Over All’, ‘The Fall of Dublin’, ‘Revolution in Dublin’, ‘Women of the Irish Revolution’, ‘The Hales Brothers and the Irish Revolution’, ‘May 25: The Burning of the Custom House 1921’ and co-author of ‘Richmond Barracks We Were There: 77 Women of the Easter Rising’.
James Brady is a local historian of republicanism in south County Dublin. His book ‘With the Sixth Battalion, South County Dublin and the War for Independence 1916-21’, was published in 2020 by Litter Press, Wexford.
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
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.
2021 marks 100 years since the creation of Northern Ireland. To discuss this, and the events that led up to the partition of Ireland, we were joined by Dr. Cormac Moore. Cormac is a historian in residence with Dublin City Council. His previous works include The GAA vs. Douglas Hyde, The Irish Soccer Split, and his most recent work, Birth of the Border – The impact of partition in Ireland.
On this episode of the Irish History Show we discussed the Home Rule Crisis of 1912 – 1914, proposals to partition Ireland, reactions to partition proposals from northern nationalists, the Long Committee, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the founding of Northern Ireland, the Anglo – Irish Treaty, the Boundary Commission, and the tangible effects of partition.
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 the president of the White House Historical Association, Stewart D. McLaurin, to discuss the life of the White House architect, James Hoban.
James Hoban was born in 1755 in Kilkenny and trained at the Dublin Society Drawing School in Grafton Street in Dublin. Following the American Revolutionary War he emigrated to the United States and worked as an architect in Philadelphia and South Carolina. In 1792 Hoban won a competition to design the president’s residence in the new federal capital.
On the show we discussed the work of the White House Historical Association; the new anthology published by the association on the life of Hoban, his education in Dublin and the type of architecture he would have seen and worked on; the Irish influences on his design for the White House; his ownership of slaves and the role of slave labour in building the White House; and Hoban’s membership of the Freemasons.
Stewart D. McLaurin has been president of the White House Historical Association since 2014. He leads the Association’s non-profit and non-partisan mission to support conservation and preservation at the White House with non-government funding. Mr. McLaurin has held leadership roles with national non-profit and higher education organizations such as the American Red Cross, Georgetown University, and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
On this episode of the Irish History Show we were joined by Anne Chambers to discuss her book, The Great Leviathan, The life of Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo, 1788 – 1845.
His story moves from Westport House in county Mayo to Eton, into the staid family world of King George III at Windsor Castle; through wild student days at Cambridge, on to Regency London and the scandalous world of celebrity, gambling clubs, bawd houses and theatres, to the sophisticated salons of Paris. Horse racing at Newmarket and the Curragh (he was a founder member of the Irish Turf Club) treasure-seeking with his college friend Lord Byron in Greece and Turkey, some of his ‘finds’ are on view in the British museum. A sensational trial at the Old Bailey in 1812 led to his imprisonment in Newgate goal. There is a hint of double-espionage about his time at the court of Joachim Murat, King of Naples and with Napoleon Bonaparte on the island of Elba, while his sleuthing in Italy on behalf of the ‘prince of pleasure’ George IV, (godfather to his eldest son) on the King’s equally debauched consort, Caroline, is in the realm of high comedy.
A passionate advocate of Catholic Emancipation, multi-denominational education and reform of the nefarious legal system, he did his best to alleviate the desperate circumstances of his numerous tenants, aggravated by a rapid rise in population and by the ‘curse of sub-division’. He established manufacturing outlets in Westport as an alternative to the over dependence on land and encouraged trade, mining, fishing and kelp harvesting. As famine engulfed the west in 1831 he imported food, built a hospital and raised money for relief and public works.
In 1834 Sligo was appointed Governor General of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. As owner of two plantations, Kelly’s and Cocoa Walk, which he inherited from his grandmother, Elizabeth Kelly, daughter of Galway-born Denis Kelly, former Chief Justice of Jamaica, the planters expected the new governor to be on their side. Sligo’s stated objective on his arrival on the island ‘to establish a social system absolved forever from the reproach of slavery’ however, set them on a bitter collision course. Sligo found slavery personally abhorrent. From the flogging of field workers with the dreaded cart-whip, branding with hot iron, to the whipping of female slaves, ‘I call on you to put an end to conduct so repugnant to humanity’ he ordered the Jamaican House of Assembly.
To restrain the worse excesses he personally monitored the activities of the sixty special magistrates appointed to investigate charges of brutality in the 900 plantations throughout the island. Much to the derision of their masters ‘he [Sligo] gave a patient hearing to the poorest Negro who might carry his grievance to Government House’. He advocated the building of schools for the black population, two of which he built at his own cost on his property. He was the first plantation owner to initiate a wage system for black workers and later, after emancipation in 1838, to divide his lands into farms leased to the former slaves.
The Planter-dominated Assembly accused Sligo of ‘interpreting the law in favour of the negro’ and, as he wrote, ‘set out to make Jamaica too hot to hold me.’ They withdrew his salary and started a campaign of vilification against him in the Jamaican and British press which, backed by powerful vested commercial interests, resulted in his removal from office in September 1836.
On this episode of the Irish History Show, we looked at Ireland’s involvement in the Anglo – Zulu War of 1879. We looked at British involvement in South Africa from their formal annexation of the Cape Town Colony in 1806; British immigration into the region throughout the 19th century; The complicated relationship between the British and the mainly Dutch colonists, the Boers; The rise of the Zulu nation to become the predominant native ethnic group in the east of what is now South Africa; Zulu society and their military prowess; The local British administration provoking a war with the Zulus so as to neutralise the power of Zululand; The war itself; Reactions to the war in Ireland, and the role of Irish people during the war.
On this episode of the Irish History Show, we were joined by Dr. Mary McAuliffe and Liz Gillis to discuss the role of women during the Irish Revolution.
We look at the radical political organisations for women in Ireland before the First World; Cumann na mBan; women’s role in 1916, the War of Independence and the Civil War; and women’s rights in the new Free State.
Dr. Mary McAuliffe is assistant professor in Gender Studies in University College Dublin. She has published widely on aspects of Irish women’s history, gendered and sexual violence in war, and social, political and public history. Her most recent works include a biography of 1916 veteran Margaret Skinnider and as a consultant and contributor on the TG4 documentary Cogadh ar Mhna.
Liz Gillis is an historian and researcher on RTE’s History Show. She is the author of such books as Women of the Irish Revolution, Revolution in Dublin and The Fall of Dublin.
Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive.
On this episode of the Irish History Show we discussed the upcoming commemorations in 2021 for the Decade of Centenaries.
2021 will mark the centenary of many important events in Irish history such as the Truce, the founding of Northern Ireland and the Anglo – Irish Treaty.
On this episode of the Irish History Show we were joined by Dr. Laura McAtackney and Dr. Brian Hanley to discuss the controversies surrounding the Decade of Centenaries.
Dr. Laura McAtackney is an associate professor in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark. In her work she explores the historical and contemporary archaeologies of institutions and colonialism of post conflict Northern Ireland. Some of her previous work includes Walling in and Walling Out, An Archaeology of the Troubles – The dark history of Long Kesh / Maze Prison and Kilmainhamgaolgraffiti.com, which explores female experiences of imprisonment during the Irish Civil War.
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.
