The Forgotten Irish Podcast: Recent Episodes
Damian Shiels
An occasional podcast by archaeologist and historian Damian Shiels, exploring some of the personal stories of Ireland's diaspora and aspects of the history and archaeology of Ireland.
In this final episode of Stories from a Living Graveyard, we examine how this graveyard has remained central to the local community in recent decades, not just as a site of burial, but also as one of remembrance and commemoration. We also look to the graveyard's future, and ponder how others might draw inspiration from its story.
Episode 7 of 7.
This series is a co-production by Damian Shiels and Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. It was supported by the Preban Graveyard Committee, and co-funded by the Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council as part of Heritage Week 2020.
Episode 6 of Stories from a Living Graveyard looks at the leagacy of 19th century emigration from Preban, through the stories of emigrants memorialised within the graveyard. What was it like for locals who departed this area during the era of the Great Famine, and what was it like for those who stayed behind?
Episode 6 of 7.
This series is a co-production by Damian Shiels and Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. It was supported by the Preban Graveyard Committee, and co-funded by the Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council as part of Heritage Week 2020.
In Episode 5 of Stories from a Living Graveyard, we look at one of the most tragic and poignant stories from the cemetery. It revolves around a local family who lost their lives during some of the most sever weather Wicklow has seen in the last 200 years. It was a story that made world news, and which continues to be remembered and commemorated in Preban today.
Episode 5 of 7.
This series is a co-production by Damian Shiels and Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. It was supported by the Preban Graveyard Committee, and co-funded by the Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council as part of Heritage Week 2020.
In Episode 3 of Stories from A Living Graveyard, we look at Preban's history as a site of pilgrimage. We explore the traditions that endured at the holy well here, ask how they orginated, and what these holy sites meant to the people who visited them.
Episode 3 of 7.
This series is a co-production by Damian Shiels and Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. It was supported by the Preban Graveyard Committee, and co-funded by the Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council as part of Heritage Week 2020.
In Episode 4 of Stories from a Living Graveyard we journey back to one of the bloodiest periods in Wicklow's history, the 1798 Rebellion. We follow two local brothers as they match off to war, explore their experiences on the battlefield, and discover their fate beneath a bridge not far from Preban Cemetery.
Episode 4 of 7.
This series is a co-production by Damian Shiels and Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. It was supported by the Preban Graveyard Committee, and co-funded by the Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council as part of Heritage Week 2020.
In this episode of Stories from a Living Graveyard, we explore the early medieval origins of Preban, and the tantilising glimpses the site provides us of an even earlier past. The graveyard showcases artistic expression across the millenia; among the stores we unpick are those of Ireland's prehistoric stone workers, and an exceptionally talented 18th century stonecutter.
Episode 2 of 7.
This series is a co-production by Damian Shiels and Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. It was supported by the Preban Graveyard Committee, and co-funded by the Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council as part of Heritage Week 2020.
The first part of our Heritage Week series on the Preban Graveyard in Co. Wicklow, a site with stories stretching back thousands of years, from prehistoric rock art to the 1798 Rebellion and beyond. In this episode we are introduced to this incredible graveyard, the local community who brought it back to life, and some of the remarkable stories that we will be discussing over the next week.
Episode 1 of 7.
This series is a co-production by Damian Shiels and Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. It was supported by the Preban Graveyard Committee, and co-funded by the Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council as part of Heritage Week 2020.
The ancient graveyard of Preban is set in an idyllic location in the southern foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. However until 2010 it was completely overgrown and largely inaccessible. When the local community set about restoring their graveyard they discovered remarkable personal histories of their ancestors. This seven-part series was made and produced with Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. In it, Fin and I hear stories of saints, rebels and emigrants spanning more than 1,000 years of Irish history. A new episode will be released each night during Heritage Week, beginning on Monday 17 August 2020.
We would like to thank Preban Graveyard Committee for their assistance in making this podcast. It was co-funded by The Heritage Council and Wicklow County Council.
A special podcast that features a talk I gave describing the significance of American pension files as the major resource for uncovering the social lives of ordinary 19th century Irish people, and delving into the personal stories of emigrants from East Limerick who were impacted by the American Civil War.
This podcast that explores a topic close to my heart, the final letters of Union soldiers from the American Civil War. The episode takes a geographical slant, looking at the words of Ulster men from both the Catholic and Protestant faiths who died during the conflict, and revealing the different types of detail we can garner from this unique and poignant source.
This episode explores Irish connections with America's highest award for gallantry– the Medal of Honor. Since the inception of the Medal during the American Civil War, Irish and Irish American men have been prominent in it's history. This podcast takes a journey through these Irish connections, from the Civil War to Afghanistan, telling the stories of a number of the recipients along the way.
In 1917 more than 6,000 American sailors arrived in Ireland, the first United States troops deployed to front line service during the First World War. From a social perspective, all was not plain sailing. This podcast tells the story of the fiery clashes that took place between locals and the American Tars, and delves into the personal experiences of the many local Irish women who wed Yank sailors. It explores who these women were, and the hardships many of them faced before they could begin their new lives across the Atlantic.
Popular perceptions of 19th century Irish emigration imagine a tearful farewell from home, as emigrants departed never to be heard from again. But in reality those who left usually maintained close ties with their home communities– ties of obligation and relationship that continued for decades. Through the personal stories of ordinary Irish emigrants, this episode explores just how vital these links were, and how they functioned.
An elderly Irish emigrant charts the story of her emigration from Donegal in the 1840s. We discover what had prompted her to write from Ireland to America half a century after her departure for what she hoped would be a new life.
Thousands of Irish soldiers in the American Civil War died from disease and battle. But what about those who had more unusual, more unfortunate, deaths? This short podcast explores some of their stories, and the unintended consequences such a death could have on the families they left behind.
In late 1863, details of a sensational case began to emerge in the newspapers of the Union. At its centre was an intellectually disabled boy from Co. Limerick, stolen from home and sold into the Federal Army, and his mother's desperate efforts to recover him. Among those to become involved were none other than Abraham Lincoln himself. This podcast tells their story.
On 6 June 1944 the most famous invasion in world history occurred. Though we know about the many Irish who experienced D-Day and the Normandy Campaign with the British forces, we have little knowledge of those Irish Americans and Irish Canadians who went through those momentous events. These are some of their stories.