Undercover Irish
Uncovering Ireland's Hidden Curriculum Undercover Irish goes under the cover of Irishness, through ballads, poems, social history, the Irish language (Gaeilge), historical events and people, especially those on the periphery— while drawing lines to today's world and adding depth to current affairs. Local, National and International.
Episodes
The Story Behind Óró, Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile: From Jacobite Song to 1916 Rebel Anthem
One of the most famous Irish rebel songs, Óró, Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile, is closely associated with the Easter Rising and the revolutionary poetry of Pádraig Pearse.
But the story of the song actually begins centuries earlier.
In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore how one melody travelled through three different political movements,...
🎙️ Why Britain Still Owns Part of Cyprus — And What Ireland Has To Do With It
When Cyprus appears in the headlines during a Middle East/West Asia war, most people ask:
Why is Britain operating from there?
The answer begins long before today's conflict — and it doesn't begin in Cyprus.
It begins in Ireland.
In this episode, we explore how Ireland's partition and the retention of the Treaty Ports in 1921 reveal a broader im...
🎙️ From Vernon Mount to Vaucluse: Exile, Empire & What Remains
Undercover Irish – Episode 2
Henry Browne Hayes was sentenced to transportation for life.
But exile did not humble him.
In this second part of the series, we follow Hayes from Ireland to Australia — from convict ship to colonial estate — and examine how power adapts even when it is supposedly punished.
Along the way, we encounter Irish political prisoners, Fre...
🎙️ Henry Browne Hayes: Power, Privilege & the Abduction of Mary Pike
Undercover Irish – Episode 1
Eolan Ryng (@undercoverirish) • Instagram photos and videos
In late 18th-century Cork, a wealthy magistrate named Henry Browne Hayes stood on the quay and watched Irish prisoners being transported to Australia.
A decade later, he would join them.
This episode explores one of the most extraordinary c...
▶️ Watch the full three-part video series on YouTube:
👉 https://youtu.be/0KHrtftADsU?si=XkZpK2x22PEZC0dA
👉 https://youtu.be/Eo55vfTsj0o?si=I_PQd3YT79uo7g3B
👉 https://youtu.be/jeRabeYsImA?si=Uq-mao7MQUzI6UlZ
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Courtaparte...
👉 Support the show on Patreon: patreon.com/undercoverirish
📸 Follow on Instagram: @undercoverirish
"Last night as I lay dreaming of pleasant days gone by…"
That opening line has echoed for more than a century — from kitchens and pubs to ships, emigrant halls, and even the stands of Celtic Park. In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore Spancil Hill, one of the most powerful emigrant ballads in the Irish tradition — not just...
Roy Keane, Bishop Brennan; Guerilla Gaeilge 2
How Irish Is Alive in the English We Speak
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What do Roy Keane and Bishop Brennan have in common?
More than you might think...
Episode Notes
Hunger, Gorta, Troscadh: Cultural Memory, Political Resistance, and Brehon Law
Hunger in Irish history is rarely just about food.
In this episode, we explore three words — hunger, gorta, and troscadh — and what they reveal about power, memory, and justice in Ireland. From the cultural weight of An Gorta Mór, to fasting as a recognised act within early Irish law, to hunger as a form of political resistance, th...
🎥 Watch the Song from this Episode
Huge GRMMA to Grace!
🔗 https://youtu.be/BJyO6xRL5KA?si=8dUh09AjWVaT78Ow
Christmas in Ireland — Am na Nollag — is not a single tradition.
It is a layering of customs: Christian belief laid gently over practices far older than Christianity itself. In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore how Irish Christmas traditions preserve ideas of survival, fire, hunger, and renewal — stretchi...
Guerilla Gaeilge: The Irish Hidden in Our English
Undercover Irish Podcast
In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore how Hiberno-English contains hidden grammar, structures, and ways of thinking that come directly from Gaeilge. From phrases like "I do be" and "I'm after doing" to "ye / yiz / youse" and the Irish habit of answering questions without yes or no, this episode argues that Irish is hiding in plain sight in...
