Michael Collins recruits an intelligence network of enterprising men and women who find out many of the British government’s secrets. But it’s a dangerous life within the sights of the IRA. Please be advised that this episode contains a depiction of suicide.

Not everyone's story makes it to the history books - but everyone has a story to tell. Listener Ian McBurney talks to Declan and Tara about his great-grandfather Matthew McDonald, an upstanding citizen whose life is upended by the troubles in Ireland.

Thousands of men are arrested and spend months behind the wire at Ballykinlar. What was life like there? Author Liam O Duibhir draws parallels with the recent past as he tells Tara and Declan about conditions in the camp: how men set up classes to learn Irish, music, shorthand and book-keeping - and how two internees plotted their escape.

After the King’s visit to Belfast, Lloyd George and de Valera finally agree a truce to allow treaty negotiations to get underway. Meanwhile the annual Twelfth parades take place amid a feeling of betrayal from Orange Order members in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan who have been left out of the newly-created Northern Ireland. Tara visits the Orange Order’s museum and hears how the institution is inextricably linked with James Craig and many of those who will go on to wield power in Northern Ireland.

This week also sees the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. Although thousands of Irishmen continue to fight in fields across Europe until the end of the war, it is the sacrifice of hundreds of Ulstermen at the Somme which is being remembered. Tara and Declan hear how the commemorations in 1921 may have helped draw fresh battlelines between nationalists and unionists in the new Northern Ireland.

As soldiers return to their barracks in Dublin after the King’s visit to Belfast, their train is blown up by a group of south Armagh men lying in wait, led by local farmer Frank Aiken. Three officers, a railway guard and at least fifty horses are killed in what would become known as the Adavoyle Ambush. A listener and local historian tells us how his family members were involved in the clean-up operation in the immediate aftermath of the explosion and describes a “gruesome” scene. Please be...

King George V's speech to Parliament, in which he 'stretched out the hand of forebearance and conciliation', is designed to be heard beyond Northern Ireland. Declan and Tara learn of the crucial role of South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts in this historic and far-reaching address. Warning: this episode contains the sound of gunshots.

Nationalists, opposed to partition, abstain from taking their seats - so parliament's first sitting at Belfast City Hall is an exclusively unionist affair. Tara and Declan visit Belfast's Theological College, which would become home to the new government, and hear how the promise of a Boundary Commission helped shape the new Northern Ireland.

Nationalists, opposed to partition, abstain from taking their seats - so parliament's first sitting is an exclusively unionist affair. Tara and Declan visit Belfast's Theological College, home to the new government, and hear how the promise of a Boundary Commission helped shape the new Northern Ireland.

The IRA's burning of the Custom House in Dublin makes headlines around the world, but is it coup or catastrophe? We hear the account of a Lurgan man in the building on the day Ireland's administrative hub was set on fire. And Declan and Tara hear why this dramatic event brought both sides to the negotiating table. Please be advised that the sound of gunshots feature in this episode.

The first election in Northern Ireland is an early try-out for proportional representation. Unionists take advantage of the system of transferrable votes, and most of the seats in the new Parliament. Ireland is split. Not just politically and geographically – but culturally too. Declan and Tara learn how the two states evolve post-partition.

Amid violence and turbulence across the island of Ireland, elections are taking place to establish two new parliaments. Historian Dr Erin Schoepner takes Tara and Declan through a deep dive of archive cuttings to see how newspapers in Britain were reporting “the Irish Question” in 1921.

It’s the first official election south of the new border in Ireland. The largest party is rejecting the notion of partition altogether. So what will happen when candidates are announced, and how will the first sitting of the new Irish parliament go? Politicians aren’t the only players in this episode – Tara and Declan take a quick dash around the sports pitch and learn how the GAA reacts to partition.

There are many dates which historians argue could constitute the birth of Northern Ireland, but a panel of government-appointed experts have decided that it came into being on the 3rd of May 100 years ago. As the Queen and others send messages marking the centenary, we look back at a clandestine meeting in which the staunch unionist James Craig travels to Dublin for talks with the Sinn Fein leader Éamon de Valera. Meanwhile, in Mayo, a whole village is kidnapped by the IRA.

“The Irish Question” has become the Brexit of its day and as the business of setting up the new administration progresses, there are many in Westminster glad to see what they think will be an end to it being discussed. Meanwhile the IRA has gained expertise in guns and bombs. Tara and Declan visit the police museum to see what IRA weaponry looked like 100 years ago, and see the precursors to the peace walls of today.

Over a period of 20 months, hundreds of Catholics are thrown out of their jobs, homes and communities, and many of them are killed. Official records of these events are scarce, but Declan and Tara learn of a Belfast priest who recorded the names of those who died in what he called 'The Belfast Pogrom' - a term which remains contentious to this day. Historians John Regan and Gemma Clark explore the motives behind the attacks, which Eamon Phoenix tells the story of the first victim. Warning:...

Edward Carson may have been the man many associate with the birth of Northern Ireland but behind him all the way was the “granite-faced” figure of Sir James Craig. Once it became clear that Ireland would split, Carson retired from frontline politics. Enter the Ulsterman who reflected the view of many unionists in the new state. Tara and Declan explore how he came to be in that position and how he modelled Northern Ireland in his own image.

In 1921 Belfast's mighty shipyard is the economic engine of the city and the envy of the world. Tara and Declan explore how events there just months earlier would lead to a wave of violence across the island and change The Yard forever. Warning: This episode contains sounds of gunshots.

During an Ulster Unionist Council meeting in 1920 to discuss partition, attendees from Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan walk out early in disgust.They feel betrayed at the decision to take only six of Ulster’s nine counties forward to be part of Northern Ireland. Tara and Declan find out why these ‘lost' counties were jettisoned from the new state and how that impacts some people living there to this day.

History stayed silent on Michael Collins for decades after his murder. The man who directed a brutal guerilla campaign against the British during the War of Independence was also pivotal in securing the Treaty which led to the foundation of the Irish Free State - and which sparked civil war across Ireland. Historians John Regan, William Murphy and Gemma Clark reassess what we know about Collins, and challenge some of the myths surrounding him. And Declan has a chat with his former German...

From the gunrunner who was a doctor by day, to the ‘corner boy’ who kept lions in his back garden, Eamon Phoenix and Alan Parkinson talk about some of the people involved in attacks on soldiers and civilians

This week it’s pomp and propaganda at the pictures. In 1921, the news shown before the main feature was carefully curated, as Ciara Chambers, author of Ireland in Newsreels, explains. We find out how audiences didn’t always take kindly to ‘fake news’.

'Wee Joe' Devlin rose from the streets of Belfast to become a popular MP, noted for his speeches and good works. He took on the Bishop of Down and Connor over who should tell Catholics in Ulster how to vote, and earned himself the nickname 'The Priest Hunter'. But by 1921, his star was on the wane. Tara and Declan look at how his brand of nationalism was eclipsed by others and why his name now doesn't have the same recognition as others from that time.

As violence increases in Belfast, women are becoming more politicised. Lady Abercorn visits the city to rally members of the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council. Meanwhile the IRA requests the formation of a Belfast branch of Cumann na mBan (League of Women) whose members help gather intelligence and move weapons. And in 33 Carnan Street, off the Shankill Road, Maria Kirkpatrick raises her six children amid riots and protests. Sociologist Claire Mitchell and historian Margaret Ward look at the...

A witness to an IRA attack travels north to testify. That night, four gunmen enter the bar of the hotel he's staying in. What would happen there would lead to a surge in the membership and activity of the IRA in Belfast.