History Ireland

We broadcast again editor Tommy Graham’s interview (55 mins) with Brian Hanley (TCD) following the February 2020 general election, with an update (28 mins) on the November 2024 general election. What do they tell us about the current shape of Irish party politics?

(Recorded live on Wed 02 October, @ The Cobblestone, King St N, Smithfield, Dublin, D07 TP22) History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, chats to Irish diplomat, Jim Sharkey, who opened the Irish embassy in Moscow in 1974 and returned to live in the city as Ambassador in 2001. This Hedge School is part of the Dublin Festival of History.

(Recorded live on Sunday 29 September 2024, @ The Substation, Alexandra Road, Dublin, D01 H4C6) In 1986, the maritime historian, John de Courcey Ireland, wrote: ‘The lives of island peoples like Ireland’s [have] been dominated by the seas encircling them. Yet this fact has been largely ignored by Irish historians’. Is Irish history still ‘sea blind’? To address this question join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Angela Byrne (Dictionary of Irish Biography), Lar Joye (Heritage Officer, Dublin Port) and Captain Michael McKenna (Dublin Port Harbour Master). This Hedge School is supported by Dublin Port in association with the Dublin Festival of History

(Recorded live on Sat 17 Aug ’24 @ the Electric Picnic) Thanks to UCC’s Irish Civil War Fatalities project we now have a definite figure—1,485. But in this discussion, chaired by History Ireland editor Tommy Graham, with John Dorney, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Michael Kennedy and Caitlin White, we find out a lot more—not only who was killed but also when, where, in what circumstances, and how they were commemorated.

(Recorded live on Fri 16 Aug ’24 @ the Electric Picnic) History Ireland editor Tommy Graham chats to former international footballer, administrator, businessman and TV pundit Niall Quinn about his recently completed MA thesis, ‘Oscar Traynor—a re-evaluation of a footballer, rebel, politician and football administrator’. Not only was Traynor an IRA commander in the War of Independence who took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War and served as minister in several Fianna Fáil administrations but he was also an advocate of the ‘garrison game’, a vocal opponent of the GAA’s ban on ‘foreign games’ and the FAI’s longest-serving president (1948–63).