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PODCAST

The History and Heritage Podcast

Join Liam Blake on The History and Heritage Podcast as we uncover Ireland’s hidden stories, legendary figures, and rich cultural traditions—while connecting them to the wider world. From ancient Irish customs to pivotal global events, each episode brings history to life with expert insight, gripping narratives, and the fascinating links between Ireland’s past and the history that shaped us all. Perfect for history buffs, heritage lovers, and anyone curious about the secrets of Ireland and

history

All Episodes

9:15

The Four Patrons of Ireland: St. Jarlath

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/11/18

Saint Jarlath of Tuam rarely makes the headlines of Irish history — yet without him, the spiritual map of Ireland would look very different.A monk trained by the disciples of Patrick. A teacher who shaped Brendan the Navigator. A founder who built where a wheel broke — and changed a landscape forever. Tuam did not begin as a town. It began as a sign. In this episode, we uncover the story of a saint who didn’t seek fame, power, or glory — but whose quiet legacy still echoes through Ireland’s faith,

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11:43

The Four Patrons of Ireland: St. Laurence O'Toole

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/11/11

The twelfth century was a time of upheaval — kings at war, monasteries in reform, and a young Ireland caught between worlds.From this storm rose one man: Lorcán Ua Tuathail — Saint Laurence O’Toole. A prince taken hostage. A monk who fed the hungry with the gold from his own altars. A bishop who stood between Norman swords and his people — and stopped a massacre by the sheer power of faith. This episode follows Laurence’s life from the glens of Wicklow to the councils of kings, and from

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13:04

The Four Patron's of Ireland —1. St. Ailbe / St. Elvis

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/11/04

Before Patrick, before Armagh or Clonmacnoise, there was Ailbe of Emly — Ireland’s forgotten first bishop.Legend says he was cast out as a child and suckled by a she-wolf in the forests of Tipperary. But when he grew, he sought wisdom beyond the sea — trained in Wales, ordained in Rome, and returned to the Irish plains to kindle a light that would never go out. From Emly, the earliest centre of Christian learning in Munster, he taught kings, converted pagans, and set down the first Irish monastic

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14:12

Surname Series- Ryan

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/10/28

From the Gaelic “Ó Maoilriain” of medieval Tipperary to the emigrant Ryans who crossed oceans with little more than their faith and their name, this episode traces one of Ireland’s most enduring surnames. Through true stories of ordinary men and women — a famine-era schoolmaster, a soldier far from home, a nurse in 1918 — we explore what it means to carry a name through centuries of change.Featuring people and reflections on identity, belonging, and endurance, this is the story of how one Irish

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11:29

Surname Series: Blake

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/10/21

Join Liam Blake of the History and Heritage Podcast on a journey through one of Ireland’s most storied surnames — Blake — where faith, conquest, and endurance intertwine. From the martyred monk Bláthmac on Iona’s altar to the Norman knight Richard Caddell, “le Blak,” who forged a lineage of Galway merchants, bishops, and exiles, this episode traces a thousand years of courage and conviction. Discover how the Blakes became part of Ireland’s very soul — from castle walls along the Corrib to the

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11:39

Surname Series: Murphy

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/10/14

The Murphy Surname — a concise, source-driven exploration of Ireland’s most common name. In this episode we trace Ó Murchadha/Mac Murchaidh from its early medieval roots in Leinster and the Uí Cheinnselaig, through Dermot MacMurrough and the Norman era, the penal and famine centuries, the 1798 rebellions, and the global diaspora that carried Murphy to the Americas, Australia and beyond. Along the way we explain the name’s meaning (“sea warrior”), its multiple independent origins across Ireland, key

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20:41

Placenames Special: Ireland Abroad, Part 2

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/10/10

From the coral shores of the Pacific to the red dust of Queensland, this episode traces two places linked by memory — the Irish habit of naming new worlds after home.We begin on New Ireland in Papua New Guinea — once called Latangai, later Nova Hibernia and Neumecklenburg. Beneath each name lies a story of power, endurance, and 30,000 years of unbroken tradition. Then to Tyrconnell in Queensland — a Donegal name carried across oceans, first for a pastoral station, later a gold mine with Australia’s

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27:11

Placenames Special: Ireland Abroad, Part 1

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/09/30

From the banks of the Shannon to the streets of Syracuse, two places carry Irish names that tell stories of power, pride, and defiance.In Athlone, we trace the word from its origins in Ireland — a fortress town divided by the River Shannon and scarred by siege — through the lofty halls of Kensington Palace, where Alexander Cambridge styled himself Earl of Athlone, and on to the Cape Flats of South Africa, where the name was stamped onto a township marked by apartheid, protest, and resilience. One

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11:26

Place-Name Series: Muicheanach Idir Dhá Sháile/...

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/09/23

Out on the Connemara coast, this “pig-marsh between two seas” has seen it all: Cromwellian land seizures, famine, emigration, crumbling piers, half-built roads, and the stubborn survival of the Irish language.Along the way, it caught the eye of a French novelist, inspired one of the great mapmakers of the west, and in 2005 had its dignity restored when the Irish form, Muiceanach idir Dhá Sháile, was made official once again. This episode explores how a tiny townland became a symbol of endurance,

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14:03

Place-Name Series: Edgeworthstown/Mostrim

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/09/18

“People cling to their ancient names.” When John O’Donovan wrote those words in 1837, he had just walked the roads of Longford, listening to locals insist that their town was not just Edgeworthstown, the name imposed by a planter family, but Mostrim — Meathas Troim — the fertile ridge, the frontier of the elder tree.In this episode of The History and Heritage Podcast, Liam Blake explores the long, layered story of a town with two souls. From its Gaelic beginnings under the O’Farrells, through the

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18:08

Place-Name Series: The Two Charlevilles

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/09/10

One name, two very different stories. In County Cork, Charleville was born of Restoration politics — a plantation town tied to kings, conflict, and commerce, later reshaped by faith, fairs, and remarkable people whose voices echoed across the world. In County Offaly, Charleville Castle rose as a Gothic masterpiece — the dream of an ambitious heir, scarred by fire, neglect, and tragedy, yet revived by love, legend, and even ghosts.This episode of The History and Heritage Podcast explores both

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13:21

The Vatican Pimpernel: Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/09/03

He was hunted by the Gestapo, with a bounty on his head. Yet Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty—an Irish priest from Killarney—saved over 6,500 Allied prisoners, Jews, and civilians in Nazi-occupied Rome. Known as the “Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,” O’Flaherty built a vast escape network under the eyes of the Gestapo, using disguises, safe houses, and sheer courage to defy fascism. This episode of the History and Heritage Podcast tells his remarkable story—from his early life in Kerry, through his rise

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13:19

Native Breed Series: Kerry Beagle and Cladoir

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/08/12

From the hunting fields of County Limerick to the tidal shores of Connemara, two rare survivors of Ireland’s past take centre stage.In the final episode of the Native Breeds series, I explore the history and heritage of the Kerry Beagle — a deep-chested scent hound with roots in Celtic hunting traditions — and the Cladoir Sheep, a small coastal breed once thought extinct but rediscovered grazing on seaweed in the west. Their stories stretch from medieval hunting laws to famine-era survival, from

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10:37

Native Breed Series: Native Irish Honey Bee

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/08/05

Native Breed Series – The Irish Honeybee “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” Ireland’s dark honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, has been part of this island’s story for 5,000 years: shaping laws, folklore, farming, and faith — before disease, imports, and neglect nearly erased it. This week, Liam Blake tells its story: from Neolithic settlers and medieval hive laws, to rural “bee lore” and the modern DNA rescue mission keeping this native

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12:11

Native Breed Series: The Old Irish Goat

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/07/29

🐐 Native Breed Series – The Old Irish Goat “The goat was the poor man’s cow.” This week, we’re telling the story of Ireland’s only native goat — a five-thousand-year survivor that gave milk to the poor, parchment to monks, and placenames to our maps, before almost vanishing in the 20th century. Join me, Liam Blake, as I trace its journey from Neolithic farms to nineteenth-century goat droves, to a modern DNA rescue mission on a Mayo hillside. This is history that eats gorse for breakfast. 🎧 Listen

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10:19

Native Breed Series: The Galway Sheep

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/07/22

The Galway Sheep: Ireland’s Last Native Breed Long before the Galway Sheep was entered into rare breed registries, it was a backbone of Connacht’s rural economy. Developed from local stock and English Leicesters under landlord supervision, the breed flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries — before near-extinction after the Famine. In this deeply researched episode of The History and Heritage Podcast, Liam Blake examines: The breed’s 18th-century formation in east Galway and Roscommon Its

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10:50

Native Breed Series — The Kerry Bog Pony

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/07/15

When we think of the great animals of Irish history, our minds might turn to the elegant Connemara pony, the noble Irish wolfhound, or perhaps even the mythic Cú Chulainn’s steed, Liath Macha — the famed grey horse of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, or The Cattle Raid of Cooley, one of the central epics of early Irish literature. But for over two centuries, no animal was more central to the everyday life of Irish people — than the humble, hardworking, and often overlooked Kerry Bog Pony.

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12:04

Native Breed Series: The Irish Cob – Ireland’s Quiet...

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/07/08

“The history of the horse is the history of human civilisation.” – Prof. James Serpell.For over 200 years, the Irish Cob was the quiet, tireless heart of rural Ireland. It pulled carts, carried families to Mass, and survived famine, poverty, and prejudice. This is the story of the horse that built Ireland from the ground up — and the people who kept its memory alive.

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08:37

Native Breed Series: The Enduring Spirit of the Irish...

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/07/02

Dive into the rich history of Ireland's true 'horse of the people': The Irish Draught. From essential farm worker to foundation of global eventing champions, discover the resilience and legacy of this remarkable breed. Learn about its journey through famine, war, and mechanisation, and why it's more important than ever to protect its future

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34:40

Native Breeds Series: The Cattle That Made Ireland

The History and Heritage Podcast ·

2025/06/24

They fed a nation, shaped a people, and bore witness to centuries of Irish life. In this extended episode of The History and Heritage Podcast, Liam Blake takes you on a journey through the four native Irish cattle breeds — the Kerry, Droimeann, Dexter, and Irish Moiled. Each one tells its own story: from famine fields to rebel farms, from DNA revival to cultural rediscovery. It’s not just agricultural history — it’s Ireland in four hooves.

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