What Were We Like

During his short life from 1923 to 1964, Dubliner Brendan Behan achieved both fame and infamy, both at home and abroad, on the back of his writing talents and his very public battle with alcoholism.

Today we want to talk about one of Ireland’s greatest writers Brendan Behan who continues to have a massive influence on Irish culture today.

In November 1946, Behan, aged just 16, arrived in Liverpool with a suitcase of explosives, declaring: ‘My name is Brendan Behan. I came over here to fight for the Irish Workers’ and Small Farmers’ Republic, for a full and free life, for my countrymen, North and South, and for the removal of the baneful influence of British Imperialism from Irish affairs. God save Ireland.’

This set off an extraordinary chain of events that would lead Behan to becoming a global celebrity because of his wit and writings, from The Quare Fellow to the Hostage to The Borstal Boy.

Behan was a heavy drinker and prone to self destructive heavy drinking. A lifelong battle with alcoholism came to an end when Brendan Behan died on the 20 March 1964. However, he left behind an incredible legacy and one was of Dublin’s last great characters.

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On the 22nd of August 1922, Michael Collins was shot dead in Béal Na Bláth, County Cork.

His death at just 31 ensured he would become one of Ireland’s most iconic figures, forever frozen in time.

This week on What Were We Like, we explore the complicated legacy of Michael Collins.

We also look at the significance of the revival of interest of Collins in recent years and the impact Neil Jordan’s film had on his legacy, despite taking some poetic licence.

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Michael Collins is now one of the most powerful men in Ireland. But events that will tear Ireland apart and lead to his brutal assassination in Cork are already set in train.

In 1921 he is sent by De Valera to London to negotiate with the British on what will become the Anglo-Irish Treaty. With his striking good looks and his fierce reputation, London is gripped by "Collins mania".

But on December 6th 1921, when Collins signs the Treaty, he is said to have remarked: “I'm signing my actual death warrant.”

Within months, a brutal civil war breaks out across the country, and just over nine months after signing the Treaty, