Born in 1917 in Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare, Brendan O’Regan’s background was in hotel management and catering, working in the family hotel in Ennis, the St Stephen’s Green Club in Dublin and the world’s first duty-free shop in Shannon Airport, wh

St Brigit 1500—who was she?

Feb 9th, 2024 1h 16m

Recorded on the 1 Feb 2024, at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street.Join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, to mark the 1500th anniversary of the passing of St Brigit, Ireland’s most notable female saint. But who was she?—a fig

‘Taking her place amongst the nations of the earth’?—Ireland and the League of Nations

Nov 17th, 2023 1h 6m

To what extent did the Irish Free State’s joining the League of Nations a century ago realise Robert Emmet’s ambition? Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with John Gibney, Michael Kennedy and Zoë Reid.The Hedge School seri

Iníon Dubh and Red Hugh O’Donnell

Nov 3rd, 2023 1h 10m

(Recorded at Maggie’s Tavern, St Johnston, Co. Donegal, on Saturday 28 October ’23)Join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, to mark the 421st anniversary of the passing of Red Hugh O’Donnell, the ‘Fighting Prince of Donegal’. But no discussi

The Irish Civil War on film

Oct 13th, 2023 1h 2m

(Recorded at the Irish Film Institute on Wed 11 Oct ’23 as part of the Dublin Festival of History)Listen to History Ireland editor Tommy Graham for a lively and interactive discussion on how the Irish Civil War was depicted on film, both at t

The life and legacy of Theobald Wolfe Tone

Sep 15th, 2023 57m 21s

This Hedge School, recorded at the Electric Picnic, September 2023, was preceded by a performance of Paddy Cullivan’s The Two Murders of Wolfe Tone, which can be viewed at paddycullivan.com.‘He landed in France with one hundred guineas in his

Belfast: The story of a city and its people

Aug 18th, 2023 35m 41s

Belfast: The story of a city and its people is a lively and inviting history of Belfast—exploring the highs and lows of a resilient city. Join Tommy Graham, editor of History Ireland, in conversation with the author, Fergal Cochrane.Belfast

The post-Civil War economy of the Irish Free State

Aug 11th, 2023 1h 2m

What were the economic challenges faced by the new state? How did it perform? How did it compare with other newly independent states in Europe? Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Frank Barry, Mary Daly, Seán Kenny and M

Change and continuity—the general elections of 1922 and 1923

Jul 21st, 2023 1h 12m

What do these two elections tell us about Ireland’s political landscape before and after the Civil War? Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Elaine Callinan, Mel Farrell, Michael Laffan and Martin O’Donoghue.The Hedge

Labour and the Civil War

Jun 9th, 2023 1h 9m

Organised labour had played a leading role (strikes, boycotts etc.) in the Irish revolution, and that was reflected in a substantial vote in the June 1922 general election. Yet a year later that vote had almost halved. Why? Join History Ireland

Photographs as historical sources

Jun 2nd, 2023 1h 11m

(Recorded at the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar on the 31 May 2023)Are historians visually illiterate? Does colourisation bring old photographs to life or is it just a passing fad? ‘Coffee-table’ history books—good or bad? In conju

Memorialising the Civil War

May 19th, 2023 1h 10m

How was the Civil War memorialized—by both sides? Who won the ‘memory war’? To address these and other questions listen to History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Conor Dodd, John Dorney, Mary McAuliffe and Caitlin White.The

Archbishop John Charles McQuaid—a reassessment

Apr 7th, 2023 1h 7m

John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin from 1940 to 1972, was a colossus of the Catholic Church in his day, famous (or infamous) for his opposition to health minister Noel Browne’s Mother and Child Scheme. Less well known is his pioneering

A century on—how do we view the Irish Civil War?

Mar 10th, 2023 1h 21m

History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, and the Hedge School panel—John Dorney, Brian Hanley, Colum Kenny and Mary McAuliffe—field questions from Leaving Cert students in Coulson Theatre, Gonzaga College, Dublin (recorded on 2 March 2023).The

The Civil War in Kerry

Mar 3rd, 2023 1h 17m

The violence and divisions caused by the Irish Civil War were more vicious, bitter and protracted in County Kerry than anywhere else in Ireland. Why? Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with John Dorney, Mary McAuliffe, Owen

Reflections on the Decade of Centenaries

Feb 3rd, 2023 1h 19m

What is the relationship between commemoration and historical scholarship? How has this worked out in practice in the Decade of Centenaries? What were the opportunities taken? What were missed? Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discus

W.B. Yeats and the Irish Free State

Dec 9th, 2022 1h 3m

A century ago, in December 1922, at the height of the Civil War, poet W.B. Yeats was nominated to the Senate of the newly established Irish Free State. In January of that year he had participated in the cultural programme of the Irish Race Cong

Marú in Iarthar Chorcaí (Murder in West Cork)

Dec 2nd, 2022 54m 58s

Marú in Iarthar Chorcaí (Murder in West Cork)TG4, 9.30pm, Wednesday 7 December 2022Over two nights in April 1922, thirteen Protestant men were shot dead in West Cork. According to Peter Hart’s 1998 book The IRA and its enemies, they were sho

Donegal in the Civil War

Nov 11th, 2022 1h 10m

While not in the vanguard of the War of Independence, Donegal became the scene of the last stand-up fight between the IRA (pro- and anti-Treaty) and British military (in the ‘Pettigo triangle’), with the latter using heavy artillery for the fir

Irish Travellers and the State, 1922-2022—activism, advocacy and allyship

Oct 21st, 2022 1h 18m

How have Irish Travellers fared since the foundation of the state a century ago, and in particular since the 1963 Report of the Commission on Itinerancy? What are the challenges facing the current generation of Traveller activists? How can non-

The Irish Civil War—a military analysis

Oct 14th, 2022 1h 15m

At the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in June 1922 the anti-Treaty IRA numbered some 15,000, holding key positions in Dublin and throughout the country, in particular behind a defensive line running from Limerick to Waterford (the so-called ‘M

What if Michael Collins had survived the Civil War?

Sep 16th, 2022 54m 48s

This Hege School was recorded at the Electric Picnic 2022 immediately after Paddy Cullivan's historical entertainment, 'The Murder of Michael Collins'. Details here www.paddycullivan.com.On 22 August 1922, Michael Collins was killed at Béal n

Unmanageable Revolutionaries—women in the ‘decade of centenaries’

Sep 13th, 2022 1h

It is nearly 40 years since Margaret Ward’s pioneering Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism, 1880-1980 (1983) first appeared. How has women’s history, and history written by women, fared in the meantime, particularly in thi

Michael Collins—man and myth

Aug 22nd, 2022 1h 12m

Born in West Cork in 1890, Michael Collins joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) as a teenager while working as a clerk in London. He fought in the GPO in 1916, and rose to prominence by the War of Independence, combining the positions

Arthur Griffith, ‘father of us all’

Aug 12th, 2022 1h 20m

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 national historical memory. How fair or acc