Courtaparteen: Ireland’s Lost Village Hidden in a Forest
Undercover Irish
▶️ 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 ☕ Support the podcast on Patreon: 👉 📸 Follow on Instagram for maps, photos & fieldwork: 👉 https://instagram.com/UndercoverIrish Courtaparteen was once a living Irish village. Today, it’s hidden beneath forestry. In this episode of Undercover Irish, I explore the lost village of Courtaparteen — tracing it through historic maps, satellite imagery, and...
info_outline
Spancil Hill: An Irish Ballad And The Heartbreak Of Emigration
Undercover Irish
👉 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 as a song, but as a piece of living history. Ballads like this are history from the ground up. They preserve emotion, memory, and ordinary lives that...
info_outline
Roy Keane And Bishop Brennan; Guerrilla Gaeilge 2
Undercover Irish
Roy Keane, Bishop Brennan; Guerilla Gaeilge 2 How Irish Is Alive in the English We Speak Follow & Support Undercover Irish 📸 Instagram Clips, language examples, visuals, and episode updates 👉 instagram.com/undercoverirish ❤️ Patreon Support the podcast, and help keep Undercover Irish independent 👉 patreon.com/undercoverirish What do Roy Keane and Bishop Brennan have in common? More than you might think. In this episode of Undercover Irish, we use two of Ireland’s most recognisable voices — one real, one fictional — to explore how the Irish language is undercover inside...
info_outline
Hunger, Gorta, Troscadh: Cultural Memory, Political Resistance, and Brehon Law
Undercover Irish
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, this episode traces how deprivation could be imposed — and how it could also be chosen. Drawing on language, law, and tradition, this episode asks how hunger moved from...
info_outline
An Irish Christmas: Brush the Floor and Clean the Hearth
Undercover Irish
🎥 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 — stretching back to the solstice and the rebirth of the sun. Using material from the Dúchas Schools’ Collection, traditional song, and Irish folklore, this episode traces...
info_outline
Guerilla Gaeilge: The Irish Hidden in Our English (Hiberno-English, Irish Language Survival, and Hidden Gaeilge Grammar)
Undercover Irish
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 inside English. This is not just a linguistic curiosity. It’s a story of survival, resistance, mockery, and internalised shame, stretching from colonial schools...
info_outline
An Irish Guerrilla Commander and "The Murder Machine"
Undercover Irish
An Irish Guerrilla Commander and "The Murder Machine" What This Episode Covers ...
info_outline
The Irish Way to Understand Time
Undercover Irish
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 ...
info_outline
Erased Leader: Margaret Buckley and Ireland’s Counter-Revolution
Undercover Irish
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: 👉 Download the PDF Pack: Episode Summary In this episode of Undercover Irish, we uncover the story of Margaret Buckley — a woman erased from Ireland’s historical record, despite being President of Sinn...
info_outline
How the Irish Language Finds Connection in the Dark: Samhain and Uaigneas
Undercover Irish
🎧 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, this season is Mí na Samhna, a time to honour the dead, light candles, and remember what connects us. But it’s also the season of uaigneas — a word that means far more than...
info_outlineEpisode 5 – An Bata Scóir and its International Reach
In this powerful and reflective episode of Undercover Irish, we dive into the brutal colonial legacy of language suppression, beginning with the story of An Bata Scóir — the notched tally stick used to punish Irish children for speaking their native tongue. More than a tool of discipline, An Bata Scóir represents the systemic violence inflicted by the British Empire in its efforts to erase the Irish language as part of its wider colonisation strategy.
But Ireland wasn’t alone. This episode explores how the island served as a testing ground for linguistic oppression — experiments that would later echo across the empire, from Wales to Africa and Aotearoa (New Zealand).
We mark the passing of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, a literary giant who, like Bobby Sands MP, used his native language as a form of resistance behind prison walls. We draw connections between their acts of defiance — between Kikuyu and Gaeilge — and the universal power of indigenous language as both identity and insurrection.
Further Reading & Resources:
- 📰 "Oidhreacht Shaibhir Fágtha" by Róisín Nic Liam – DEARG
- A tribute to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the enduring legacy of language activism.
- 📰 "Irish and Kikuyu – Colonialism and Resistance" by Luke Callinan – An Phoblacht
- A thought-provoking article on shared experiences of colonial linguistic suppression in Ireland and Kenya.
- 📚 "Language, Resistance and Revival: Republican Prisoners and the Irish Language in the North of Ireland" by Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh
- An essential study of how Gaeilge became a language of resistance in Northern prisons.
- 🔗 Buy the book here from Pluto Press
Subscribe, share, and leave a review if this episode resonated with you.
Follow at Instagram @undercoverirish