Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History

In this episode we set sail with Neil, past Fasnet Rock, fleeing the horror of famine.

The Vikings called it Hvasstann-ey, ‘the island shaped like a sharp tooth’, the Irish knew it first as Carraig Aonair, ‘the Lonely Rock’, then as Fastnet, ‘Ireland’s Teardrop’.

A treacherous island, little more than a jagged rock, it has been responsible for countless shipwrecks and deaths at sea. It was the last part of Ireland many emigrants saw as they sailed to North America to escape the Great Hunger and many a teardrop was shed over it.

A rock wreathed in sadness and tears, standing as a fitting memorial to lives lost at sea and the lives driven off to be lived elsewhere.

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In this episode a dark shadow falls across all of Ireland. A time of unimaginable pain and suffer, which has caused a deep wound between the British Isles ever after. It is known as An Gorta Mor or The Great Hunger. For years starvation stalked the land and over a million people died of hunger as ships fully laden and brimming with food left the Irish ports.

Standing on the edge of a mass grave in Skibbereen Cemetery Neil comes face to face with the human tragedy.

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New Videos Every Week

Plus a video archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs.

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter 

https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

Neil Oliver YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

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In this episode as machines begin to flex their muscles the spectre of human poverty rises darkly and menacingly across the whole of the British Isles.

In C19th Dorset a small group of workers came together to dream of a better future. But for daring to stand up straight, demand dignity and call for a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work they were crushed by the authorities: arrested, tried and transported to work as slave labour in the penal colony of Australia. In their defence a public outcry swept across the country as people fought to save this group who became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver

New Videos Every Week

Plus a video archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs.

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter 

https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

Neil Oliver YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil travels to the breathtakingly picturesque seaside side town of Lyme Regis. Sitting on the rugged Jurassic Coast the town was home to a determined, fearless woman called Mary Anning who battled the convention of the day to stake her claim in scientific history. The Jurassic coast is famous for fossil dinosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Ammonites, Belemnites, and plesiosaurus. Often working in foul weather and precarious locations Mary was a fossil hunter extraordinaire whose great skill and formidable intelligence helped further the scientific understanding of the time.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

New Videos Every Week plus an archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs.

https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter 

https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

Neil Oliver YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil strides across the beguilingly beautiful, wild Yorkshire moors to meet three sisters whose brilliance would shape and change the world of literature.

Tough, strong-willed survivors, the Bronte sisters laid bare the crippling social conventions of the day with perfect prose. Their own lives were edged with hardship and tragedy, but their imaginations, stubborn genius and dazzling creativity lit up the world. The episode is from the Bronte parsonage in Haworth, west Yorkshire.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

New Videos Every Week plus an archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs.

https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter 

https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

Neil Oliver YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Neil spends time on one of the most notorious lighthouses in the world – a place with a profound sense of isolation and a dark history.

The British Isles are home to an island race, and to survive and thrive its people have depended on a mastery of the seaways and protection from its dangerous coasts. Ever since King Henry VIII Britain have made lighthouses their own. Dotted around the coastline these engineering marvels have become part of the landscape, sentinels and beacons of hope.

In this episode Neil weaves the history of lighthouses, the story of the courageous lighthouse keepers who protect lives at sea, with the tragic events that took place on Smalls Lighthouse, off the Pembrokeshire coast.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

New Videos Every Week and an archive packed full of history, comment and current affairs films.

https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter  

https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

Neil Oliver YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re stepping aboard a legend. A ship built from 6,000 trees, 27 miles of rigging and 4 acres of sail. She fought in the American and French Revolutionary Wars and came to symbolise the Britain’s dominance of the world-ocean as she battled to keep them free. But it was in 1805, with Admiral Nelson at the helm, that she sailed into the history books. With her 104 guns fully loaded and at the ready she led the Royal Navy into action at the world defining Battle of Trafalgar.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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Neil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairs videos.

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re walking with a hero of mine, Admiral Nelson – a man with a life full of high drama and adventure, violence and great passion.

He was born near the North Norfolk coast in 1758, in the sleepy village of Burnham Thorpe. His father was the local parson and at the ripe old age of 12 he set off to join the Royal Navy and sail the world’s oceans.

Horatio Nelson was an ambitious and fearless naval commander always in the tick of the action; he lost his right eye during the siege of Calvi on Corsica, and the use of his right arm three years later at the battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. A master of naval warfare, back on dry land he was swept up by a grand romance to Lady Emma Hamilton before sailing to his most famous victory at the battle Trafalgar in 1805.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver

Neil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairs videos.

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us on an emotional journey that affected hundreds of thousands of people and systematically destroyed an ancient way of life – the Highland Clearances. Driven by greed the aristocratic landowners brutally cleared people from what they claimed as their land and replaced them with sheep in one of the biggest mass movements of people in all of British history.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver

Neil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairs

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Neil takes us to walk side by side with William Wilberforce, one of the unwavering bright lights who stove to abolish slavery in the British empire.

Nations throughout history have plagued the world with this abhorrent trade, but the British took it to another level in the C18th, growing fat on the colossal profits to be made from African slaves. As opposition to slavery in this country grew immensely powerful forces battled tooth and nail to defend the trade and the riches it brought them. Amongst the people who fought to end this abhorrent practice was the tireless Member of Parliament for Hull, William Wilberforce.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/neiloliver

Neil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairs

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.