Advertise on podcast: History Ireland

Captain Bligh—hero or villain?(Recorded live on Saturday 03 October 2026 at Substation, Distributed Museum, Dublin Port) Captain William Bligh, whose draconian discipline provoked mutiny on HMS Bounty in 1789, is one of history’s enduring villains. But how fair or accurate is his depiction in numerous books and films? He is also credited with designing the solution to Dublin harbour’s sand bar problem—the Poolbeg and Bull Walls. How accurate is that? To understand the real Captain Bligh and his significance, join Tommy Graham (editor, History Ireland) in discussion with Rob Goodbody (Dublin’s industrial heritage), Lar Joye (Heritage Director, Dublin Port) and David Murphy (Maynooth University).

A ‘unique relationship’?—Ireland and the USA 1920–present(Recorded live on Fri 28 Aug ’26 @ the Electric Picnic)While the UK claims to have a ‘special relationship’ with the USA, we claim a ‘unique relationship’, exemplified by the now-traditional bowl of shamrock presentation in the White House each St Patrick’s Day. But the relationship hasn’t always been cordial: Dev failed to get recognition of the Irish Republic from the US government in 1920; the biggest threat to our neutrality during the Emergency came not from the Nazis or the British but from the USA; and today by far the biggest source of toxic far-right misinformation and disinformation is the USA. Editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Dan Mulhall (former Irish Ambassador in Washington DC), Bernadette Whelan (UL), and John Gibney and Michael Kennedy (both RIA’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series).

Dublin Festival of Books presents one of a series of presentations on this year's One City One Book—John Banville’s Christine Falls. While most of the action takes place in the gloomy streets of 1950s Dublin, it intersects with a parallel storyline set in Boston. What does that tell us about the post-war Irish-American experience? What were Irish-American perceptions of the ‘old country’—and vice versa? Join Tommy Graham (History Ireland) in discussion with Dan Mulhall (former Irish Ambassador to the US), Bernadette Whelan (University of Limerick) and Michael Kennedy (Documents on Irish Foreign Policy). One City One Book is an annual Dublin City Council festival, led by Dublin City Libraries and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

Ballyshannon may or may not be the ‘oldest town in Ireland’ but it has certainly been the site of human settlement and activity for thousands of years and has been mapped since the late sixteenth century.Now it is the subject of the latest (No. 32) in the Royal Irish Academy’s Irish Historic Towns Atlas series. Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with its editor, Angela Byrne, and Pauric Travers.

Recorded live on Saturday 30 August ’25 @ the Electric PicnicAdmired and reviled in equal measure, Éamon de Valera was Ireland’s longest-serving taoiseach and a two-term president. Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham for a lively round-table discussion to assess his legacy 50 years after his death, with Deirdre Foley (TCD & Women’s History Association of Ireland), Michael Kennedy (Documents on Irish Foreign Policy), David McCullagh (RTÉ & Dev’s biographer) and Martin Mansergh (former Fianna Fáil politician & government adviser).

Recorded live on Friday 29 August ’25 @ the Electric PicnicHistory Ireland editor Tommy Graham in conversation with Dan Mulhall, Irish ambassador in Washington during President Trump’s first administration. What was Trump like? How can his success be explained? Is his legacy now permanently entrenched in the US political system? What are the implications for the wider world—and Ireland?

(Recorded live on Wednesday 30 July ’25 @ Glasnevin Cemetery visitor centre) Daniel O’Connell was described by his biographer Oliver MacDonagh as ‘perhaps the greatest innovator in modern democratic politics, as well as the originator of almost all the basic strategies of modern Anglo-Irish constitutional relations’. To reassess his legacy 250 years after his birth, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Patrick Geoghegan, Jennifer T. Keating, Christine Kinealy and Davide Mazzi. This Hedge School is supported by Trinity College, Dublin, as part of its two-day O’Connell 250 symposium, Liberty, Democracy and the Struggle for Human Rights.

From the tenement collapses of the early twentieth century to the spiralling house prices of the early twenty-first, it seems that housing in Ireland has always been in a state of crisis. What were the intended and unintended consequences of twentieth-century housing policy and how has this led to our current housing crisis? To address these and related questions, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with housing activist Ashling Hedderman, architectural historian Ellen Rowley and economic historian Conor McCabe. (Recorded live on Monday 9 June 2025 @ the National College of Art and Design)

What is the purpose of museums? How have museums in Ireland evolved over the past 30 years or so? Are there too many or too few? North of the border, how do they operate in a divided society? How should they be funded? To address these and related questions, listen to History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Tony Canavan (former History Ireland museums reviewer), Lar Joye (Irish Museum Association) and Heather McGuicken (Northern Ireland Museums Council).This Hedge School is supported by Tipperary County Council, Tipperary Museum of Hidden History and ICOM Ireland.Recorded live on Sat 17 May 2025, @ Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel

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).

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, where he is credited with inventing Irish coffee. In 1959 he was appointed by Seán Lemass as the first head of the Shannon Airport Development Association (later known as the Shannon Free Airport Development Company), which stimulated the establishment not only of an industrial base in rural County Clare but also of a whole new town, Shannon. Retiring in 1977, he remained active, founding Co-operation North. Despite these achievements, since his death in 2008 he has remained a somewhat obscure figure. To rectify this lacuna, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Frank Barry, Úna Ní Bhroiméil, Seán Donlon, Brian O’Connell and Brendan’s son, Andrew O’Regan.(Recorded live on Sat 13 April ’24, @ Shannon College of Hotel Management, Co. Clare) This Hedge School is supported by Sixmilebridge Historical Society.