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The Mick Clifford Podcast
OWEN O’SHEA: LEST WE FORGET
This month one hundred years ago the civil war reached its nadir with some horrific outrages in Co Kerry. Combatants on both sides died in terrible circumstances, including the outrage at Ballyseedy where nine men were tied around a mine and blown up. Miraculously one, Stephen Fuller, survived. This week's podcast guest is Historian Owen O’Shea, he looks back on those violent weeks and the subsequent fall out that resonated down through the generations. He also examines how exactly the past is being remembered today.
Neither political party which grew out of the civil war “covered themselves in glory” in how they treated those who were injured and damaged during the conflict, according to historian Owen O’Shea.
During the first decade of the state’s existence between 1922 an 1932 the Cumann na nGeadheal government was extremely parsimonious in compensating those who had fought on the free state side, and completely dismissive of anti-treaty veterans.
“Many were begging and begging in pension applications for some financial support,” O’Shea tells the Mick Clifford podcast. “They were battling mental health, financial troubles, breakdowns and immigration and the free state did very little in the first decade of its existence to support those who went out to fight for the state. Neither (political) party on the two sides of the conflict could claim they covered themselves in glory in that respect.”
The centenary of the Ballyseedy massacre, in which eight anti-treaty prisoners were blown up on a lonely road outside Tralee falls on March 7.
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HERO’S BROKEN WINGS: Roger Casement
35:45One of the most tragic figures from the revolutionary period was Roger Casement, global humanitarian, Irish rebel, hung as a traitor. A new biography Broken Archangel – The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement provides a fascinating account of this complex figure and the times he lived in. It also answers definitively the questions around whether his diaries, used to blacken his name ahead of his execution, were forged. The book’s author, Ronald Phillips is this week’s guest on the podcast.STARDUST JUSTICE: Sean Murray
36:54After forty three years the families of the forty eight young people who died in the Stardust fire in Dublin in February 1981 have finally received a form of justice. The longest running inquest in the history of the state returned a verdict of unlawful killing in all forty eight deaths. How did it get here, what did the inquest here and where can it go from here. The Irish Examiner’s Sean Murray has been following this story most of his career and he is this week’s guest on the podcast.ON A CROOK’S TRAIL: Michael O’Farrell
39:45Michael Lynn is currently serving a prison sentence for crimes of fraud committed at the height of the Celtic Tiger years in this country. A solicitor by training, he conned banks out of tens of millions of euro, went on the run and ended up in Brazil where his wife gave birth to their first child. He thought that would save him from extradition but it didn’t. All the time his trail was being followed by investigative reporter Michael O’Farrell, who has now written a book, Fugitive, the Michael Lynn story. The book reads like a thriller and Michael is this week’s guest on the podcast.TAKEAWAYS FROM THE FOOD SYSTEM: Joe McNamee
36:16We have long since developed in a nation of foodies in this country in terms of the range of foodies that people enjoy and how it is consumed. But what of our food system? How far now is the journey from farm to fork? Why do we no longer, for the greater part, know the precise distance and route taken by the food we buy? And why is this country that projects itself as a top class food producer, importing so much. Irish Examiner Food Writer Joe McNamee answers these questions and much more in a fascinating tour of our current food system.THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF MORRIS O’SHEA SALAZAR: Liz Dunphy
30:15The bustling town of Killorglin in Co Kerry is one of the most unlikeliest places imaginable to have a connection with one of the biggest drug cartels on the planet but that is the case. One of the senior figures in the Sinaloa cartel is allegedly Morris O’Shea Salazar who spent a decade of his formative years growing up and into adulthood in Killorglin. Authorities in Chile are attempting to locate him to press serious charges on the basis that he was the cartel’s main man in Europe. His mother, who brought him to Killorglin, and his uncle are already serving prison sentences. Irish Examiner reporter Liz Dunphy went to the mid Kerry town to talk to locals and find out who exactly was and is Morris O’Shea Salazar.HEIRESS, BOMBER: Rose Dugdale
47:21The death was announced earlier this week of Rose Dugdale, the English aristocrat who became a member of the IRA, served time in prison and was subsequently involved in perfecting bomb technology for the Provos. She also featured in attempts to rid inner city Dublin of drug dealers in the 1980s. Sean O’Driscoll has written a biography of Ms Dugdale, entitled Heiress Rebel Vigliante Bomber. Sean is this week’s guest on the podcast.SO LONG LEO: Elaine Loughlin
25:47Leo Varadkar’s announcement that he was stepping down as Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael took the whole country by shock. Why now and who is in line to succeed him? Irish Examiner Political Editor Elaine Loughlin looks back on Varadkar’s career and looks forward to who might replace him and what it will mean for the government, the country and the next general election.LUCK OF THE IRISH PREMIER: Elaine Loughlin
32:23One of the perks of the job of being Taoiseach is apparently the invite to the White House for St Patrick’s Day, a privilege that is afforded few foreign leaders. Leo Varadkar is over this year but he has a lot on his mind. He has to step lightly around hosts whose stance on Israel and Gaza is at odds with that of most of the world, including Ireland. And he also is burdened with reflection on a disastrous referendum outcome for his government. Joining him in DC, among the travelling media, is Irish Examiner Political Editor Elaine Loughlin, this week’s guest on the podcast.EYEWITNESS: Eamonn Mallie
40:08Through the years of the violence in Northern Ireland one distinctive voice was frequently heard across all airwaves. Eamonn Mallie didn’t speak with a typical South Armagh accent but it was from there he was sprung and he went on to be one of the leading reporters of the conflict in the North. Now he has written a book about his experiences, the stories he broke, his encounters with the men of violence and a highly unlikely friendship with the firebrand unionist, Ian Paisley. Eamonn Mallie is this week’s guest on the podcast.