Who was the iconic woman depicted on Irish banknotes from 1927-1977? Why was she so integral to the story of Irish independence? And what lies behind her inscrutable stare? In our latest Halfpint episode, we discover the extraordinary life of Lady Lavery – a Chicago-born debutante who would go on to become the face of an independent Ireland.

This halfpint episode would not have been possible without the support of our wonderful patrons. You can find our full archive of Halfpint extra content over on www.patreon.com/theirishpassport, where you can help keep the podcast running by become a Patreon supporter today.

This episode features the music tracks “Hopeless Waltz” and “Just a Waltz” by Alena Smirnova.

Who was the iconic woman depicted on Irish banknotes from 1927-1977? Why was  she so integral to the story of Irish independence? And what lies behind her inscrutable stare? In our latest Halfpint episode, we discover the extraordinary life of Lady Lavery - a Chicago-born debutante who would go on to become the face of an independent Ireland.

This halfpint episode would not have been possible without the support of our wonderful patrons. You can find our full archive of Halfpint extra content over on www.patreon.com/theirishpassport, where you can help keep the podcast running by become a Patreon supporter today.

This episode features the music tracks "Hopeless Waltz" and "Just a Waltz" by Alena Smirnova.

Food shortages are hitting Britain hard, and things are set to get worse - but why are shelves still fully stocked in Northern Ireland? Naomi explains the ins and outs of Brexit’s effect on UK supply chains, and how traders and consumers are going to have to adapt to some new (and pricey) post-Brexit realities. We also look at how changes to data regulation could potentially open a new can of worms on Ireland's border, and we explain why the Tories' tendency to play to a domestic audience might be losing them credibility on the international stage

LIVE EVENT: The Irish Passport is delighted to be taking part in the Hillsborough Castle 2021 Centenary Talks Programme. Naomi and Tim will be appearing live as part of the programme at Hillsborough Castle, Co. Down, on the 25th September 2021. They'll be speaking to a selection of special guests to discuss the dynamics of place and power - how place names, landscape, and architecture contain secret histories hidden within plain sight. Tickets are available for purchase online here: https://www.hrp.org.uk/hillsborough-castle/whats-on/irish-passport-podcast-place-and-power/

See you there!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.

Bonus episodes are published for our supporters over at www.patreon.com/theirishpassport

Food shortages are hitting Britain hard, and things are set to get worse - but why are shelves still fully stocked in Northern Ireland? Naomi explains the ins and outs of Brexit’s effect on UK supply chains, and how traders and consumers are going to have to adapt to some new (and pricey) post-Brexit realities. We also look at how changes to data regulation could potentially open a new can of worms on Ireland's border, and we explain why the Tories' tendency to play to a domestic audience might be losing them credibility on the international stage. 

LIVE EVENT: The Irish Passport is delighted to be taking part in the Hillsborough Castle 2021 Centenary Talks Programme. Naomi and Tim will be appearing live as part of the programme at Hillsborough Castle, Co. Down, on the 25th September 2021. They'll be speaking to a selection of special guests to discuss the dynamics of place and power - how place names, landscape, and architecture contain secret histories hidden within plain sight. Tickets are available for purchase online here: https://www.hrp.org.uk/hillsborough-castle/whats-on/irish-passport-podcast-place-and-power/

See you there!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.

Bonus episodes are published for our supporters over at www.patreon.com/theirishpassport

Special guests Naomi's sister Molly May O'Leary and her musical collaborator Fionn Ó hAlmhain visit the podcast to play songs from and discuss their new album, Lambent Flame. It was recorded with the famed Hothouse Flowers singer and multi-instrumentalist Liam Ó Maonlaí over a difficult period when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down much of the music industry. Molly May talks about how she began writing the songs inspired by Irish folklore and fairy traditions, building on her background in poetry. Fionn, a noted uilleann piper and singer with the Irish National Opera, takes us behind the scenes in the studio into the creative process of recording the album in the Dublin mountains.

You can find the album at: www.lambentflame.com

Songs featured from Lambent Flame, by Molly May O'Leary, Liam Ó Maonlaí, and Fionn Ó hAlmhain: Biddy Early, Fairy Queen, Cinderella, Aisling, Sun Child, California, Thank you Witches, Little Red Riding Hood, The Wild Swans of Coole.

