This Irish Town Name Means “Push Forward” - Here’s Why (Ngũgĩ, Spenser & Buttevant Explained)
Undercover Irish
⭐ Enjoying the podcast? If you’re liking Undercover Irish, please take a moment to leave a review on your podcast app—it really helps more people find the show and supports independent Irish storytelling. 🎧 Episode Overview Why is the town of Buttevant called Buttevant? In this episode, we uncover the story behind one of Ireland’s most unusual place names—tracing its origins from the Irish Cill na Mullach (“the church of the hilltops”) to the Norman French Boutez en avant (“push forward”). But this isn’t just a story about a name. It’s a story about how language,...
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Cork vs Tipperary 1741 — The First Match Report Was A Poem in Irish
Undercover Irish
🎙️ Show Notes LINK TO POEM https://www.patreon.com/posts/155883354?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_fan&utm_content=web_share Cork vs Tipperary 1741 — The First Match Report Was A Poem in Irish This Sunday, Cork and Tipperary meet again. But their rivalry goes back much further than modern hurling. In 1741, one of the earliest recorded clashes between the two was captured—not in a newspaper, not in English—but in a poem, written in Irish. In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore that poem as one of the first “match reports”...
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How The Great Hunger Brought Irish Sporting Identity Abroad; Liverpool, Celtic And More
Undercover Irish
🎙️ Show Notes In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore how the Great Famine didn’t just reshape Ireland—it carried Irish identity across the world. From the streets of Liverpool to the foundations of clubs like Celtic F.C. and Hibernian F.C., we look at how Irish communities used sport to rebuild identity in exile. We examine how club names reflected memory, resistance, and belonging—and how the Irish diaspora left a lasting mark on global sport. 🔍 In this episode: The impact of the Great Hunger on Irish migration Why Liverpool became a centre of Irish life abroad The...
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GAA Club Names Explained: Mythology, Rebels & Irish Identity
Undercover Irish
🔒 Get Early Access to the Next One Listen to Episodes 2 of this mini series now on Patreon: 👉 https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-great-hunger-155619855?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore the hidden meaning behind GAA club names—and what they reveal about Irish identity, history, and mythology. From rebels and outlaws to legendary heroes like Cú Chulainn, we uncover how names carry memory, culture, and meaning across generations. Because in Ireland… a name is...
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The Mountains of Pomeroy: A Love Song from a Broken Land
Undercover Irish
🎙️ Show Notes The Mountains of Pomeroy: A Love Song from a Broken Land At first listen, The Mountains of Pomeroy sounds like a simple love song — a quiet story of two people divided by circumstance. But beneath the romance lies something deeper. In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore the world behind the song: The rapparees, outlaws shaped by dispossession and colonisation The story of Shane Bernagh, a real figure who moved through the same Ulster landscape The role of George Sigerson and the Gaelic Revival in reshaping Irish identity And how poets like John Montague help us...
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How One Town with Four Names Maps Different Irelands
Undercover Irish
🎙️ How One Town’s Four Names Map Different Irelands 📝 Charleville isn’t just one name. It’s also An Ráth, Rathgogan, and Rathluirc — each one telling a different story about Ireland. In this episode, we follow those names through conquest, plantation, and revival, to see how one place can hold multiple pasts at once. 🎧 Support the Podcast If you’re enjoying Undercover Irish, you can support the podcast here: 👉
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The Story Behind Óró, Sé do Bheatha Bhaile: From Jacobite Song to 1916 Rebel Anthem
Undercover Irish
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, transforming from a Jacobite welcome song into one of the best-known Irish rebel anthems. Originally, the song celebrated Charles Edward Stuart, known in Irish as...
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Why Britain Still Owns Part of Cyprus — And What Ireland Has To Do With It
Undercover Irish
🎙️ 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 imperial strategy — one that reappears in Cyprus in 1960, when Britain granted independence but retained sovereign military bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. This...
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Henry Browne Hayes: From Vernon Mount to Vaucluse (Part 2)
Undercover Irish
🎙️ 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, Freemasonry in the early colony, the Rum Rebellion, a dramatic shipwreck, and the unfinished legacy of both empire and rebellion. And at the centre of it all...
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Henry Browne Hayes: Power, Privilege and The Abduction of Mary Pike (Part 1)
Undercover Irish
🎙️ Henry Browne Hayes: Power, Privilege & the Abduction of Mary Pike Undercover Irish – Episode 1 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 criminal cases in Irish history — the 1797 abduction of Mary Pike, a wealthy Cork heiress, and the fall of a man who believed the law existed to serve him. Set against the backdrop of the Protestant Ascendancy, the Penal Laws, and the social...
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👉 https://youtu.be/0KHrtftADsU?si=XkZpK2x22PEZC0dA
👉 https://youtu.be/Eo55vfTsj0o?si=I_PQd3YT79uo7g3B
👉 https://youtu.be/jeRabeYsImA?si=Uq-mao7MQUzI6UlZ
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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 on-the-ground exploration to understand how an entire settlement could disappear from view.
This episode brings together three strands of investigation:
- Mapping Courtaparteen on historic Ordnance Survey maps and comparing them with modern satellite imagery
- Walking the abandoned village, church ruins, holy wells, and graveyard hidden within woodland
- Analysing how Courtaparteen fits into the wider social, political, and economic history of rural Ireland
Rather than vanishing in a single dramatic moment, Courtaparteen faded quietly — shaped by depopulation, land use change, and the slow erosion of rural communities. Its story is not unique, but it is revealing.
This episode looks at what remains in the landscape, what survives in records, and what happens when places are no longer seen.
🎥 This story is also available as a three-part video series on YouTube, with maps, satellite imagery, and on-location footage from Courtaparteen itself.
☕ If you’d like to support long-form Irish history, research trips, and field recordings, you can do so on Patreon.