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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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An Irish Guerrilla Commander and "The Murder Machine"
Undercover Irish
An Irish Guerrilla Commander and "The Murder Machine" What This Episode Covers ...
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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 ...
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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...
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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_outlineAn 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, shaped by the British National School system founded in 1831, reveals the psychological core of colonial rule: the dismantling of Irish national consciousness through language suppression, historical erasure, and identity engineering.
Along the way, we examine:
- Tom Barry’s own admission that he “knew no Irish history and had no national consciousness.”
- The British-run national school system and its tools of anglicisation — the bata scóir, the tally stick, and enforced English-only learning.
- John Montague’s devastating poem “A Grafted Tongue” and how it captures the emotional cost of linguistic oppression.
- Pádraig Pearse’s warnings in “The Murder Machine” about how schooling can kill a nation’s soul.
- The infamous classroom recitation: “I thank the goodness and the grace… that made me a happy English child.”
- How the 1916 Rising became a counter-education movement, awakening Barry and a generation to Irish identity.
- What this history still means for Ireland today.
If you’re interested in the intersection of identity, education, language and colonialism — this is a foundational episode.
Discover the hidden story behind Tom Barry’s transformation from a British-educated WWI soldier to Ireland’s most iconic guerrilla leader.
This episode reveals how colonial education shaped Irish identity, how language was weaponised through the national schools, and why Barry’s autobiography still matters today.
We draw on extracts from:
- Guerilla Days in Ireland by Tom Barry
- A Grafted Tongue by John Montague
- The Murder Machine by Pádraig Pearse
- Language, Resistance and Revival by Dr. Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh
Perfect for listeners interested in Irish history, colonial studies, the Irish language, national identity, cultural revival, and the politics of education.
🔗 Links & Resources
📚 Books Mentioned
- Tom Barry – Guerilla Days in Ireland (Mercier Press)
- 👉 https://www.mercierpress.ie/irish-books/guerilla_days_in_ireland/
- Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh – Language, Resistance and Revival
- 👉 https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745331253/language-resistance-and-revival/
- John Montague – “A Grafted Tongue” (Poem text)
- 👉 https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-18844_A-Grafted-Tongue
📢 Support the Podcast
- Patreon — support the show, get bonus episodes & scripts
- 👉 https://www.patreon.com/user?u=11367875
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