You can check out our prior interview with Molly about the 'wise woman of Clare' Biddy Early here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44962226

This year, a whistleblower revealed a shocking secret. A popular British holiday camp business kept a 'blacklist' of Irish surnames, distributed to staff to bar customers from booking. In this episode, Naomi and Tim dig into the incident to explore how a policy meant to exclude Travellers inadvertently swept up a large part of the general Irish population. We hear from a veteran campsite and holiday park worker who tells us the practice of excluding Travellers is rife in the industry across Britain and Ireland. And we speak to Martin Beanz Warde, a comedian, podcaster and host of the Haz Beanz Show about how systemic discrimination works and his own experience of exclusion from venues.

Check out the Haz Beanz Show here: https://thehazbeanshow.com/

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.

If you enjoyed this episode, do give us a good review in your podcast app and share it with your friends.

Bonus episodes are published for our supporters over at www.patreon.com/theirishpassport

Anarchist clubs, public assassinations, and secret rebel meetings in a notorious vegetarian restaurant – all these feature in this fascinating episode on the historical links between Ireland and India at the beginning of the 20th century. UCD’s Conor Mulvagh explains why Ireland and India were so symbolically important to the survival of the British Empire, and why the independence movements in both countries were often deeply intertwined. We hear how Indian law students in Dublin joined rebel militias, forged friendships with leaders of the Easter Rising, and later took inspiration from Irish nationalism to challenge the British Raj. Vikrant Sharma, founder of the international relations website The Global Telescope, tells us about the many parallels between Ireland and India’s history of British rule, and how both should perhaps be considered in a larger framework of colonial strategy and nationalist resistance.

The books mentioned in this episode are:

Conor Mulvagh, Irish Days and Indian Memories: V. V. Giri and Indian Law Students at University College Dublin, 1913-1916. Published in 2016 by the Irish Academic Press.

Shereen F. Ilahi. Imperial Violence and the Path to Independence: India, Ireland and the Crisis of Empire. Published in 2016 by I.B. Tauris and Co.

You can find Vikrant Sharma’s website, The Global Telescope, here: linktr.ee/TheGlobalTelescope

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.

If you enjoyed this episode, do give us a good review in your podcast app and share it with your friends.

Bonus episodes are published for our supporters over at www.patreon.com/theirishpassport

Chaos hits the Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British bloc, as new leader Edwin Poots is deposed in a revolt just 20 days after taking up the position. Naomi and Tim hear why the woman he usurped Arlene Foster is laughing, the Irish language dispute at the centre of Poots’ downfall, and what it all tells us about dynamically changing politics in the North.

This is a Halfpint bonus episode made specially to thank our Patreon supporters. To hear our full archive and support the podcast, head over to Patreon.com/theirishpassport.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.

If you enjoyed this episode, do give us a good review in your podcast app and share it with your friends.

Chaos hits the Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland's largest pro-British bloc, as new leader Edwin Poots is deposed in a revolt just 20 days after taking up the position. Naomi and Tim hear why the woman he usurped Arlene Foster is laughing, the Irish language dispute at the centre of Poots' downfall, and what it all tells us about dynamically changing politics in the North.

This is a Halfpint bonus episode made specially to thank our Patreon supporters. To hear our full archive and support the podcast, head over to Patreon.com/theirishpassport.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.

If you enjoyed this episode, do give us a good review in your podcast app and share it with your friends.

The Irish Passport brings you an interview with Jer O’Leary: actor, activist, artist, orator of Jim Larkin speeches and Dublin legend who recorded these tapes before he died in 2018. Jer discusses growing up in the Irish capital and how it changed over his life, and how he ended up in the national art college despite leaving school at 14, and his work creating banners for Ireland’s union movement, a body of work that led writer Fintan O’Toole to once describe Irish protest marches as moving exhibitions of Jer O’Leary’s art. O’Leary describes his route into theatre and film through political activism, and we hear from childhood friend Richard Collins about how Jer ended up behind bars for his role in an IRA holdup in the political turmoil of the 1970s – and how it changed his life.

If you haven’t heard it, listen to our episode to the 1913 Dublin Lockout, a prequel to this interview: https://www.theirishpassport.com/podcast/the-irish-left-legacies-of-the-lockout/

Some images of Jer’s life and work can be seen here: https://comeheretome.com/2018/12/26/goodbye-to-jer-oleary-actor-and-larkinite/

Jer O’Leary can be seen in My Left Foot here: https://youtu.be/CNFrixpsOAg

And in Game of Thrones here: https://youtu.be/MXGPgNp719k

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.

If you enjoyed this episode, do give us a good review in your podcast app and share it with your friends.

Bonus episodes are published for our supporters over at www.patreon.com/theirishpassport