Hidden Histories: 30 years of IMMA

Today, May 22nd, marks the birthday of George Best - one of the greatest footballers of his or any other age. Voted European Footballer of the Year in 1968, it seems almost unimaginable that the following decade would bring him Leeside, and to Cork Celtic Football Club. What followed was something of a farce, that said much about the direction of domestic football in the 1970s. Gavan was joined by Donal Fallon for another episode of Hidden Histories to discuss.

A hundred years ago this weekend, three armed men lured a young Irishman from his home in Galway - days later his body was found in a bog having been shot through the head. His name was Michael Griffin, and he was just 28 years old. Keeping in mind the broader political picture in Ireland at the time one might be forgiven for thinking he was perhaps an IRA gunman but he wasn't -  he was a Catholic priest. In fact his strange death made it to the front of The New York Times and will even be commemorated this weekend in the west. So who was Fr. Michael Griffin? Gavan Reilly is joined by Donal Fallon for another episode of Hidden Histories to find out. Listen and subscribe to On The Record with Gavan Reilly on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.      Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

Not everyone’s so pleased with the result of the election in the U S - you might have seen Sammy Wilson, the DUP MP, tweet during the week that “Joe Biden is a parrot for Irish Nationalism and their falsehoods regarding the Belfast Agreement”, while a Tory backbencher highlighted “His Irish republican sympathies and ignorant comments on Brexit.” This is not the first time, in the long history of 46 US Presidents, that a man in office has caused fear on our neighbouring island. From Washington to Woodrow Wilson, London’s view of what Washington means for Ireland has long been documented. Listen and subscribe to On The Record with Gavan Reilly on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.      Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

What links Bjorn from ABBA, Paul Robeson, and Leonard Cohen? The answer is young Irish revolutionary, Kevin Barry, hanged a century ago on this day in Mountjoy Prison. The song he inspired would become one of the most enduring songs of Irish history, but how did it come to such international prominence, and was Barry really just a boy, as the song recounts, or a young man of committed ideas? Donal Fallon joins Gavan Reilly for another episode of Hidden Histories to discuss. Listen and subscribe to On The Record with Gavan Reilly on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.      Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

Imagine you find yourself in the private library of William Ewert Gladstone, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and you go leafing through his shelves and find a signed copy of a literary masterpiece by an Irishman. You might think James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde but you'd be wrong on all counts. It’s Bram Stoker, who signed a copy of Dracula for the Prime Minister at a time he was hoping Ireland could finally be allowed to determine its own affairs. At this time of year, there is an awful lot of focus on Stoker’s work - a book which we all know a bit about, but which might actually draw heavily on Stoker's own mother’s tales of a nineteenth century pandemic in the West of Ireland. Gavan Reilly is joined by Donal Fallon for another episode of Hidden Histories to discuss. Listen and subscribe to On The Record with Gavan Reilly on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.      Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.    You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.