History | RadioMoLI

An Introduction to the UCD Special Collections

Inside the UCD Special Collections

Dr Evelyn Flanagan on the collection's many treasures.

Video Archives History

What's in a Writer's Archive?

Inside the UCD Special Collections

From notebooks to hotel paper.

Video Archives History

How is the Material Stored?

Inside the UCD Special Collections

A behind the scenes view.

Video Archives History

Arrival of the Kavanagh Collection

Inside the UCD Special Collections

A campaign to protect the poet's papers.

Video Archives History

Kavanagh's Magazines

Inside the UCD Special Collections

See drafts and final editions.

Video Archives History

Hold to the Now

Bloomsday Films

A short film for Bloomsday with contributions from Cairo to Kyiv and Berlin to Brasilia.

Video International Time History

Clábar (Mud)

Spreading the Words

Irish clábar lies behind Hiberno-English clabber and clauber, but for how long have we been saying ‘clabber to the knees’?

Podcast Gaeilge Language History

Mary Morrissy's Penelope Unbound

Every Life is Many Days

The author discusses her upcoming novel.

Interview Biography Writing History

John Boyne

City of Books

In this episode of City of Books , writer John Boyne speaks to host Martina ...

Podcast Writing History Reading

Myth-Making Michael Collins

City of Books

Michael Collins is the the Irish Civil War's most famous casualty but there is a lot of “what-if-ery”about him, says Ireland’s best-known historian Diarmaid Ferriter, in conversation with host Martina Devlin.

Podcast History War Dublin

Grá (Love)

Spreading the Words

Read by Caroline Lennon. An insight into the eighteenth-century poem made famous again by Doireann ...

Podcast Gaeilge History Language

Lus An Chromchinn (Daffodil)

Spreading the Words

Over the centuries, some beautiful and memorable names of flowers and plants have been recorded in Irish.

Podcast Gaeilge Language History

Gaoth (Wind)

Spreading the Words

From 'the Night of the Big Wind' to Flann O’Brien’s description of wind-watching – how the wind has shaped Irish life and literature.

Podcast Gaeilge Language History

Leabharlann (Library)

Spreading the Words

Hear about how books were stored in medieval Irish libraries and about how we know of the existence of such places.

Podcast Gaeilge Language History

Amadán (Fool)

Spreading the Words

Unravelling the sinister history of amadán, the Modern Irish word for ‘fool’.

Podcast Gaeilge History Language

Craobh (Branch)

Spreading the Words

Find out why Douglas Hyde published verse under the pseudonym An Craoibhín Aoibhinn and why the All-Ireland Championship is referred to in Irish today as Craobh na hÉireann.

Podcast Gaeilge Language History

Crith Talún (Earthquake)

Spreading the Words

Medieval Irish chronicles and stories sometimes mention ‘the movement of the earth’, but was the north of Ireland actually struck twice by earthquakes in the early eighth century?

Podcast History Gaeilge Language

Nollaig (Christmas)

Spreading the Words

Thoughts about recent Christmas lights and the long, dark winters of Christmases past.

Reading Language History Gaeilge

Teaghlach (Household)

Spreading the Words

In medieval Ireland, the hearth was at the centre of the house, but what kinds of households feature in Irish literature of the period?

Reading History Language Gaeilge

Cró (Enclosure)

Spreading the Words

From cró madra ‘a dog kennel’ to cró snáthaide ‘the eye of a needle’, this episode takes us on a journey through the many uses of a truly versatile word.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Gorm (Blue)

Spreading the Words

Read by Deirdre Lewis. How colour is described is determined by cultural, as well as ...

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Cuing (Yoke)

Spreading the Words

The Irish are fond of referring to an ‘ould yoke’, but how were words for ‘yoke’ used in Old Irish?

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Gloss/Clós/Glas

Spreading the Words

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s poem Gloss/Clós/Glas explores the sound and meaning of three interconnected English and Irish words. Her wonderfully creative word-play is celebrated in this special episode of Spreading the Words.

Podcast Language Gaeilge History

Ulcha (Beard)

Spreading the Words

Beards are status symbols in the world of early Irish literature. Such is their importance that Ulster hero Cú Chulainn created an imitation beard for himself of berry-juice or enchanted grass.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Dinnsheanchas (A Literature of Place)

Spreading the Words

Real space without and imaginative space within: how the poetry of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, rooted in the landscape, echoes the interests of medieval Ireland.

