Irish History Unfiltered is your go-to YouTube channel for an unvarnished exploration of Ireland's complex history. Hosted by Fin Dwyer, historian and creato…
1:02:032.5K views · 2mo ago · 1:02:03
Guest: Shannon Forde
In May 1915, the Cunard liner Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off the Old Head of Kinsale on the Cork coast. One of the largest and fastest ships in the world went to the bottom in just 18 minutes, taking almost 1,200 men, women and children with her.
12:465.9K views · 3mo ago · 12:46
In the 1840s, the Great Famine resulted in the deaths of around one million Irish people. Yet while Ireland was starving, food continued to leave the country in vast quantities. Why? This video examines the controversial history of food exports during the Great Famine. It reveals how much food Ireland actually produced and perhaps more importantly why it was exported and to where.
17:5715K views · 3mo ago · 17:57
In October 1816, around one hundred men descended on Wildgoose Lodge in County Louth. By morning, the residents - the Lynch family - had all been killed in one of 19th century Ireland’s most disturbing crimes. But was the massacre simply an act of revenge, or part of a wider conflict between rich and poor?
19:3638K views · 3mo ago · 19:36
Guest: Hitler’s Irish Relatives
On the day Hitler invaded Poland, another Hitler was making headlines in Britain. It was not the dictator, but his Irish sister-in-law, Bridget Hitler, who had been hauled before the courts over an unpaid electricity bill.
11:444.3K views · 3mo ago · 11:44
Guest: Mamie Cadden
Mamie Cadden, better known as Nurse Cadden, became one of the most notorious figures in 20th-century Dublin. Linked to abandoned babies, illegal procedures and suspicious deaths, her crimes shocked Ireland. But this story is not only about one woman. It is also about the society that pushed women in crisis into secrecy, danger and backstreet clinics.
19:2985K views · 4mo ago · 19:29
William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw, became one of the most notorious English-language voices of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Broadcasting from Berlin, he taunted Britain over the airwaves and became a symbol of treachery in wartime Britain. But Joyce’s story did not begin in Germany.
10:177.3K views · 4mo ago · 10:17
For Ireland’s poor, summer was not a season of plenty. It could be the hungriest and most frightening time of the year. By late June, the previous year’s potatoes could be gone, while the new crop was still weeks away. This dangerous period was known as the Hungry Gap, and July was remembered by names such as Hungry Julyand July of the Cabbages.
10:5510K views · 4mo ago · 10:55
Marriage is supposed to be about love, but until relatively recently many Irish marriages were shaped by other factors: money, land, pregnancy, shame, family pressure and survival. In this video, I look at the disturbing history of Irish marriage traditions, beginning with a shotgun wedding in my own family in 1887.
14:457.3K views · 4mo ago · 14:45
In 1907 just days before King Edward VII was due to visit Dublin, the so-called Irish Crown Jewels vanished from Dublin Castle. The jewels were worth around £50,000, a fortune at the time and had been kept in a safe at the centre of British power in Ireland.
25:48136K views · 4mo ago · 25:48
Guest: Ireland's Darkest Scandal
The Maamtrasna Murders of 1882 remain one of the most disturbing cases in Irish history. Five members of the Joyce family were killed in a remote Irish-speaking community in the west of Ireland. While the attack has been surrounded by mystery, the trials that followed became notorious.
8:364.3K views · 5mo ago · 8:36
After recovering from a recent bout of pneumonia, I started looking into how our ancestors survived illness. In 19th-century Ireland, getting sick was terrifying but getting cured was often worse. From cabbage plasters and blacksmith dentistry to respectable Victorian medicines packed with dangerous narcotics, chloroform and mercury people were faced with a choice. Did they endure the pain or risk the cure?
8:159.7K views · 5mo ago · 8:15
On the eve of the Great Famine, around three million people spoke Irish every day. That was the highest number of Irish speakers in history. But within a few decades, the language was in steep decline. So what happened? Many people blame the Great Hunger, and the Famine did play a major role. But the story is more complicated. By the 1830s, Irish was already losing ground, even while millions still spoke it.
9:3570K views · 6mo ago · 9:35
Guest: Operation Green
Listen to the full interview between Fin & James on the Irish History Podcast linktr.ee/irishhistory In 1940, Nazi Germany had conquered Western Europe. Although neutral in the conflict, Ireland faced a terrifying question: could it be next?
9:263K views · 6mo ago · 9:26
Guest: Fairy Doctors
In 1864, a couple in Tipperary began feeding their dead relatives, convinced they had come back to life. When the case reached the courts, a fairy doctor named Mary Doheny emerged at the centre of one of the strangest stories in nineteenth-century Ireland. It reveals a world in which old traditions, ritual and superstition still held a powerful grip over everyday life.
8:3512K views · 6mo ago · 8:35
Irish funeral traditions are often described as comforting, but the rituals, superstitions and customs surrounding death in the nineteenth century could also be strange, unsettling, and deeply revealing. In this video, I explore how our ancestors dealt with death: bodies laid out under tables, wake games played beside the dead, powerful superstitions, and customs that could even end in conflict.
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