The Troubles Explained (Part 2)

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the late 1960s to 1998, Northern Ireland was gripped by "The Troubles" - three decades of bloodshed, resulting from competing visions for its future. This week, we're releasing a two-part series that explores why this conflict erupted and how it played out. For this, Dan is joined by Dr Thomas Leahy, Lecturer in British and Irish Politics and Contemporary History at Cardiff University.

In this second episode we chart the turbulent 20th century, from the Irish War of Independence to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, folks, Dan Snow here. I am throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of Dan Snow's history hit.
0:06.1	I'd love for you to be there. Join me for a very special live recording of the podcast in London, in England on the 12th of September to celebrate the 10 years.
0:14.1	You can find out more about it and get tickets with the link in the show notes. Look forward to seeing you there.
0:24.1	Hi folks. This episode of Dan Snow's history is brought to you by NFU Mutual, who offer high
0:30.6	quality insurance for businesses of all sizes. Running a business means juggling a lot.
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1:35.1	Hello everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's history hits.
1:41.5	This is part two of our history of the troubles, the euphemistically named conflict that gripped Northern Ireland, some Ireland, Britain in many ways as well, for 30
1:45.3	years. In the first episode, we went all the way back to the beginning. We traced 700 years of
1:49.8	British and Irish history, from the reign of Henry II all the way through to the Easter
1:53.5	uprising in Dublin and Sinn Féin's landslide electoral victory in the 1918 elections.
2:00.2	If you missed it, there's a link in the show notes,
2:02.8	or just look back on your podcast player. I'd really recommend listening to that one before you
	...

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