From a mystery in rural Ireland that has persisted for over a century, to the little-known link between a World Cup star footballer and the town of Donabate, to the unexpected ways that Hiberno English is spreading in Europe… it’s a story episode for you to enjoy over the holidays as Naomi and Tim share their favourite stories for 2022.
Naomi’s image: https://twitter.com/NaomiOhReally/status/1599362845942370304?s=20&t=aEc52pKN3a8a0w9sECahFw
Tim’s image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolving_views#/media/File:Magiclantern.jpg
A bonus episode is available for Patreon supporters along with our full archive of extra content over at: www.patreon.com/theirishpassport
Classic Irish Passport: Ireland and India's shared history, as Varadkar and Sunak lead the Irish and British governments
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This is a repeat of an Irish Passport classic episode, “Ireland and India: Assassins of Empire”, originally published on June 21 2021.
Today, Leo Varadkar takes over as Taoiseach. This means that both Britain and Ireland have governments led by people of Indian heritage, as in London Rishi Sunak took over as prime minister in October.
The coincidence has provoked renewed curiosity in these leaders, their backgrounds, and the complex shared history between Ireland and India under the British Empire.
To mark the day, we’re reposting our episode about that very topic: ‘Ireland and India: Assassins of Empire’.
Anarchist clubs, public assassinations, and secret rebel meetings in a notorious vegetarian restaurant – all these feature in this fascinating episode on the historical links between Ireland and India at the beginning of the 20th century. UCD’s Conor Mulvagh explains why Ireland and India were so symbolically important to the survival of the British Empire, and why the independence movements in both countries were often deeply intertwined. We hear how Indian law students in Dublin joined rebel militias, forged friendships with leaders of the Easter Rising, and later took inspiration from Irish nationalism to challenge the British Raj. Vikrant Sharma, founder of the international relations website The Global Telescope, tells us about the many parallels between Ireland and India’s history of British rule, and how both should perhaps be considered in a larger framework of colonial strategy and nationalist resistance.
The books mentioned in this episode are:
Conor Mulvagh, Irish Days and Indian Memories: V. V. Giri and Indian Law Students at University College Dublin, 1913-1916. Published in 2016 by the Irish Academic Press.
Shereen F. Ilahi. Imperial Violence and the Path to Independence: India, Ireland and the Crisis of Empire. Published in 2016 by I.B. Tauris and Co.
You can find Vikrant Sharma’s website, The Global Telescope, here: linktr.ee/TheGlobalTelescope
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @PassportIrish.
If you enjoyed this episode, do give us a good review in your podcast app and share it with your friends.
Bonus episodes are published for our supporters over at www.patreon.com/theirishpassport
Ireland’s dream as it emerged as an independent state was to ‘take its place among the nations of the world’. The principle of international cooperation has therefore always been tightly bound up with Irish nationalism and how the country pursues its goals. In this episode, Naomi and Tim explore Ireland’s quest for recognition, first at the League of Nations and then at its successor the United Nations. We speak to longtime UN staffer Niall McCann to hear the inside story of how Ireland is seen at the UN, and discuss the surprising role of the Irish government in pushing for radical reform of the intergovernmental body. Plus, Naomi discusses a story she broke that revealed how the outsized influence of the UN’s five permanent security council members can warp its policy and disable the body from being effective– in this case, on Ukraine.
A bonus episode is available for Patreon supporters in which Naomi and Tim debrief from this episode and discuss what stood out to them. It’s available for subscribers along with our full archive of extra content over at: www.patreon.com/theirishpassport
Goodbye Liz, Hello Chaos: Another UK Prime Minister Resigns
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As all Hell breaks loose in the halls of Westminster, Naomi and Tim break down what on earth has just happened in the UK. Why did Prime Minister Liz Truss resign after only 44 days? Who might take over her post? And what are the consequences of all this chaos for the island of Ireland? We hear commentary from Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, and discuss the potential fallout of the Tories’ chronic instability in the context of current global crises. Don’t miss out on this one!
Bonus episodes over at: https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport
In the final episode of our War of Independence mini-series, Tim and Naomi lay out the historical events that split the emerging Irish nation and led to a civil war. As we pick up on the story, global condemnation has pressured the British government into offering a truce. Following years of gruelling guerilla warfare against the might of the British army, an exhausted team of representatives from the rebel Irish government travel to London to negotiate peace terms. Tim and Naomi dig into the role of reluctant negotiator Michael Collins and consumate operator Éamon de Valera who remained back in Dublin, quoting from articles and speeches from the time to bring to life the events that would shape Irish history for decades.
Ps – what does enduring bitterness over partition have to do with a cherished Irish potato-based snack? Find out in this bonus Halfpint debrief episode made specially for Patreon supporters, in Naomi and Tim reflect on the making of this episode and discuss what stood out to them: https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport
