Podcast Audio Feed

Hi folks I hope you are all doing well. I have just finished the latest episode '1000 years from home'.This show is 40 minutes of escapism from Covid-19. In the podcast I explore some of the history and historic places within two kilometres of my home in Kilkenny. This journey starts in the 19th century and takes you back one thousand years. You will hear stories from a 19th century mental asylum, visit a medieval hospital, walk down a medieval street, hear the strange story of a historic dog who's death symbolised an epoch of Irish history and finish with the story of a forgotten hero. I hope you enjoy it Fin

Hi FolksI hope you are all well wherever you are. Dont forget tonights online Quiz night in aid of the Mater Foundation at 8pm. There are great prizes including subscriptions to the Irish Newspaper Archives on offer and it should be great fun!You can still sign up for the quiz historyquiz.eventbrite.com Thanks for your support - it means so much.Best FinThe podcast Recently I discovered that my great great grandmother Catherine Murphy  lost her sister and her daughter within two days of each other in  February 1919 during the Great Flu pandemic. This highlighted how  disease has long been part of our history.For this episode I decided to catch up with the historian John Dorney who recently published an article on the history of epidemics in Ireland. You can find Johns article Epidemics in Ireland and also his great podcast the Irish history show  at theIrishstory.com. 

Hi folks,I hope you are coping ok. This patrons only episode looks at love and marriage in medieval Ireland. It contains fascinating anecdotes of arranged marriages, affairs and kidnappings in a world where relationships were very different! Dont forget this Saturday's online quiz night in aid of the Mater Foundation - sign up at historyquiz.eventbrite.com.Thanks for your support.Fin

Thank you for your support - I am so grateful. Its making all the difference in this uncertain time. The show for patrons is now coming out twice a week something which is only possible because of you. Go raibh mile maith agat.FinThis episode is the second part of the miniseries on Coffee. It links the Great Famine, the Sitcom Friends and Prohibition campaigners in 19th century Belfast. They all have one thing in common –  in some way shape or form influenced the popularity of coffee in Ireland. In this podcast which continues the story of coffee in Ireland since the 1840s, we will see how modern Irish coffee culture is nothing new. Indeed your great grandparents may well have enjoyed take away coffee as much as you do. 

Hi folks,I have the latest episode in the patrons only episode below but first an announcement you wont want to miss. On Saturday week (April 11th) I am hosting an Irish history table quiz online on Youtube. The quiz is free but I am asking people to donate to the Mater Foundation. This is an organisation who do fantastic work supporting the work of the Mater Hospital in Dublin. I am currently setting up a system where by all those who donate to the Foundation will get their answers marked. I will announce the winner, so you can test your knowledge against people from across the world! I need everyone planning to participate to register here (its free) historyquiz.eventbrite.com becuase I have had a larger than anticipated interest in the event. Best FinThe podcastPolitics in medieval Ireland was frequently a violent win or die pursuit. This episode, in my continuing series based on my book 'Life in Medieval Ireland', looks at the life of Maurice de Caunteton. Born in the late 13th century his life illustrated how dangerous medeival politics could be. This is the third episode in this series exclusively available to you here on patreon. 

Hi folks,I hope all is well with you in what are the strangest of times. I have a few updates all of which are good news! I will be doing a live show tonight (Fri March 27th) at 7-45pm on Youtube with two other Irish podcasts - Snugcast and The Echo Chamber. Its not about history - we will be talking about how the current crisis will affect the media including podcasting. You can tune in here https://www.youtube.com/user/irishhistorychannel The feedback on the Dublin 1916 episode and the recent show on the Aran Islands has been great. I am currently looking at another similar podcast. Patrons are now entitled to copies of my audiobooks 1348: A Medieval Apocalypse - The Black Death in Ireland and The Life of Brian Boru. To get your copies email me at info@irishhistorypodcast.ie. In the meantime this episode is all about coffee....Take care of yourselfFin----------------The Irish coffee industry generates hundreds of million of euros every year. This is a pretty recent development - when I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s the only coffee available was instant coffee. However Ireland's relationship with coffee did not begin in the last twenty years. If anything this is the second or even third wave of coffee culture to hit this country. In this show Iook at the early history of coffee tracing the 17th century origins of the drink in Ireland.This will take us inside the coffee houses of 18th century Dublin when coffee was an elite drink in society. This episode also lifts the lid on a darker side to the Irish history of coffee – in the second half of the show I interview Cuban researcher Giselle Gonzalez Garcia who is researching the history of an Irish man who became one of the largest coffee producers in Cuba in the early 19th century. 

Hi folksI hope you are all doing ok in the current situation. This podcast is the second chapter from my book 'Life in Medieval Ireland'  (Chapter 1 is available here)  This chapter focuses on stories from the 14th century that reveal how violent day to day life was in the medieval Ireland. This bonus medieval series is exclusively available for you on patreon and will not be released via iTunes or Spotify. Hopefully it will help in some way to pass the time while we social distance ourselves. I am also giving patrons two other audiobooks I have made. One is on Brian Boru while the other entitled '1348 A Medieval Apocylpse' looks at the Black Death. If you want copies of these books get in touch at info@irishhistorypodcast.ie. Thanks for your continued support - it means an awful lot. Stay safe Slán Fin

Tonight I will be participating in a new live YouTube discussion - the Self Isolate Inn. The topic is 'plagues: past and present' and I will be joining DJ Walsh and Eoin Tabb, the hosts of snugcast. Snugcast is normally recorded in a pub so we are inviting you to have a few beers and join what will be fascinating chats from the safety of your own home. Tune in from 7-45pm at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-c0OHKsTM0  -----------------------------------------------------------------------Between 1898 and 1902, the Irish playwright John Millington Synge spent several summers on the Aran Islands. Shaped by the harsh environment of the North Atlantic Ocean the islanders lived in a unique society. Old customs and traditions that had died in many parts of Ireland still survived on the islands. Synge left a mesmerising account of island life and this podcast transports you back to the summer of 1901. You will hear the vivid descriptions of a society so different it is hard to believe it existed into the 20th century. It is a time and place that is now lost and gone forever.John Millington Synge's words are read by Aidan Crowe http://castawayactors.com/male-actors/aidan-crowe/