200. The East India Company’s Global Manhunt

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.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did the memory of the Great Famine shape Irish identity? Could it have been prevented? From 1845 to 1852, a disease decimated potato crops across Ireland. Farmers of small plots who relied entirely on this monoculture were launched into complete destitution. Desperate families were evicted from their homes and suffered through starvation. British public policy offered limited assistance, such as workhouses and public works schemes. But people who were used to hunkering down inside during winter had no warm clothes now suddenly had to work outside in freezing conditions to earn their way. Charles Trevelyan, was put in charge of handling the famine and repeatedly promoted “self-reliance”, describing the catastrophe as a “judgement of God sent to teach the Irish a lesson”. Approximately 1 million people died of disease or starvation, and around 2 million people emigrated, causing huge societal shifts that changed Ireland forever. Listen as Anita and William are joined by writer and historian Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn and Long Island, and co-author of The Irish Famine, to discuss the impact of the Great Hunger on Ireland.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ireland may have been England’s first colony but, by the 17th century, Irishmen were carving out their own imperial legacies in India. Gerald Aungier, an ambitious East India Company official, saw Bombay as a new frontier for plantation and trade. Drawing from his family’s plantation experience in Ireland, he laid the foundations for the establishment of the legal and economic framework that would define colonial rule in India for centuries. A hundred years later, John Nicholson, an Ulster-born soldier, became a symbol of British military might - and brutality. Known for his extreme violence during the 1857 uprising, Nicholson led savage campaigns against Indian rebels, earning both devotion from his men and horror from his enemies. His actions, once celebrated in Britain, are now remembered as some of the worst atrocities of colonial rule. At the height of the Raj, another Irishman, Lord Dufferin, presided over India as Viceroy. Deeply aware of Ireland’s own history under British rule, he feared that Indian nationalism would follow the same path as Ireland’s Home Rule movement. So, how did these Irishmen shape the empire that once subjugated their own people? Listen as William and Anita are once again joined by Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, author of Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World, to uncover the contradictions of Irish imperial history. _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Restoration reinstates the monarchy in England, Scotland & Ireland, and Irish Catholics believe that they will get their lands back for their loyalty to the king. And when the openly Catholic King James II succeeds his older brother, they are even more hopeful. But English Protestants fear that his reign will lead to a Catholic dynasty, and invite the Dutch William of Orange to take the throne. James II flees to France and gathers troops to back his cause. He arrives on the coast of Ireland in 1689 to reclaim his crown. When news of this reaches Parliament, William of Orange heads to Ireland to meet his enemy on the battlefield. In the Boyne Valley near Dublin, the two kings clash in a battle that continues to be memorialised in Ireland today. But was it that militarily important? And how did the Battle of the Boyne play into the chessboard of European geopolitics? Listen as Anita and William are joined once again by Professor Jane Ohlmeyer to discuss how the Battle of the Boyne shaped Protestant identity in Ireland.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

His statue may stand proudly outside the Houses of Parliament in London, but in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell is remembered as “the Devil from over the Sea” for the bloodshed he unleashed there from 1649 to 1653.  Rising to prominence as a Parliamentarian during the English Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell sought revenge against the Catholics who had killed Protestant colonists in Ireland during the rebellion of 1641.  Soon after overseeing the execution of King Charles I, Cromwell feared that Ireland would be used as a backdoor to England by Royalists, and he took violent measures to stop that from happening. The sieges at Drogheda and Wexford saw some of the worst massacres to occur in Irish history. What happened to ordinary people during the misery of the 1650s? And what legacy did the Cromwellian Conquest leave in Ireland? Listen as Anita and William are joined once again by Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, author of Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World, to discuss how Irish Catholics were displaced and dispossessed as a result of the Cromwellian Conquest.   _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices