Interviewee, Hidden War: The Story of the IRB, TG4

Press/Media: Expert Comment

Description

Cogadh faoi Cheilt – Scéal an IRB (Hidden War – the story of the IRB), a story that is often ignored about a secret organisation that shaped the Irish state, airs on Wednesday 25th September at 9:30pm on TG4.

Cogadh faoi Cheilt – Scéal an IRB, produced by Dearcán Media, was supported by Northern Ireland Screen, through the Irish Language Broadcast Fund.

Without the work of the IRB in the previous decades it is arguable whether 1916 would have happened at all, and it is impossible to understand partition without taking into consideration the role of the IRB in the 1918-24 period.

Cogadh faoi Cheilt – Scéal an IRB offers a very new take on the division of Ireland and outlines the tantalising possibility of what the IRB hoped to achieve.

Thanks to the IRB’s policy of entryism the origins of The Land League, the GAA, Sinn Féin, The Irish Volunteers and The Gaelic League are bound up in the story of this secret organisation. IRB initiatives in land reform, cultural revivalism, military strategy and popular political protest inspired characters as diverse as Lenin and Gandhi and influenced the most progressive elements in Britain and the US – trade unions, Labour and left organisations and broadly democratic forces. IRB activities in Britain also led to the creation of the British Special Branch, the British secret service, prison reforms, unprecedented 2 land reforms in Ireland and Scotland, it sundered the most powerful Empire in the world, and inspired countless revolutionaries across the globe.

Cogadh faoi Cheilt – Scéal an IRB draws on contributions from the foremost authorities on the IRB, Fenianism, Irish Republicanism, The Irish Revolution, and nineteenth and twentieth century Gaelic Revival and Irish nationalist culture and literature.

Cogadh faoi Cheilt – Scéal an IRB starts on Wednesday 25th September at 9:30pm on TG4.

Period25 Sept 2019

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Media contributions