Podcast Announcement — Bonus Content, Ad Free listening & more

I bring you a message today from the people of Ireland. The Irish desire peace with England as with the rest of the world. It is a question of a republic. And we want the creation of a new Ireland. I wish to talk to you this evening about the state of the nation’s affairs. I wish to talk to you this evening about the…

Hello, everyone. This is an episode, just a quick, exciting announcement. So a little while back, I asked people how they’d like to see the podcast grow and what more we could be doing. A bunch of you got in touch, suggesting people to interview, bonus episode ideas, and a few of you even asked questions about Patreon. Since then, I’ve been working furiously behind the scenes to figure out, you know, how best to pull it all off. And I gotta say, I’m pretty excited with where I’ve landed.

Now, I know you’re all probably used to podcasts asking for money or constantly bugging you for support. And I’ve never really wanted to do that. We’re at the history here. And don’t worry, the main podcast won’t change and I won’t be doing announcements like this a lot. But there seems to be an appetite for extra content. Content that I would love to provide. And that’s where Patreon comes in.

You’ve all been so supportive in the past with my little tip button on the website. And now I’m setting up a Patreon to reward the most dedicated fans and help fund some amazing new ideas. There will be a number of different tiers, but the gist of it will be that Patreon supporters can enjoy ad-free listening, early access to shows, and the most exciting bit, bonus content. To start, I have a bunch of interviews lined up with some of Ireland’s best historians. We’ve got Colm Kenny talking about Arthur Griffith, Liz Gillis discussing Kathleen Clarke, and Gerard Sheehan providing a deep dive into Liam Lynch and Rory O’Connor.

I genuinely would love to keep all of this free for everyone, but it’s just not feasible right now. This show started as a hobby and it is still supplemented by my day job. It means that I can only dedicate so much time, i.e. all my spare time, to this show that I love so much. And that’s the great thing about Patreon. The more of you who are interested, the bigger and better we can make the show. I was dubious of Patreon and all of this for quite a while, but the more I think about it, the more I’ve gotten on board with it. Basically, to be blunt, I’d rather be paid by you than my current boss. And the more of you who support the show, the more I can focus on it.

It’ll also be a great way to get to know you all a little better. I really want the Patreon to be shaped by you. What you want to hear, how you want to engage, and how we can make the show go from strength to strength. And if no one’s interested, well the show will just keep going exactly as it is. I’m having fun, so why not? But I do hope you’re interested, because I’ve got big plans.

I’ll also say that I know times are tough at the moment. And if there’s anyone who’d love access, but can’t quite make their budget stretch, then do just get in touch. I know podcast subscriptions are a luxury that not everyone can afford, and I’d be happy to make something work. But okay, that’s all to say there are exciting things on the horizon.

For a little taste, and so this whole thing isn’t just me rabbiting on about money and Patreon, here are some of the highlights from my chat with Colin McKenny. Enjoy. And if you want to hear the full 45 minute episode, sign up at patreon.com slash the history of Ireland, or follow the link in the show notes or on the website.

We know Collins was a talker and a wrestler and a messer. It seems Griffith wasn’t quite like that. No, definitely not like that. Well, yeah, it’s a good question. You know, if you walked into a room, you might find him off-putting. He was very quiet to begin with, and he hadn’t got good eyesight. One of his old friends told a story about them swimming, you know, one day when they were youths, and the rain comes down, and they’re all getting out because it’s a thunderstorm. And they see Griffith kind of swimming in a circle, and they can’t understand in this heavy rain. Then they realise because he hasn’t got his glasses on, of course, and he can’t see properly where he’s going. And there are people who say he could not recognise people until he was up close to them, which might be another reason he wasn’t given a rifle in 1916.

He didn’t have a great stomach for the hurly-burly of politics. And that’s something that James Joyce commented on, in fact, in Ulysses, where Griffith is one of the few politicians that’s actually identified, and Joyce had a certain regard for Griffith, because Griffith had helped him to some extent. But he has one of his characters say in Ulysses that Griffith had no go in him for the mob, and that is a very good summation of Griffith. Griffith was always looking for someone else to lead, and his nickname, and we can’t be sure why he was called Dan in his family. I mean, it’s told that he loved debating and talking so much about politics that they called him that after Dan O’Connell. And his wife always called him that. And the funny thing, his wife, who’s known as Maude generally, he always called her Molly, and she always called him Dan, so it was kind of their secret way of talking to one another in a sense.

And I found in the National Library a scrap of paper among them, and I don’t know who wrote it or when it was written, it was certainly written a long time ago, nearer his death than now. And it just a little, in handwriting, tells a story of workmen one day during, towards the end, they went into government buildings, and they needed to move a desk somewhere, because there were people living in government buildings at that stage because of the fear of snipers. And Griffith was in the room, and he had his head down, and he knocks on the door, he gets up, and he walks out, and they go in with the desk, and they see the blotting pad. Now, some readers won’t realise what a blotting pad is. When you wrote with pen and ink in the old days, the ink might be wet on the paper, and you’d put it onto the blotting paper that you’d have a big sheet of it on a desk, just to dry it so it wouldn’t smudge. And when they went to move the desk, they saw the blotting paper was completely wet with his tears. And so if you say that he died disappointed, I think that story answers that question.

Okay, so that’s just a few interesting snippets from the interview. As you can hear, Professor Kenny is a fascinating guy. To hear the rest of it, subscribe to my Patreon account. You can find the link at thehistoryofireland.com or just search patreon.com forward slash the history of Ireland. Or, easier again, follow the link in the show notes.