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History Ireland

History Ireland magazine has now been in production for over 27 years. The History Ireland Podcast covers a wide variety of topics, from the earliest times to the present day, in an effort to give the listener a sense of the distant past but also to offer a contemporary edge.

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Irish America in the 1950s

Dublin Festival of Books presents one of a series of presentations on this year's One City One Book—John Banville’s Christine Falls . While most of the action takes place in the gloomy streets of 1950s Dublin, it intersects with a parallel storyline set in Boston. What does that tell us about the post-war Irish-American experience? What were Irish-American perceptions of the ‘old country’—and vice…

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Ballyshannon—mapping the old town

Ballyshannon may or may not be the ‘oldest town in Ireland’ but it has certainly been the site of human settlement and activity for thousands of years and has been mapped since the late sixteenth century. Now it is the subject of the latest (No. 32) in the Royal Irish Academy’s Irish Historic Towns Atlas series. Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with its editor, Angela Byrne ,…

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Where stands Dev 50 years on?

Recorded live on Saturday 30 August ’25 @ the Electric Picnic Admired and reviled in equal measure, Éamon de Valera was Ireland’s longest-serving taoiseach and a two-term president. Join History Ireland editor Tommy Graham for a lively round-table discussion to assess his legacy 50 years after his death, with Deirdre Foley (TCD & Women’s History Association of Ireland), Michael Kennedy (Documents…

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Making sense of Trump’s America

Recorded live on Friday 29 August ’25 @ the Electric Picnic History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in conversation with Dan Mulhall , Irish ambassador in Washington during President Trump’s first administration. What was Trump like? How can his success be explained? Is his legacy now permanently entrenched in the US political system? What are the implications for the wider world—and Ireland?

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O’Connell 250—the Liberator reassessed

(Recorded live on Wednesday 30 July ’25 @ Glasnevin Cemetery visitor centre) Daniel O’Connell was described by his biographer Oliver MacDonagh as ‘perhaps the greatest innovator in modern democratic politics, as well as the originator of almost all the basic strategies of modern Anglo-Irish constitutional relations’. To reassess his legacy 250 years after his birth, join History Ireland editor…

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Housing in Ireland—a history of dysfunction?

From the tenement collapses of the early twentieth century to the spiralling house prices of the early twenty-first, it seems that housing in Ireland has always been in a state of crisis. What were the intended and unintended consequences of twentieth-century housing policy and how has this led to our current housing crisis? To address these and related questions, join History Ireland editor Tommy…

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A Future For Our Past — Museums in the 21st Century

What is the purpose of museums? How have museums in Ireland evolved over the past 30 years or so? Are there too many or too few? North of the border, how do they operate in a divided society? How should they be funded? To address these and related questions, listen to History Ireland editor Tommy Graham in discussion with Tony Canavan (former History Ireland museums reviewer), Lar Joye (Irish…

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Making sense of the 2020 and 2024 general elections

We broadcast again editor Tommy Graham’s interview (55 mins) with Brian Hanley (TCD) following the February 2020 general election, with an update (28 mins) on the November 2024 general election. What do they tell us about the current shape of Irish party politics?

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‘Our man in Moscow’—50 years of Irish/Russian diplomatic relations

(Recorded live on Wed 02 October, @ The Cobblestone, King St N, Smithfield, Dublin, D07 TP22) History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, chats to Irish diplomat, Jim Sharkey, who opened the Irish embassy in Moscow in 1974 and returned to live in the city as Ambassador in 2001. This Hedge School is part of the Dublin Festival of History.

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Is Irish History ‘sea-blind’?

(Recorded live on Sunday 29 September 2024, @ The Substation, Alexandra Road, Dublin, D01 H4C6) In 1986, the maritime historian, John de Courcey Ireland, wrote: ‘The lives of island peoples like Ireland’s [have] been dominated by the seas encircling them. Yet this fact has been largely ignored by Irish historians’. Is Irish history still ‘sea blind’? To address this question join History Ireland…

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