Recent politics have revealed a common lack of knowledge about Ireland and Northern Ireland in the Britain at a time when it is of vital strategic importance. What is behind the blind spot? We call this phenomenon ‘The Knowledge Gap’, and investigate how it came to be by comparing the history courses taught in Ireland and the UK, with some striking results. Naomi O’Leary and Tim Mc Inerney hear from experts on Northern Ireland who found themselves in the eye of the storm following the recent election which brought the Democratic Unionist Party unexpectedly close to power in Westminster and unleashed huge demand for crash courses on Northern Ireland. This episode reveals that uncertainty about where the UK begins and ends is widespread — including among those whose job is to know.
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After listening to our Irish language episode of the podcast, those of you who are interested in hearing more music in the Sean nós style can find a digitalised collection of Joe Heaney’s songs and stories here, at www.joeheaney.org. Digitalised by Dr Lillis O’Laoire of NUI Galway.
Irish: a rare and ancient language that is spoken from the streets of Canada to the corridors of power in the European Union. Naomi O’Leary and Tim Mc Inerney delve into why the language is such a powerful national symbol for Ireland, its fraught history, and how it’s still a point of political strife today.
For bonus episodes, support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport.
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @PassportIrish.
A transcript of this episode is available here: https://www.theirishpassport.com/transcripts/transcript-the-irish-language/
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The dramatic UK election result has suddenly made Northern Irish politics more pressing than ever. Are you trying to figure out what the DUP is anyway and what all this means for Brexit? Naomi O’Leary and Tim Mc Inerney answer all these questions and more in this special UK election edition of The Irish Passport. It includes a report from a loyalist pipe band event where we asked marchers what they thought of Brexit, and got some surprising answers….
For bonus episodes, support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport.
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @PassportIrish.
A transcript of this episode is available here: https://www.theirishpassport.com/transcripts/transcript-unionism-election-special/
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What will happen to the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit? We discuss how Britain has ignored this problem, and speak to ordinary people on the border about their lives and their fears about any hardening of the border. Naomi O’Leary reports from the border on how Brexit could affect a family of farmers and a man who has to cross the border four times in 10 minutes to get to his nearest town. We hear how talk of a united Ireland is on the rise, and a Sinn Fein councillor who is missing a few fingers from his struggles against a hard border in the past tells us a return to violence “depends on what conditions are created”. Tim Mc Inerney lays out how the border came to be in the first place, from the plantations, through religious wars, rebellions, and the war of independence that led to the emergence of the modern Irish state. What is Ireland anyway? This episode gets the facts straight.
Recent politics have revealed a common lack of knowledge about Ireland and Northern Ireland in the Britain at a time when it is of vital strategic importance. What is behind the blind spot? We call this phenomenon ‘The Knowledge Gap’, and investigate how it came to be by comparing the history courses taught in Ireland and the UK, with some striking results. Naomi O’Leary and Tim Mc Inerney hear from experts on Northern Ireland who found themselves in the eye of the storm following the recent election which brought the Democratic Unionist Party unexpectedly close to power in Westminster and unleashed huge demand for crash courses on Northern Ireland. This episode reveals that uncertainty about where the UK begins and ends is widespread — including among those whose job is to know.
For bonus episodes, support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theirishpassport.
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: @PassportIrish.
Support this podcast 
After listening to our