The Shrapnel Podcast

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Ed Spence is the nephew of Gusty Spence. In the late 1960s Ed, along with his father Billy, campaigned for the release of Gusty Spence who maintained his innocence against a murder charge.

When the Northern Ireland conflict began to escalate Ed and Billy started a Loyalist prisoners welfare association called The Orange Cross. In this episode of Shrapnel, Ed talks about the campaign to clear Gusty's murder charge and the issues facing loyalist prisoners in the early Troubles.

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On Friday Nov 18th, Shrapnel cohost Sam Mcilwaine came down from Belfast to the wonderful Axis Theatre in Ballymun to chat all things Northern Ireland, Loyalism, Unionism, socioeconomic issues and politics with Echo Chamber host, Martin McMahon.

This is a great conversation and features an engaged and lively Q&A with members of the audience. Don't miss it. We want to again thank Dean, Aifric and the Axis team for a brilliant night.

Join us and help keep the mics on at patreon.com/tortoiseshack

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E.S. 'Ed' Haggan is a former Royal Ulster Constabulary officer who is active on Twitter as @redbrickedslums. He describes himself as 'a writer of fiction about Irish terrorism and the lives it damages'. In this episode Ed talks about his experiences of living with CPTSD, shifting from wanting to be a marine biologist to joining the RUC as a teenager in 1986 during the tumult following the Anglo-Irish Agreement and experiences of policing in North and West Belfast and South Armagh and Newry. Ed also talks about his love of mysticism, mythology, black metal and power noise.

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*PIRA is a reference to the Provisional IRA

**Varg Vikernes is a founding member of the early black metal scene in Norway and was later imprisoned for murder

***Michael Moynihan is an American writer and journalist

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This week on the Shrapnel Podcast I am joined by Lauren Kerr.

Lauren was an Ulster Unionist Party candidate for East Belfast in the early 2022 assembly election, in which the UUP grew their share for the area.

Lauren was the first openly lesbian candidate for East Belfast and uses her voice to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community within the UUP and unionism.

Lauren has been involved in politics for 15 years and also has a keen interest in football.

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Ballymun Tickets:https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/tortoise-shack-live-getitdoneballymun-tickets-417062163157?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

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This week's guest Danielle Roberts is currently researching a PhD on barriers to political participation among women from a Protestant, unionist and loyalist background. Her work focuses on feminist activism and she is involved with Belfast Feminist Network and Reclaim the Night.

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It's been quite an eventful day and around here we are used to eventful days, but this one stood out a bit.

We have had statements from every quarter, we have had recalls and deadlines.

But what we don't have is a working Executive or election date (not quite yet).

We chat about the de ja vu of Northern Ireland politics, the need for constructive ways of dealing with the situation and the current mood.

You'll probably here frustration and a tone of resignation in our voices.

Join us and get lots of extra content like this and lots not like it at patreon.com/tortoiseshack

(Note: Ep11 with Danielle Roberts is out now for members)

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Paul Donnelly has been the lead tour guide at DC Tours since 2013. Before that he worked in adult community and political education, earning his stripes in conflict resolution and mediation work. In 2019 he was voted UK tour guide of the year at the Wanderlust World Guide Awards. In this episode Paul talks about showing tourists and locals alike a darker side of Belfast city centers' recent history and the challenges of storytelling in a still deeply divided society.

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On this episode we have Derry-based journalist Leona O'Neill, who is a former Belfast Telegraph journalist, a columnist for the Irish News, the course director of journalism at Ulster University and now the co-editor of a new book entitled 'Breaking: Trauma In the Newsroom'.

We chat to Leona about mental health and the once prevalent stiff upper lip attitudes in the newsrooms around the country. We talk to her about how this developed into conversations with fellow journalists that gave Leona and her co-editor Chris Lindsay the impetus to put down their experiences in a book.

We discuss the horrific events of the night Lyra McKee was murdered and the ugly aftermath where Leona was targeted by online trolls.

'Breaking: Trauma in the Newsroom' published by Maverick House is out now and features chapters by Leona and Chris and a number of journalists who have covered some of the worst events in our recent history.

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This week on the Shrapnel Podcast we are joined by Professor Olwen Purdue, who specialises in the social and economic history of nineteenth and twentieth-century Ireland. Her research focuses on poverty, welfare and public health in the industrial city.

Olwen is the founder and Director of the Centre for Public History at Queen's University Belfast. Olwen was also specialist historical advisor for Titanic Belfast and a member of the advisory group for the Ulster Museum's Irish history exhibition and its Troubles and Beyond gallery.

On this pod we discuss the need to record real lives as part of history, before those stories are lost. We hope to talk with her again.

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack

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Craig Murray is curator for the Duxford historical site at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, working within the Cold War and Late 20th Century team. His main specialism, apart from the history of RAF Duxford, is the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He is currently planning and researching the IWM's 2023 Northern Ireland exhibition. In this episode Craig talks about the challenges and opportunities of curating an exhibition on our contested and violent recent history.

Support this podcast by joining us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack