Episode 8: The Big Picture

Belfast's streets erupt into bloodshed with 30 dead in the space of 5 days. Historian Éamon Phoenix tells Tara and Declan how his grandfather survived World War I only to come close to being killed in the sectarian violence blighting the city. Please be advised that some listener ... Show More

Treaty talks are reaching a critical point in London. In Belfast, Tara and Declan delve into the past at the Linenhall Library, while in Cork listener Robert Bogue has been learning about his grandfather's time in the Irish police. Meanwhile, Declan's hungry... 

Amid death and violence across the island of Ireland at this time, one incident stands out. The McMahon family is targeted one night by a gang believed to have been made up of RIC men, led by DI John Nixon. Tara and Declan hear how the Cavan man came to be linked to a number of k ... Show More

What were the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in December 1921, following negotiations between the UK and Sinn Féin? How was it received by the Irish people? What was the process by which it was agreed between Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Michael Collins, and Arthur G ... Show More

What are the origins of the Irish War of Independence? What impact did the First World War have on Irish efforts for Home Rule? What was the mood in Ireland following the bloody Easter Rising of 1916? And, who was Éamon de Valera, the man who dominated the story of not only Irish ... Show More

What occurred on Bloody Sunday on 21 November 1920 - a turning point in the Irish War of Independence and one of the bloodiest and most brutal moments in Irish history? How many British Army Officers were assassinated on the instructions of firebrand political leader, Michael Col ... Show More

The legacy of the Great Famine continues to shape not only Ireland, but the Irish diaspora in America, Canada, and the UK. In the mid-1800s, starving families fled the country in search of survival, gathering at the docks to board “coffins ships” sailing to Liverpool and the east ... Show More

In the shadowy halls of Dublin Castle, 1907, a daring heist shook the British Empire. Four days before King Edward VII's royal visit, the priceless Irish Crown Jewels vanished without a trace. Sir Arthur Vicars, the somewhat incompetent Ulster King of Arms, found himself at the c ... Show More

His statue may stand proudly outside the Houses of Parliament in London, but in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell is remembered as “the Devil from over the Sea” for the bloodshed he unleashed there from 1649 to 1653.  Rising to prominence as a Parliamentarian during the English Civil Wars ... Show More

Writer Glenn Patterson finds out how, in May 1974, a tiny band of loyalists and unionists over fourteen days stages a strike that paralyses Northern Ireland, and slides it into anarchy. Then twelve years old, Glenn lived through these events, taking place in the context of a 'Tro ... Show More

In 1607, after launching a failed rebellion in Ulster against the English, Hugh O’Neill and other Irish nobles are forced to flee Ireland, and their lands are confiscated. In response to the revolt, an insidious narrative about Irish people emerges in Tudor England, describing th ... Show More

What was Sinn Féin’s totemic first move after winning a majority seat in 1917? Were the IRA’s methods during this early stages of the war as violent as they are commonly believed to have been? How sectarian was the IRA? What crucial strategy did the Irish adopt in order to overwh ... Show More