High Kings and Vikings
A fascinating journey through the last 1500 years of Irish History looking at some of the most fascinating chapters in the island’s past.
EP1/16
This episode begins what will be a fascinating journey through the last 1500 years of Irish History looking at some of the most fascinating chapters in the island’s past.
EP 2/16
This episode looks at the widespread war and confusion of 9th century Ireland and looks at what life was like in the first settlement at Dublin.
EP 3/16
Episode five is an exciting journey through one of the most turbulent times in Medieval Ireland. The years 902- 930 see Ireland’s most powerful faction
EP 4/16
Over the next three shows we will see the O Neill kingdom who have dominated the first five shows challenged by the Dal Cais (the family of Brian Boru).
EP 5/16
This podcast medieval Ireland stand of the edge of a precipice. A rootless struggle for control of the O Neill kingdom breaks out in the North, while in Munster a new comer to the podcast – the Dal Cais challenge the King of Munster for power in the South.
EP 6/16
Sees the emergence of a titantic struggle between the two major players of the late 10th century – the O Neill High King, Maelseachnaill II and Brian Boru, the King of Munster. This war was without question one of the greatest conflicts in early medieval Ireland.
EP 7/16
Brian Boru is without a doubt, Ireland’s most well known medieval figure while a battle he fought in 1014, the Battle of Contarf, is Irelands most famous medieval conflict. This podcast tells the full story.
EP 8/16
The year is 1067. Godwin Godwinson the son and heir to the dead Saxon king Harold Godwinson fled to Ireland after the Norman Invasion of England. This podcast looks at the world Godwinson found in Ireland.
EP 9/16
In this show I look at Ireland in 1014 and some of the things about that world that would stun shock and surprise us. From population to paganism there is a lot about medieval Ireland often forgotten!
EP 10/16
Gaelic Ireland struggles to deal with the crisis and chaos that followed the death of the high king Maelseachnaill Mac Domnaill. This podcast journeys through a uncertain world where war was frequent and life had little value as several kings battled to control the island.
EP 11/16
In 1072 the aging King of Leinster Diarmait Mc Mael na mBó died. His death saw the descendents of Brian Boru try to follow in the footsetps of their famous ancestor and dominate Ireland but there was a queue of people waiting to stop them.
EP 12/16
This podcast is a whistle stop tour through the Viking World visiting places from Baghdad to Newfoundland explaining how the Viking world impacted Ireland.
EP 13/16
In 1090 Muirchertach O Briain, grandson of Brian Boru, faced the darkest moment of his rule as King of Munster. Defeated and vanquished by his rival the king of Ulster, Domnal McLochlainn, he faced two options; either accept his fate or try and claw his way back to power.
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This shows looks at the arrival of one of the most fearsome and notorious warriors in Irish history – the Vikings. These Scandinavians have been caricatured throughout the centuries as marauding maniacs a somewhat undeserved reputation. In this episode they don’t exactly cover themselves in glory.
EP 15/16
This show returns to the story of Gaelic Ireland in the final decades prior to the Norman Invasion. Ireland is being torn apart by long running tensions between the kings of Munster and Ulster.
EP 16/16
This is a story of murder and injustice, set in 19th century Ireland. In a country struggling to recover from the famine tenants despised landlords and their agents who had treated them brutally during the famine. When an agent John Ellis was assassinated in north Tipperary in 1857, almost everyone in the area became a suspect.