Revolutionary Ireland

Part two of the life of Thomas MacDonagh, poet, teacher, dramatist, writer, Irish language enthusiast, commandant of Jacobs Factory and executed on 3 May 1916 for his role in the Easter Rising.

Part one of the life of Thomas MacDonagh, teacher, poet, writer, Irish language enthusiast, Signatory of the 1916 Proclamation and executed for his role in the Easter Rising of 1916.

Join Lorcan Collins in this 34th episode of the Revolutionary Ireland Podcast as he looks at the handover of Dublin Castle in 1922. Lorcan interviews Dr. John Gibney, co-author with Kate O'Malley of a new book on the subject, The Handover.

Join Lorcan Collins for episode 33 of the Revolutionary Ireland Podcast, Part 2 of the Seán South podcast. Lorcan discusses Operation Harvest and interviews the family of Fergal O'Hanlon who was killed in action alongside Seán South on New Years Day 1957 during Operation Harvest when the IRA attacked Brookeborough RUC Barracks in Fermanagh, Ireland.

Join Lorcan Collins for episode 32 of the Revolutionary Ireland Podcast as he examines the life of Seán South, the Limerick IRA Volunteer killed in action on New Years Day 1957 when he and his comrades attacked an RUC Barracks in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland as part of Operation Harvest. This is a two part episode and in part one Lorcan interviews his Father Dermot Collins about the FCA. Seán South was a member of the FCA before he joined the IRA.

In this episode Lorcan Collins reads the diary of an eyewitness to the events of Easter Week 1916. Lillian Stokes was living on Raglan Road in Dublin and wrote a detailed diary about everything she heard and saw during the 1916 Rising. Her evocative account is very well written and adds much to the story of 1916.

Join Lorcan Collins as he discusses the Massacre at Ballyseedy on the 7 March 1923 when nine IRA prisoners were tied around a Free State mine and blown up. One man survived to tell the tale. In this episode Lorcan also deals with the Countess Bridge mine and the Caherciveen mine too when the Free State carried out more extra-judicial executions.

Join Lorcan Collins for the final part of the Blanket Protest, this episode covers the 1981 Hunger Strikes led by Bobby Sands in which ten IRA and INLA Volunteers died in Long Kesh Prison (The H-Blocks). Lorcan is joined by Laurence McKeown who spent 70 days on his hunger strike and Gerry Adams who knew Bobby Sands. Music at the end, Bobby Sands Rhythm of Time by kind permission of Damien Dempsey.

In this episode, Lorcan Collins examines the escalation of the Blanket and No Wash Protest in Long Kesh (H-Blocks) into the Irish Republican Hunger Strikes of 1980 and 1981. This is part one which deals specifically with the 1980 Hunger Strikes in which no protestor died. In this episode Lorcan also examines the life of Bobby Sands who leads the next Hunger Strike in 1981 which will be discussed in the next episode, part two. Lorcan is joined here by Seanna Walsh who was Bobby Sands' great friend.