History Ireland

On 22 June 1922 Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson, former Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Unionist MP for North Down, was assassinated outside his London home in Eaton Square. The anti-Treaty IRA were blamed and six days later, under pressure from the British, Michael Collins ordered the bombardment of the Four Courts, the opening salvos of the Irish Civil War. But who was Henry Wilson? Was he, as was alleged, the mastermind behind the anti-Catholic pogroms in Belfast 1920-22? And who ordered the hit? To address these and other questions listen to History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with John Dorney, Caoimhe Nic Dhaibhéid, Padraig Óg Ó Ruairc, John Regan.
(Recorded at St Peter’s, North Main Street, Cork, as part of the National Civil War Conference, UCC, on Saturday 18 June 2022)
The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This podcast is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Initiative.

Image: Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson (1922) by Sir Oswald Birley. (Belfast City Council)

As part of the so-called ‘Northern Offensive’, on 27 May 1922, a combined force of pro-Treaty National Army and anti-Treaty IRA occupied the ‘Belleek/Pettigo triangle’, an enclave of Fermanagh/Northern Ireland only accessible over-land through Free State territory. Less than two weeks later they had been ejected by regular British Army troops; the ‘Northern Offensive’ was over. But how serious was it in the first place? Or was it just a ruse to keep the anti-Treaty IRA on-side? To address these and other questions join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Edward Burke, Margaret O’Callaghan and Éamon Phoenix.
This Hedge School is supported by Donegal County Council, Fermanagh & Omagh District Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 initiative.

Image: British troops reoccupying Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, after 8 June 1922, following its temporary ‘liberation’ by the National Army and IRA.

(Recorded @ Phizzfest [Phibsborough Community Arts Festival], Sun 15 May 2022, Glasnevin Cemetery Museum)
Given their activism in the revolutionary period, now widely acknowledged by historians, why were Irish women and their organizations on the margins of deliberations on the Treaty? Why were Irish women under 30 denied the vote in the June 1922 general election? To what extent were they the victims of gendered violence (by either side) during the Civil War? Join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Síobhra Aiken, Leeann Lane, Mary McAuliffe and Margaret Ward.
The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This podcast is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Initiative.

Image: Kate O’Callaghan (left) and Mary McSwiney (centre) on their way to the Treaty debates in Earlsfort Terrace. Both TDs made passionate speeches against acceptance of the Treaty. (NLI)

 In this centenary year of its publication, the History Ireland Hedge School considers James Joyce’s Ulysses, set in Dublin on a single day, 16 June 1904. What was the history of the book? What is the history in the book? Join Tommy Graham in discussion with Sylvie Kleinman, Felix Larkin, Katherine McSharry and Dan Mulhall.
The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This Hedge School supported by the National Library of Ireland.

Image: Nora Barnacle and James Joyce in London on their wedding day, 4 July 1931, 27 years after they left Ireland together. (NLI)

Over the course of the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, nearly 300 ‘Big Houses’ (those belonging to aristocrats with in excess of 2,000 acres), 20% of a total of c. 1,500, were burned to the ground. Why? Author Terence Dooley, Professor of History at Maynooth University and Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates, in conversation with History Ireland editor Tommy Graham, provides some answers.

Burning the Big House—the story of the Irish country house in a time of war and revolution is published by Yale University Press.Further information: https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300260748

The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

The Anglo-Irish Treaty sparked turmoil within the IRA. Some accepted it and joined the ranks of the Provisional Government’s new ‘National Army’; some remained neutral; the majority opposed it, but with the added twist that on the eve of the Civil War there were two anti-Treaty factions of the IRA, not one. Two Army Conventions, on 26 March and 18 June 1922, failed to resolve these differences. To make sense of these complexities, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Síobhra Aiken, John Borgonovo, John Dorney and Brian Hanley.

The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This podcast is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Initiative.

Image: Anti-Treaty IRA on Dublin’s Grafton Street in spring 1922. (Mercier Archive)

While an uneasy peace prevailed in the South following the Truce of July 1921, in Northern Ireland communal violence continued to rage, exemplified most notoriously on 24 March 1922 by the killings of a ‘respectable’ Catholic family, the McMahons, by an RIC ‘murder gang’. Was this a ‘one-off’ by a ‘rogue’ element or part of a wider policy of intimidation? And as the Treaty split drifted towards civil war in the South, how did events in the North and along the border affect the situation? To discuss these and related questions, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Kieran Glennon, Paddy Mulroe, Seán Bernard Newman and Margaret O’Callaghan.
The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This podcast is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Initiative.

Image: The funerals of the victims of the McMahon murders in Belfast on 26 March 1922..

So said the long white apron of suffragette and socialist Margaret Buckmaster at a protest in July 1921 organised by the Peace with Ireland Council (PIC). How significant were such anti-colonial solidarity movements in Britain in the revolutionary period? How effective were they? To address these and related questions, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Darragh Gannon, Angus Mitchell and Mo Moulton.
The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This Hedge School is supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Reconciliation Fund.

Image: Margaret Buckmaster at the demonstration in Trafalgar Square organised by the Peace with Ireland Council and 'Women's Freedom League'  on 2 July 1921. (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

When the Civic Guard—later renamed An Garda Síochána—was founded in February 1922, the force it replaced, the Royal Irish Constabulary, was itself barely a century old. How much of the culture of the latter passed over to the former? What was the law-and-order situation in 1921/22? Why and how was it possible to set up an unarmed police force during a civil war? To address these and related questions, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Elizabeth Malcolm, Fearghal McGarry and Liam McNiffe.
The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This podcast is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Initiative. 
Image: Eoin O’Duffy, second Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, following the May/June 1922 mutiny and the subsequent resignation of Michael Staines.

Within weeks of the ratification of the Treaty by Dáil Éireann an ‘Irish Race Congress’ assembled in Paris representing Irish organizations from twenty-two countries. Inevitably the Treaty split overshadowed its proceedings. Did global Irish experiences moderate or radicalise expectations of Irish independence? What legacy did Irish sovereignty bequeath to the historical memory of the Irish diaspora? To address these and related questions join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with David Brundage, Darragh Gannon, Donal McCracken, and Anne Marie O’Brien.
The Hedge School series of podcasts is produced by History Ireland and the Wordwell Group. For more information or to subscribe, visit historyireland.com

This podcast is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Initiative.

Image: Irish delegates enjoying Parisian hospitality at the Palais d’Orsey, including (L-R) Seán T. O’Kelly, Mary MacSwiney, Eamon de Valera, Countess Markievicz and Lord Ashbourne. (NLI)