The Troubles Podcast

This episode focuses on the socialist Republican group, the INLA and how their formation deeply angered some members of the Official IRA. Seamus Costello was the man who founded the INLA, but he soon found it very difficult to give orders to men in Northern Ireland, while he himself was living in the Republic and once all hell broke loose, he knew the crosshair would rest firmly on him.

Edward Carson was an Irishman, but with a very different view for Ireland. He believed that Ireland belonged wholly in union with Great Britain. Carson was willing to lead the movement against an independent Ireland, and along the way, he would rally hundreds of thousands of people to his cause, which would eventually lead to the formation of Northern Ireland.

This weeks episode of the Troubles Podcast is about Stakeknife, who was one of the most damaging agents in the history of the Troubles.

He was in charge of the nutting squad, which was a squad designed to seek out and execute informers. But little did many know, that he was the biggest, and most treasured informer of the British Army. And when his cover was finally blown, what happened to him was a far cry from what many expected.

The Shankill Road Bombing of 1993 was a bombing which indiscriminately killed men, women and children and threatened to completely derail the burgeoning peace process in Northern Ireland.

The 1981 Hunger Strike was one of the most important moments in the history of the Troubles. This episode focuses on the strike, the men involved and the political discourse going on outside of the prison.

The 1981 Hunger Strike was the culmination of a five-year protest which began with Blanketmen and ended with the deaths of 10 men. This episode focuses on the background and the first 1980 hunger strike, which would act as a precursor for the one which took place in 1981

It’s late in the evening in the three steps pub, in the small village of Dromintree in the northern Irish County of Armagh. A stranger has come into the pub, saying that he is a member of the Official IRA from West Belfast. He mingles with the locals, and at one stage leaps up on stage to sing a republican song, in front of an amused crowd. But something isn’t right.
His story doesn’t make sense and as the night wears down he begins to attract the wrong type of attention.
As it turns out, this stranger is Captain Robert Nairac, a British Army Officer specializing in intelligence.
And at the time, he was alone in an extremely republican part of Northern Ireland, pretending to be a member of the IRA.
Shortly after leaving the pub, things for Nairac took a turn for the worse and In this episode we will learn about Nairac, and what happened to him on that fateful night.

August 11th, 2001 and three men are arrested in Colombia. The men were travelling with fake passports and claimed that they that they had been meeting FARC guerrillas to discuss the burgeoning peace process in the country as well as bird watching, but the Colombian security forces had a different view of what they were doing.

The Troubles Podcast returns in October.

As a mid-season bonus, I wanted to release this full interview with Richard Moore. The Richard Moore episode, called Children of the Troubles, received a lot of positive feedback and comments. But the full interview with Richard is a good bit longer than what made it into the episode. So here is the entire interview, virtually unedited. Thanks again and see you in season three.