The Good Listener Podcast

Send us a text

For the episode I’m joined by ex Royal Ulster Constabulary and PSNI officer Sam Thompson. Sam spent his teen years growing up in a 1970s Belfast and remembers seeing his city descend into chaos and violence as the conflict erupted. Despite this Sam elected to join the police force which brought him face to face with danger in some of Northern Ireland’s most deadly areas including East Tyrone, Armagh and Springfield Ro...

Send us a text

For this episode I'm joined by ex- South Armagh man Martin McAllister who you may have seen in the recent BBC documentary on Captain Robert Nairac.

Martin shares his experiences including guerrilla warfare in the fields of South Armagh, being part of one of the IRA's biggest prison escapes and being shot while attempting to ambush British soldiers. He tells us about the british army medic who interv...

Send us a text

My guest for this week is long-time Belfast -based journalist, Hugh Jordan. Hugh explains what being a journalist was like during some of Belfast's most turbulent years as elements of the Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries tried to derail the peace-process and plunge the North back into violence.

Hugh tells us about how he acquired and kept his sources during this time, often members of the IRA, UVF,...

Send us a text

This week I'm joined by the author of "An Accidental Villain: A Soldier's Tale of War, Deceit and Exile", Linden MacIntyre. This book explores the life of Henry Hugh Tudor, a close friend of Winston Churchill who, during the height of Irish War Of Independence, was appointed as the de-facto chief of police (RIC) in Ireland which put him charge of arguably the single most hated group in Irish histor...

Send us a text

My guest for this episode is Eamon McAuley, a former professional boxer from
Ardoyne and author of “Fighting to Find Peace”.

Eamon was born in Belfast just before “the troubles” erupted and has experienced a childhood unique to his place and time.
From arms dumps on his street to his great uncle being brutally m*rdered by the infamous Shankill Butchers, Eamon’s life is one that has been shaped, in man...

Send us a text

For this episode I am joined by author and historian, John Crotty. John has researched extensively the subject of Irelands neutrality during WW2 and the actions the Irish govt took that broke neutrality in favor of the allied side.

We discuss the efforts that the IRA of the time made to collaborate with the Germans, how the Irish govt took extreme measures against the republicans (including internment and exe...

Send us a text

Martin Galvin is the former publicity director of The Irish Northern Aid Committee, better known as "NORAID", and to many, the face of the group.

A proud Irish-American, Martin joined NORAID in 1976 and, along-side his day job as a district attorney, worked tirelessly to bring awareness to the American public and political leadership about Irish republicanism and the injustices suffered by the peopl...

Send us a text

My guest for this episode is Ali Watkins, author of “This Next One’s For You”, a book which explores the world of Irish-American gun-running in the early days of the troubles in Philadelphia and New York and how this impacted the conflict.

We discuss Clan na Gael, an Irish-American group that pre-date the IRA and how they have been aiding the Irish Republican movement for decades and their efforts to arm the ...

Send us a text

For this special episode I’m joined by Ciaran Shiels, human rights lawyer for the Madden & Finucane law firm. For almost 30 years, Ciaran he has  represented the majority of the Families and Wounded throughout the Saville Inquiry, the subsequent civil actions, and in all of the Judicial Review challenges related to the criminal investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for the shootings of 27 unarmed  y...

Send us a text

For this episode I'm joined by a man well known ex-loyalist paramilitary and one-time leader of the Lower Shankill Road's infamous UDA (Ulster Defence Association), Johnny Adair.

Johnny speaks about his growing up in Belfast during some of it's most turbulent and violent times, his lifelong friend with UDA k*ller Sam McCrory and he came to join, and later lead the Lower Shankill Road's UDA...

Send us a text

For this week's episode I'm joined by ex-investigative journalist and MP, Chris Mullin, who though his efforts, was able to help free the falsely convicted Irishmen known as "the Birmingham 6".

We speak about the sequence of events on the November 21st 1974 which left a mark on the city and people of Birmingham, k*lling 21 people and injuring over 200 and how the 6 innocent men ended up in...

Send us a text

This week I’m joined by Austin Stack, son of murdered Portlaoise Maximum Secruity Prison Officer, Brian Stack, who was shot and later died after a planned IRA attack in 1983.

Austin tells us about the night his father was shot, what his life was like in the 18 months between Brian being sh*t in the head and his eventual passing and how he would later come to a place of forgiveness.

I asked Austin abo...

Send us a text

This week I’m joined once again by Fr. Sean McManus, Fermanagh priest who shared with us the story of meeting IRA intel officer, Joe Lynsky prior to his eventual execution and the hands of his fellow Provos. 
Fr McManus didn’t know it at the time but it would transpire, decades later, that he had likely given Lynsky his last confession before he became one of the IRA’s 17 “disappeared”, 13 of which have had their ...

Send us a text

For this episode I’m joined once again by author and ex-solider, Jon Trigg to speak about his new book “Death In Derry” which tells the story of the Derry IRA and it’s perpetual leader, Martin McGuinness.

Jon joined us last year when he released “Death In The Fields”, his excellent book on the East Tyrone IRA, for what was one of my personal favorite interviews.

Jon tells us about Derry’s significanc...

Send us a text

For this episode I'm speaking with Martin Dillon, well renowned author and journalist who has spent his career writing about the conflict in the North of Ireland. Martin's latest book, "The Sorrow and The Loss" deals with the women of the troubles and how the conflict affected the lives of the area's females including those who become combatants themselves , those whose husband/partners were i...

Send us a text

My guest this week is ex Irish Defence Forces soldier Kevin McDonald. Kevin served in Irelands Special Forces during the conflict that rocked the island.

Kevin tells us about his involvement in the one of the biggest man hunts in the state’s history when INLA kidnapper Dessie O’ Hare was on the run. He shares with us the atmosphere amongst his fellow soldiers as they searched for one of the North’s most infam...

Send us a text

On June 18th 1994 while watching Ireland play in the World Cup, 6 completely innocent men were slaughtered by a loyalist paramilitary gunman who sprayed the bar with an assault rifle in an act of cold blooded sectarianism.  

Trevor Birney's book, "Shooting Crows" tells the storey of this tragic event, the hatred and bitterness that provide the basis for it, the history of loyalist collusion wit...

Send us a text

Toby Harnden is the author of one of the best-selling and well regarded books on the IRA and the troubles, “Bandit Country”. Toby’s book lifted the lid on the area where is was most dangerous to be a British soldier in during the conflict and the IRA brigade that made it that way. One of my most requested guests and an author that I’ve been dying to speak to, Toby and I spoke about their history, actions & legacy ...

Send us a text

Kevin Meagher's book "What A Bloody Awful Country" examines the creation of the state we know as Northern Ireland and how the 100 plus years of existence as gone.

We discuss the reasons for partition in the first place, the sectarian violence during the state's early years, the anti-catholic discrimination built into Northern Ireland's governing system, the various forms of civil righ...