An Irish Guerrilla Commander and "The Murder Machine"
What This Episode Covers
In this episode of Undercover Irish, we dig beneath the legendary image of Tom Barry — the famed guerrilla commander of Kilmichael whose tactics are still studied in British and US military circles — and uncover the deeper story hiding in plain sight within his autobiography Guerilla Days in Ireland.
We explore how Barry's early life...
In this episode, we dive into Ireland's Hidden Curriculum through something deceptively ordinary: the names of the months.
By shifting your meon — your mindset — we explore how time itself becomes a doorway to the deeper Irish worldview.
We look at:
- Why the English month names are Roman imports that don't match Irish reality
- How the Irish (Latin-influenced) months begin to re-root the year in our own landscape
- The powerf...
Erased Leader: Margaret Buckley and Ireland's Counter-Revolution
🎨 Exclusive Artwork for Patrons
I've created original artwork based on Margaret Buckley's historic portrait — designed to repopularise her image and bring her back into Ireland's visual memory.
Patrons can download, print, share, post, and use the artwork freely.
👉 Download the Margaret Buckley Artwork:
🎧 How the Irish Language Finds Connection in the Dark: Samhain and Uaigneas
When the Irish speak of loneliness, they don't just name a feeling — they map it. This episode explores uaigneas, Samhain, and how the Irish language finds connection even in the dark.
Show Notes
As the fires of Samhain fade and the year exhales, the world feels still — that quiet pause between life and death, light and dark. In Irish, th...
Show Notes: How Cork's Streets Became a Battleground for Ireland's Identity
Podcast: Undercover Irish
Episode Title: How Cork's Streets Became a Battleground for Ireland's Identity
Part 2 AVAILABLE HERE https://www.patreon.com/posts/empire-strikes-142363777?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Description:
In this episode, we journey through the city of C...
🎙️ Episode Title: How a GAA Crest Leads Us to the Battle of Fontenoy
In this episode of Undercover Irish, we follow the trail of a symbol — from the familiar GAA crest of Limerick to the Treaty Stone on the banks of the Shannon, and further still to the cry that echoed through the fields of Fontenoy in 1745: "Cuimhnigh ar Luimneach! Remember Limerick!"
What begins as a look at a sporting logo becomes a journey through Iri...
🎙️ Episode Title: How Ice Cream is Linked to the Presidential Election
In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore an unexpected but deeply Irish connection — how ice cream and the Presidential Election are linked through language, lore, and story.
From the words we use to describe sweetness and celebration, to the symbolic meanings behind Irish terms of leadership and belonging, we uncover how the Irish language shap...
What if Ireland wasn't just a land to live on—but a living body itself? In this episode of Undercover Irish, we trace the ancient impulse to personify the landscape, exploring how Indigenous cultures—from Celtic Ireland to Native America and Aboriginal Australia—map meaning onto mountains, rivers, valleys, and plains by imagining them as parts of a living, breathing being.
This episode blends mythology, linguistics, and cultural su...
Building Up and Tearing England Down!
In this jam-packed episode we dig into Dominic Behan's razor-sharp ballad of the same name, tracing how a few mighty verses capture a century of Irish labour on Britain's building sites and railways. First we pit two iconic renditions against one another—Christy Moore's pub-roar 1969 and The Mary Wallopers' lament of the 2020s.
From there we zoom out:
- Ballads as people's textbooks – Why so...
🎙️ The Truth about Munster and Meath: Uncovering Ireland's Lost Directions
What do a New Zealand haka in Limerick and the ancient kingdoms of Ireland have in common?
More than you might think.
In this episode of Undercover Irish, we begin with a defining moment in Irish sporting history: the All Blacks performing the haka at Thomond Park in 2008. But have you ever stopped to ask—what does "Thomond" actually mean? And what...
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