Short History of Ireland, A

Last Edited: 27-Sep-2019 A Global British Comedy Collaborative document. Edited by John Lucas
Broadcast source is BBC Radio Four unless otherwise indicated. Recording quality is considered good unless otherwise indicated.

Pairs of episodes each day. 240 separate files but daily listings below and on BBC as 120 episodes
Date Title Cast Parameters
BBC R7
19-Mar-2007 to
13-Apr-2007
  1. The First Plants, Animals and People;
    Stone Age Ireland
  2. Neolithic Megaliths; The First Farmers
  3. Copper, Bronze and Gold; Before the Celts
  4. The Coming of the Celts; Preparing for the
    Otherworld in Pre-Christian Celtic Ireland
  5. Kings and Champions; Agricola Plans to
    Conquer Ireland
  6. Patrick the Briton; The Early Irish Church
  7. A Land of Many Kings; Poets, Judges, Nobles,
    the Free and the Un-free
  8. Homesteads and Crannogs; Living off the Land
  9. Saints and Scholars; Not the Work of Men,
    But Angels
  10. St Columba, St Columbanus and the Wandering
    Irish; The Vikings Are Coming
  11. The Wars of the Gael and the Gall; Viking Towns
    and Cities
  12. Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf; A
    Trembling Sod
  13. The Rape of Dervogilla; At Baginbun Ireland Was
    Lost and Won
  14. A Tale of Two Sieges; Henry II Comes to Ireland
  15. Conquests and a Failed Treaty; John, Lord of Ireland
  16. Dreading the Fury of the King; The English Colony
  17. Feudal Ireland; A Great Affliction Befell the Country
  18. Edward the Bruce; Famine
  19. The Black Death; Galloglasses
  20. More Irish Than the Irish Themselves; The Statute
    of Kilkenny
 written by Dr Jonathan Bardon
with Frances Tomelty, Richard Dormer
 		40 files
3:36:57, 198 MB, S
BBC R7
16-Apr-2007 to
11-May-2007
  1. Into the Land of the Savage Irish, A Catalan Pilgrim
    Amongst the Unconquered Irish
  2. Richard II's Great Expedition to Ireland; The Pale
  3. Beyond the Pale; Garret Mor Fitzgerald, the Great
    Earl of Kildare
  4. Garret Og and Silken Thomas Fitzgerald; The
    Rebellion of Silken Thomas
  5. The Church in Turmoil; Sober Ways, Politic Drifts
    and Amiable Persuasion
  6. Conn Bacach O'Neill Visits London; Religious Strife
    and Plantation
  7. Shane the Proud; The Fall of Shane O'Neill
  8. A Failed Plantation and a Bloody Feast in Belfast;
    An English Queen, a Scottish Lady and a Dark
    Daughter
  9. Holy War in Munster; The Plantation of Munster
  10. The Wreck of the Armada; The Last Voyage of
    the Girona
  11. The Adventure of Captain Francisco de Cuellar;
    The Wild Irish are Barbarous and Most Filthy
  12. A Fit House for an Outlaw, a Meet Bed for a
    Rebel and an Apt Cloak for a Thief; The Capture
  13. The Escape of Red Hugh O'Donnell; The Pirate
    Queen of Connacht
  14. Grainne O'Malley and the Composition of
    Connacht; The Siege of Enniskillen
  15. The Battle of the Biscuits; Freeing the Country
    from the Rod of Tyrannical Evil
  16. The Survy Fort of Blackwater; The Earl of
    Essex's Failure
  17. Mounjoy and Docwra; We Spare None of What
    Quality or Sex Soever
  18. The Battle of Christmas Eve; The Treaty of Mellifont
  19. Remember, Remember the Fifth of November; They
    Wish to Kill Him by Poison
  20. The Flight of the Earls; The Earls in Exile
 written by Dr Jonathan Bardon
with Frances Tomelty, Richard
Dormer, James Greene
 		40 files
3:42:04, 203 MB, S
BBC R7
14-May-2007
to
08-Jun-2007
  1. Bring in Colonies of Civil People of England and
    Scotland; A Lucky Escape, Scottish Lairds and
    the Division of Clandeboye
  2. Planting Down and Antrim; The Rebellion of Sir
    Cahir O'Doherty
  3. The Plantation of Ulster; Make Speede, Get
    Thee to Ulster
  4. The Londonderry Plantation; The Luck of
    the Draw
  5. The Heretics Intend to Vomit Out All Their
    Poison; Thomas Wentworth and the Graces
  6. The Eagle Wing and the Black Oath;
    Presbyterian Anger, Catholic Resentment
  7. October 1641, The Plot That Failed; The
    1641 Massacres
  8. The Confederation of Kilkenny; Civil War
  9. Cromwell; The Curse of Cromwell
  10. To Hell or Connacht; Priests and Tories
  11. Restoration Ireland; The Duke and the City
  12. Work, Food and Leisure; The Popish Plot
  13. The Trial and Execution of Oliver Plunkett; Lilliburlero
  14. Three Kings and Thirteen Apprentice Boys; No
    Surrender
  15. The Relief of Derry; Schomberg
  16. The Battle of the Boyne; Galloping Hogan, Sarsfield
    and the Walls of Limerick
  17. Athlone and Aughrim; Limerick - A Second Siege
    and a Treaty
  18. The Wild Geese; The Penal Laws
  19. The Minority Prevailing Over the Majority; The
    Protestant Ascendancy
  20. John Dutton Eats and Sleeps in Connemara;
    Wood's Halfpence and the Drapier
 written by Dr Jonathan Bardon
with Frances Tomelty, Richard
Dormer, James Greene 		40 files
3:52:14, 212 MB, S
BBC R7
11-Jun-2007 to
06-Jul-2007
  1. A Modest Proposal; The Year of the Great Frost
  2. The Year of Slaughter; The First Performance of
    Handel's Messiah
  3. The Second City of the Empire; Dublin: Poverty,
    Crime and Duels
  4. The Irish Gentry Are Expensive People; A Sort
    of Despot - The Irish Landlord
  5. The Hearts of Steel and the Hearts of Oak;
    Clearing the Land
  6. The Peasantry; Superfine Cloth of Home
    Manufacture
  7. Ulster's Domestic Linen Industry; Wash Mills,
    Bleach Greens and Beetling Engines
  8. A Vast Number of People Shipping Off for
    Pennsylvania and Boston; The Voyage of the Sally
  9. The American Revolution and Ireland; Free Trade
    or Else
  10. The Dungannon Convention of 1782; Grattan's
    Parliament
  11. The Failure to Reform; 14th July 1789 - Sacred
    to Liberty
  12. The United Irishmen; The Belfast Harp Festival
    of 1792
  13. At War with France; Earl Fitzwilliam's Failure
  14. Peep o' Day Boys and Defenders; I Will Blow Your
    Souls to the Low Hills of Hell
  15. The French Are in the Bay; Nothing But Terror
    Will Keep Them in Order
  16. Croppies Lie Down; Rouse Hibernians from Your
    Slumbers
  17. The Boys of Wexford; The Battle of New Ross
  18. The Rebellion Spreads North; Rebellion in County
    Antrim
  19. Rebellion in County Down; Vinegar Hill
  20. The Races of Castlebar; The Union Proposed
 written by Dr Jonathan Bardon
with Frances Tomelty, Richard
Dormer, James Greene
 		40 files
3:54:51, 215 MB, S
BBC R7
09-Jul-2007 to
03-Aug-2007
  1. Jobbing with the Most Corrupt People Under
    Heaven; The Passing of the Act of Union
  2. Robert Emmet; Now Is Your Time for Liberty
  3. Let No Man Write My Epitaph; Caravats and
    Shanavests
  4. Ribbonmen, Orangemen and Rockites;
    Emancipation Refused
  5. The Catholic Association; The Invasion of Ulster
  6. The Clare Election; Scum Condensed of Irish Bog
  7. A Social Laboratory; Property Has Its Duties as
    Well as Its Rights
  8. The Repealer Repulsed; Monster Meetings
  9. A Nation Once Again; The Very Extreme of
    Human Wretchedness
  10. The Far-Seeing Merchants of Northern Venice;
    So Much Wretchedness
  11. The Census of 1841; Phytophthora Infestans
  12. Famine; The Famine in Skibbereen
  13. Fever; Emigration
  14. The Battle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage
    Patch; The Fenian Brotherhood
  15. The Green Flag Will Be Flying Independently;
    God Save Ireland!
  16. The Growth of Belfast; Party Fights
  17. My Mission to Pacify Ireland; Keep a Firm Grip
    on Your Homesteads
  18. The Land War; The Relief of Captain Boycott
  19. Assassination in the Phoenix Park; The First
    Home Rule Bill
  20. Is Them'uns Bate?; The Belfast Riots of 1886
 written by Dr Jonathan Bardon
with Frances Tomelty, Richard
Dormer, James Greene
 		40 files
3:58:11, 218 MB, S
BBC R7
06-Aug-2007 to
31-Aug-2007
  1. Belfast, an Imperial City; Committee Room 15
  2. Keep Our Noble Kingdom Whole; The Second
    Home Rule Bill
  3. The Country Is Bleeding to Death; Killing Home
    Rule With Kindness
  4. De-Anglicising the Irish People; Two Nations?
  5. Cultural Revival; Home Rule Promised
  6. The Covenant; The Great Dublin Lock-Out
  7. The Curragh Mutiny; To the Brink of Civil War
  8. Faithful to Erin, We Answer Her Call; The
    Conspirators Prepare
  9. We Are Going to Be Slaughtered; Easter Week
  10. Executions and Internment; Sacrifice at
    the Somme
  11. The Rise of Sinn Fein; The First Dail
  12. Return to Violence; Terror and Reprisal
  13. The Dreary Steeples; Partition
  14. Stretch Out the Hand of Forebearance;
    The Treaty
  15. The Split; Troubles North and South
  16. Civil War; Green against Green
  17. Divided Ulster; Not an Inch
  18. Depression Years; An Empty Political Formula
  19. The Economic War; Democracy in Peril
  20. Forget the Unhappy Past; Crying for a
    Happier Life
 written by Dr Jonathan Bardon
with Frances Tomelty, Richard
Dormer, James Greene
 40 files
4:01:01, 220 MB, S