Empire: World History

Latest Episodes:

246. Ireland Transformed: From Banning Condoms to Exporting Viagra Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

How did Ireland go from a farming economy to the home of Big Tech and Big Pharma in Europe in a few decades? Why were women imprisoned in “Magdalene Laundries” in Ireland until 1996? How did Irish society grapple with abuse within the Catholic Church?

To conclude our series on Ireland & Empire, Anita and William are joined by the brilliant Fintan O’Toole, author of We Don’t Know Ourselves, to reflect on how Irish society has transformed since the 1950s, and how the country’s colonial past informs its future.

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

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245. Inside The Good Friday Agreement with Alastair Campbell Apr 09, 2025

Show notes

What ended The Troubles? Why was 1998 the right moment for a peace treaty? Which issues caused the most heated debate? What was the food like in the negotiating room? Exactly 27 years on since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, what does its future look like?

Listen as William and Anita are joined by Alastair Campbell, the lead strategist for Tony Blair’s New Labour government at the time, to discuss what it was really like to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland in 1998.

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Senior Producer: Callum Hill

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244. The Troubles: IRA Secrets Exposed (Ep 4) Apr 07, 2025

Show notes

Who was responsible for the murder of Jean McConville? Which IRA secrets were revealed in the Belfast Project tapes? How did Gerry Adams move into politics and become a key figure in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement?

Listen as Anita and William are joined for the final time by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss how the families of the Disappeared searched for their loved ones after the ceasefire in the 1990s, and Patrick’s discovery of who killed Jean McConville in 1972.

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Email: empire@goalhanger.com

Instagram: @empirepoduk

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Senior Producer: Callum Hill

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243. The Troubles: London Bombings, Hunger Strikes, & The Graveside Grenade (Ep 3) Apr 02, 2025

Show notes

Who organised the bombing of The Old Bailey in Central London? Why was Jean McConville abducted in December 1972? Why did the British government choose not to intervene when hunger strikers like Bobby Sands refused food in 1981? How was the graveside grenade incident linked to the first seed of peace that would one day end The Troubles?

In the third of four episodes, William and Anita are joined once again by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss Bloody Friday, the infamous IRA bombings in London in 1973, and the hunger strike that changed the trajectory of The Troubles toward a battle for the ballot.

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Instagram: @empirepoduk

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Anouska Lewis

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242. The Troubles: Bloody Sunday & The British Army in Belfast (Ep 2) Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

What was the British Army’s policy of “Internment” in Northern Ireland, and how did it drive membership for the Provisional IRA? Who was General Kitson? How did the Price sisters go from peaceful protestors to IRA frontline soldiers? What happened on Bloody Sunday?

In the second of four episodes, Anita and William are joined once again by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss early IRA bombing campaigns in Belfast, and how the British Army in Northern Ireland employed methods used against other anti-colonial struggles across the British Empire.

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

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241. The Troubles: War in the Streets of Northern Ireland (Ep 1) Mar 27, 2025

Show notes

What were The Troubles and why did they lead to 30 years of violence and division in Northern Ireland? How were Irish Catholics inspired by the American Civil Rights movement in 1969? Why did the British government deploy troops on the streets of Belfast?

In the first of four episodes, Anita and William are joined by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss the beginning of The Troubles, and to introduce three key characters: Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, and Dolours Price.

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Senior Producer: Callum Hill

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240. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Irish Civil War (Ep 3) Mar 25, 2025

Show notes

In the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence in 1921, Michael Collins is sent to London to meet Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and other British officials to negotiate a treaty.

After weeks of travelling back and forth across the Irish Sea, Collins and his fellow Sinn Féin negotiators return with a deal. Ireland would become a Free State, but it would remain in the British Empire, and the Irish must swear an oath of allegiance to the King. Eamonn De Valera, the president of the republic, refuses to accept. De Valera and Collins, who were on the same side, are suddenly enemies. A rift tears through the republicans, splitting them into pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty forces. Families are divided, and soldiers who once fought together are on opposite sides. As the Irish tricolour replaces the Union Jack above Dublin castle, war breaks out between the two factions. Will Collins and De Valera survive their third war on home soil?

Listen as William and Anita are joined once again by Diarmaid Ferriter, author of A Nation Not A Rabble, to discuss how the Anglo-Irish Treaty descended into civil war.

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Senior Producer: Callum Hill

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239. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Rise of The IRA (Ep 2) Mar 20, 2025

Show notes

The Irish republicans who led the Easter Rising of 1916 are tried for treason by the British government, and sentenced to death. Some are so unwell they have to be tied to a chair to be killed, and the brutality of these executions turns the tide of public opinion in Ireland, increasing support for the Republican cause.

The remaining revolutionaries are carted off to prisons and internment camps, where they come up with new ideas for the next fight for independence. The British press has misrepresented the Easter Rising as “The Sinn Féin Rebellion”, but this accidental branding gives the political party a newfound prominence, and its leaders seek to turn it into a national republican organisation. In 1918, during the first British general election where women can vote, Sinn Fein candidates win 73 seats in the Houses of Parliament. But they refuse to go to Westminster. They create their own parliament and declare themselves an independent Irish Republic. Meanwhile, the newly-named Irish Republican Army launches guerrilla attacks on the police force upholding British rule in Ireland. A new war of independence has begun…

Listen as William and Anita are joined once again by Diarmaid Ferriter, author of A Nation Not A Rabble, to discuss the significance of the Irish War of Independence.

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

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238. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Easter Rising (Ep 1) Mar 18, 2025

Show notes

The 1916 Easter Rising was a definitive moment in 20th-century Irish history. Its memory was evoked throughout The Troubles, with republicans wearing commemorative Easter Lily badges to honour the revolutionary martyrs that came before them.

On Easter Monday in 1916, amongst the backdrop of the ongoing First World War, Irish revolutionaries brought the anti-colonial struggle to Britain’s doorstep.

Armed men and women stormed and seized important buildings across Dublin, and proclaimed the beginning of The Irish Republic. From the steps of the General Post Office, Patrick Pearse read the proclamation of independence that would be referred back to for generations. As the leaders of the revolution faced their tragic fate, we trace the journeys of three rebels who escaped execution: a countess with a pistol, a maths-teacher-turned-military-commander, and a young man from Cork who will soon oversee a guerrilla war campaign as the revolution is reborn…

Listen as Anita and William are joined by Diarmaid Ferriter, author of A Nation Not A Rabble, to discuss the impact of the Easter Rising.

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Email: empire@goalhanger.com

Instagram: @empirepoduk

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Senior Producer: Callum Hill

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237. The Great Famine: The Irish Exodus to America (Ep 2) Mar 13, 2025

Show notes

The legacy of the Great Famine continues to shape not only Ireland, but the Irish diaspora in America, Canada, and the UK. In the mid-1800s, starving families fled the country in search of survival, gathering at the docks to board “coffins ships” sailing to Liverpool and the east coast of the USA. When “the famine Irish” arrived in America they resented the idea of ever doing rural work again, and sought work in the police, in bars, and in the fire brigade. Irish communities centred around Boston, New York, and Philadelphia developed into powerful Irish congresses in politics. How does the legacy of famine emigration continue to shape American politics today?

Listen as William and Anita are joined once again by writer and historian Colm Tóibín to discuss the Great Famine and how it shaped post-modern Irishness, from the cheekiness of The Beatles to Donald Trump’s cabinet.

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Email: empire@goalhanger.com

Instagram: @empirepoduk

Blue Sky: @empirepoduk

X: @empirepoduk

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Assistant Producer: Becki Hills

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Senior Producer: Callum Hill

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