The Revolution Will Be Podcast! - a discussion with Irish History Podcast’s Fin Dwyer

Carlow Decade of Centenaries Podcast Series

This episode forms part of the Carlow County Council’s Decade of Centenaries Podcast Series, which is presented by Carlow Libraries, Carlow County Museum, Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society, Carlow College, St. Patrick’s, Carlow County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The Decade of Centenaries initiative is tasked with co-ordinating state commemorations for the period 1913 – 1923.

This episode focuses on the podcast series created by Fin Dwyer, the creator of the Irish History Podcast. He is an archaeologist, historian, author and podcaster, who in 2010 established the podcast which has grown to be amongst the most popular of its kind in the country. He is also the author of two books on Medieval Ireland.

In 2021/22 the Irish History Podcast presented a series examining the events of the Irish War of Independence, which took an over-all look at events throughout the island. In conversation with Carlow Libraries’ John O’Gorman, Fin first explains how his podcast came about, and how and where he drew inspiration for it. The place of the history podcast in 21st Century historiography is also examined. Finally the issue of “Podcasting the Revolution” is discussed, and Fin explains how he set about tackling such a mammoth event in Irish history, some themes that he found particularly interesting, and some events and characters that especially stood out for him.