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)

Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, a Provisional Government, led by Michael Collins, was to oversee the transition of power until the Irish Free State formally came into being in December 1922. What was involved in the ‘handover’ that took place on 16 January 1922? Who was involved and what were their roles? To address these and related questions join Tommy Graham in discussion with John Gibney, Kate O’Malley, Edward Madigan, and Padraig Óg Ó Ruairc.

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 Office of Public Works.

The Handover: Dublin Castle and the British withdrawal from Ireland, 1922 by  John Gibney and Kate O'Malley is published by the Royal Irish Academy. Further details: https://www.ria.ie/handover-dublin-castle-and-british-withdrawal-ireland-1922

Of the five plenipotentiaries who signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921 most attention has been focused on the motivations and actions of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith—and on ‘the plenipotentiary who wasn’t’, Eamon de Valera. But what about the other three—Eamon Duggan, George Gavan Duffy and Robert Barton, particularly the latter, the only one who later took an anti-Treaty position. To find out more about this republican Protestant landlord from Wicklow join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with John Dorney, Joan Kavanagh, Chris Lawlor, and Catherine Wright.

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 Wicklow County Council’s Archives Service and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 initiative.

Image: Robert Barton with Arthur Griffith (right) and George Gavan Duffy (left) in transit from London following the signing of the Treaty on 6 December 1921. (NLI)

On 10 July 1917 Eamon de Valera won a by-election in East Clare, one of a series of victories for Sinn Féin in the run-up to their landslide victory in the general election of December 1918. He would continue to represent the county in the Dáil until his election to the presidency in 1959. What was his relationship with the ‘Banner County’ in the early tumultuous years of his career—War of Independence, Treaty negotiations, Civil War—up to the founding of Fianna Fáil in 1926? To discuss this and related questions, join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Tomás Mac Conmara, Martin Mansergh, Padraig Óg Ó Ruairc and Joe Power.

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 Clare County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme.

Image: Eamon de Valera, in Irish Volunteer uniform, on the steps of Ennis Court House in July 1917, campaigning in the East Clare by-election. (NLI)

As we enter the third year of the Covid crisis, people the world over are now familiar with the concept and the reality of a ‘pandemic’. But how does it compare and with the previous pandemic—the ‘Spanish flu’ of 1918-19? What are the similarities? What are the differences? To address these and other questions join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Patricia Marsh, Ida Milne, Grace Mulcahy, and Luke O’Neill.

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: Emergency influenza hospital at Camp Funston, Kansas, USA, in 1918.

(National Museum of Health and Medicine, USA)