This farmer is listening to a 1923 broadcast from Washington, D. C. Photo courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.

Our Podcasts

Recently, the total number of podcast downloads of History Hub content exceeded the one million mark.

History Hub currently has several podcast series which contain interviews, conference presentations and research papers on everything from the Easter Rising to the cult of Stalin. Many of the podcasts are posted directly to the site but for convenient access to our entire archive users can subscribe to our various podcast series on iTunes, Soundcloud and via RSS feed.

  • A history of xenophobia: from the goldmines to the rise of the far right today is a series of interviews between our editor Dr Irial Glynn, and a number of leading experts on the history of xenophobia. The key question the series grapples with is: what causes xenophobia? Why are certain people hostile towards or afraid of immigrants or of people who come from different cultural backgrounds?
  • Sport and Ireland: A History. Between March and June 2020 Prof. Paul Rouse of the School of History in University College Dublin recorded the weekly lecturers of his long running ‘Sport and Ireland: A History’ module. The recordings were undertaken as a series of interviews with Joe Molloy, the award-winning presenter of ‘Off the Ball’ on Newstalk FM and were broadcast live on radio.
  • History Hub’s Educational Resources is a podcast series for all history students – young and old. The series, which consists of interviews and lectures, features UCD historians sharing their expertise on topics such as: The Anglo-Irish Treaty; the development of fascism in interwar Europe; the Irish Women’s suffrage movement; and the Catholic Church in twentieth century Ireland.
  • The History Hub.ie Podcast Series features recordings of interviews, talks and research papers by professional historians on a variety of historical topics from Saint Patrick to Stalin. History Hub.ie podcasts have been downloaded over 145,000 times.
  • The Irish Revolution was a module taught by renowned Irish historian Professor Michael Laffan in the School of History and Archives, University College Dublin from the late 1970′s until his retirement in 2010. In association with the UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies and History Hub.ie all 10 of the lectures were recorded and are available to download. The course has proven to be extremely popular. The lectures have been downloaded over 170,000 times and the series was, for a time, the most popular podcast in Ireland on iTunes.
  • Kingdom, Empire and Plus Ultra: conversations on the history of Portugal and Spain, 1415-1898 consists of interviews with leading experts in the areas of Portuguese and Spanish history, from the beginning of the Portuguese discoveries in 1415 to the end of Spanish dominion in America in 1898. The interviews, conducted by historian Dr Edward Collins, cover a range of topics on the domestic and overseas histories of both nations. This History Hub series is funded by UCD Seed Funding and supported by UCD School of History.

History Hub has also partnered up with a number of history conferences over the years to produce podcasts. These conferences include.

  • Tudor and Stuart Ireland Conference. History Hub presents podcasts from the 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 events. Since 2011, over two hundred speakers from a range of disciplines including History, English, Archaeology and Art History, have presented papers at the Tudor and Stuart Ireland Conferences. Click here to access the podcasts.
  • The Universities in Revolution and State Formation conference took place in UCD Newman House in June 2015. The conference offered a national, European and global perspective on the role and experience of universities in times of revolution and uprising. Real Smart Media, in association with History Hub, recorded the conference proceedings and these are now available to podcast.
  • Commemorating Partition and Civil Wars in Ireland, 2020-2023 is a project run by Dr Marie Coleman and Dr Dominic Bryan at Queen’s University Belfast. The project, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, examines approaches to the 2020-2023 period of the ‘decade of centenaries’, on both sides of the Border. Project events, including, Civil Wars and their Legacy and Commemoration and Conflict in Ireland, 1920-1922 have been recorded for podcasting by Real Smart Media in association with History Hub.
  • The Abbey of St Thomas the Martyr: A Dublin City Council Medieval Symposium. The Abbey of St. Thomas the Martyr was founded in the 12th century and played a pivotal role in the religious and political affairs of Dublin city until its dissolution in 1539. A weekend of events celebrating the abbey took place in October 2017. As part of the celebrations, a symposium on the history of the abbey took place in St Catherine’s Church, Thomas Street. Podcasts from the conference were produced by Real Smart Media and are now available on History Hub.
  • The Irish to the Rescue: the Tercentenary of the Polish Princess Clementina’s Escape. This seminar was organised on the occasion of the tercentenary of the rescue of the Polish Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska from captivity in Innsbruck in April 1719 by a small group of Irish and French people in a most dramatic fashion. The event took place in Europe House in Dublin on 30 April 2019 and was generously sponsored by The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dublin; the Embassy of France in Ireland; the Alliance Française Dublin; Rathmines College of Further Education; The Technological University of Dublin; and Dublin City Council.
  • Women’s History Association Annual Conference 2020 / 2021. The conference was titled “Besieged bodies: Gendered violence, sexualities and motherhood”. It showcased innovative new research by fifty scholars from Ireland and abroad in fields of women’s history and gender history. The conference themes included pregnancy, maternity care, and motherhood; birth control and abortion; sexual and gendered violence; LGBT histories; and institutionalism and trauma. The papers spanned across time and place, exploring these issues from medieval to the contemporary period and including comparative perspectives from the United States, China and continental Europe. The conference demonstrated the strength and breadth of women’s history and gender history in Ireland and, indeed, elsewhere. History Hub was delighted to partner with the WHAI in the production of videos and podcasts from the conference.

Image: farmer listening to a 1923 broadcast from Washington, D. C. Photo courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture (20111110-OC-AMW-0038) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons