The Smugglers & Gun Runners: Who armed the IRA?
Irish History Podcast
Fin Dwyer
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"There were spies, informers and degenerates of every kind and we were here to do business." These were the words an IRA activist describing his desperate, shadowy quest to source weapons for the IRA in Europe. But who were these people who traded weapons and information to support the IRA campaign in Ireland. \
In this episode of Brothers in Pain: The IRA in a Revolutionary World, Dr. Brian Hanley goes beyond the battlefields to uncover the hidden networks of the Irish Revolution. From the dangerous underworld of the continent to clandestine shipments across the Atlantic, we meet the smugglers, gun runners and fixers who operated in the shadows. This is the true story of the individuals who made the revolution possible in the face of impossible odds.
Support the show: www.patreon.com/irishpodcast
Written, Researched & Narrated by Dr Brian Hanley
Producer Fin Dwyer
Sound Kate Dunlea
Note from Brian :
In researching these episodes I have been indebted to the work of the following scholars;
Anna Lively, Sam McGrath, Bruce Nelson, Terry Dunne, David Brundage, Niamh Coffey, Gerard Shannon,
Maurice Casey, Kelly Anne Reynolds, Chris McNickle, Joe Doyle, Liz Gillis, FM Carroll, Patrick
Mannion, Jimmy Yann, Niall Cullen, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Keith Jeffrey, Arthur Mitchell, John
Borgonovo, Kate O’Malley, Michael Doorley, Robin Adams, Kevin Kenny, Fearghal McGarry,
Catherine M. Burns, Síobhra Aiken, Patrick J. Mahony, Darragh Gannon, Matthew Pratt
Guterl and James R. Barrett.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In war, communications and supply lines are always crucial. Without them, weapons can't reach |
| 0:10.8 | soldiers in the field and it becomes nearly impossible to tell the wider world about your struggle. |
| 0:16.1 | In the 1920s, few could envy the position of Irish Republicans. |
| 0:27.0 | They were fighting on an island, but they didn't control the surrounding sea or even the ports in Ireland. |
| 0:32.3 | Getting weapons in or even people and news out of Ireland was extremely challenging. |
| 0:38.6 | This would force the IRA into a murky world of smuggling and gun running to support the war at home. |
| 0:44.3 | Hundreds of forgotten Republican activists, but men and women in ports across the world, |
| 0:50.8 | risked life and limb to secure weapons and get them to Ireland. This podcast tells their story. |
| 1:00.7 | Hello and welcome to the Irish History podcast. My name is Finn DeWire, and this is the first episode in a groundbreaking new series, Brothers in Pain. Presented by Dr. Brian Hanley, it explores |
| 1:07.2 | the overlooked international dimensions of the Irish War of Independence. While this episode |
| 1:12.4 | focuses on smugglers and gunrunners, future shows explore connections with revolutionaries in India and |
| 1:18.2 | Egypt and how Irish Republicans addressed questions such as race as they navigated the rapidly |
| 1:23.5 | changing world after the First World War. The series is presented by Dr. Brian |
| 1:28.8 | Hanney, the acclaimed historian of the Irish Republican movement in the 20th century. |
| 1:33.4 | Brian is an assistant professor of history at Trinity College Dublin and has authored multiple |
| 1:38.0 | books on our modern revolutionary history. I have links to these below and you'll also find |
| 1:42.9 | some of the sources used by Brian in the show notes as well. |
| 1:46.5 | Finally, a word of thanks to the supporters of this show on Patreon and Supercast, who funded the production of this series. |
| 1:54.1 | They've made all this work possible. Thank you so much. |
| 1:57.8 | Sound on the episode is by Kate Dunley. |
| 2:00.6 | Without further ado, here is episode one |
| 2:02.9 | of Brothers in Pain. One of the most remarkable things about the war fought by the Irish |
... |
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