This week's episode focuses on the life of Father Patrick Ryan, a Catholic priest who had a unique relationship with the Provisional IRA and Libyan Dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.  Through Father Ryan, the Provisional IRA received millions in cash, but it was his engineering work with Provisional IRA bombs, which would end up saving the lives of many paramilitaries… while allowing them to improve the efficacy of their bombing campaign.  ..read more

The Good Friday Agreement was a mammoth undertaking which was the result of multiple failed agreements and a quest for peace for the people of Northern Ireland, This epiosde focuses on the sheer effort that was involved in finding peace for what many percieved as a neverending war ..read more

This episode is about John Crawley, who joined the US Marines with the intention of returning back to Ireland to then join the IRA. He hoped he could bring his expertise to what he believed was one of the best paramilitary groups in the world. But once he joined, things weren't exactly what he expected, and in the end, the Provisional IRA were more interested in his accent than his expertise with weapons ..read more

It’s 9am in the morning of July 29th, 1974 and council workers are cutting grass near the M1 Motorway near Belfast, when they discover the body of a woman lying half submerged in stagnant water. It was clear that the woman had been badly beaten before she was killed. The woman was soon identified as mother of four, Ann Ogillby. But who killed her and why ..read more

This is the second part of an episode focusing on the Hooded Men. In this episode Jim talks about his life after being interrned and then I will go into more detail about the complex legal case surrounding the courts definition of the word 'torture ..read more

To celebrate International Podcast Day here's a short episode where I sat down with some podcasters based in the UK and talked about the process of making episodes ..read more

It was a Sunday evening in November, 1983 and 65 people were attending service at the Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Church Service. The church was a small wooden building on the outskirts of the Northern Irish village of Darkley, in the county of Armagh, which was close to the border with the Republic of Ireland. The popular hymn, 'Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb' was playing, and pastor Bobby Bain was leading the singing.  It was at this time, three masked gunmen arrived at the church.  As the congregation started singing the final verse ‘Lay aside the garments that are stained ..read more

Here's the link to The Troubles Podcast live show in January 25th, 2024: www.puntcomedy.com/event-details/the-troubles-live-podcast In this episode, Kevin Owens talks about life in the Irish army during the Troubles, and explained what life was like... From searching in lakes for Libyan arms dumps to dealing with Gardai who may have been helping out the IRA. He then joined the US Army and ended up serving in Iraq and Afghanistan a number of times ..read more

David Ervine began as a loyalist paramilitary but had a remarkable change of heart while in prison, and upon his release dedicated his efforts to political discourse, and acting as a political voice for the UVF. But it wasn't easy, and there would be many who wanted to take his life. This is the story of the man who championed constructive unionism ..read more

Peter Taylor is a journalist who had an unparalleled level of access across the divided and sectarian communities in Northern Ireland. He has made multiple documentaires and written many books about the Troubles, and was trusted by paramilitaries to tell the world their stories. In this episode we talk about his life, his memories of Bloody Sunday, and meeting the leaders of the Provisional IRA and the dangers with being a journalist during the Troubles. We then discuss his new book, Operation Chiffon, The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland. This book tells the line ..read more