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 Museum Association) and Heather McGuicken (Northern Ireland Museums Council).
This Hedge School is supported by Tipperary County Council, Tipperary Museum of Hidden History and ICOM Ireland.
Recorded live on Sat 17 May 2025, @ Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, Mick Delahunty Square, Clonmel
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1:15:43
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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1:23:32
‘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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1:03:09
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 editor, Tommy Graham, in discussion with Angela Byrne (Dictionary of Irish Biography), Lar Joye (Heritage Officer, Dublin Port) and Captain Michael McKenna (Dublin Port Harbour Master).
This Hedge School is supported by Dublin Port in association with the Dublin Festival of History
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1:18:44
How many died—and how—in the Irish Civil War?
(Recorded live on Sat 17 Aug ’24 @ the Electric Picnic)
Thanks to UCC’s Irish Civil War Fatalities project we now have a definite figure—1,485. But in this discussion, chaired by History Ireland editor Tommy Graham, with John Dorney, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Michael Kennedy and Caitlin White, we find out a lot more—not only who was killed but also when, where, in what circumstances, and how they were commemorated.
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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