Podcast Poetry Gaeilge History

Fás aon oíche (Mushroom)

Spreading the Words

Ireland has a great biodiversity of fungi but how have the Irish referred to puffballs, stinkhorns and the like over the centuries?

Podcast Gaeilge Nature History

Coll (Hazel tree)

Spreading the Words

Hazel trees have greatly benefited the people of Ireland since medieval times; hazel nuts have served as tasty, nutritional snacks and hazel rods have been used to construct houses and fences.

Podcast Nature History Gaeilge

Damhán alla (Spider)

Spreading the Words

The Irish term for a spider has long been a source of puzzlement.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Tarbh (Bull)

Spreading the Words

In early Ireland, many activities were not permitted on a Sunday; but you could still bring a bull to a cow.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Cleas (Trick or Feat)

Spreading the Words

The early Irish hero Cú Chulainn was accomplished in an array of feats including the all-encompassing ‘body-feat’.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Duileasg (Dulse)

Spreading the Words

In his poetry, Seamus Heaney referred often to ‘dulse’, but how does this edible seaweed feature in medieval Irish law, literature and medicine?

Podcast Gaeilge Language History

Bog (Soft)

Spreading the Words

Some shared insights into the relationship between the Irish adjective bog ‘soft’ and the English noun meaning ‘bogland’.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Snámh (Swimming)

Spreading the Words

Hear about traditions of wild swimming and the dangers of swimming on a full stomach.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Smugairle Róin (Jellyfish)

Spreading the Words

A look into the history of the Irish phrase smugairle róin, which is widely known and much-loved today as a name for a jellyfish.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

Maighdean Mhara (Mermaid)

Spreading the Words

This episode explores the concept of fish-women and other sea-creatures mentioned in medieval Irish literature and historical records.

Podcast Language History Gaeilge

The Shambles of Maamtrasna

City of Books

The Maamtrasna murders, "one of the gravest miscarriages of justice in Irish history", are discussed by Professor Margaret Kelleher and Justice Peter Kelly. Presented by Martina Devlin.

Podcast History Language Politics

Haunted by the Ghost

City of Books

In her first podcast interview since being named winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year award for 2020, Doireann Ní Ghríofa talks to Martina Devlin.

Podcast Women History Poetry

The Fine Art of Reading

City of Books

Artist Robert Ballagh talks to Martina Devlin about why Samuel Beckett thought he kept him waiting for breakfast, and Mary Costello takes a tour of the Joyce Tower.

Podcast Dublin Northern Ireland History

To the Management

Words Lightly Spoken

Inspired by the 2,000-year-old Roman poet, Horace, John McAuliffe has found beauty in the mundanity of University administration.

Poetry Poetry Playful History

Dorothy's Country

Words Lightly Spoken

Ruth Carr channels the meditations of Dorothy Wordsworth (William Wordsworth's only sister) as she roams the 19th Century English countryside.

Poetry History Poetry Women

While Bleeding

Words Lightly Spoken

What can an old coat tell us about womanhood? Doireann Ní Ghríofa reads her poem, speaking to the connection of women across time.

Poetry Women Poetry History

Identity, Sustainability, and the Politics of Water

UCDScholarcast

Nick Groom on an immodest 18th Century proposal to drain the Irish Channel.

Lecture History Politics Environment

Memory Studies and Famine Studies: Gender, Genealogy, History

UCDScholarcast

Professor Margaret Kelleher examines a number of trends in recent historiographical work on the Great Famine including their striking appropriation of narrative and fictive tropes.

Lecture History Women Gender

On Development, Waste and Ghosts

UCDScholarcast

In this lecture, Oona Frawley looks at how movements in ecocriticism that call for links to be made with postcolonialism challenge us.

Lecture History Social Justice Politics

Commemorating Abuse: Gender Politics and Making Space

Emilie Pine looks at three cultural projects that explore institutional abuse in Ireland.

Lecture History Trauma Working Class

James Joyce, Treeless Hills and the Night of the Big Wind

UCDScholarcast

Katherine O'Callaghan looks at the influence of forests on Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

Lecture Nature Writing History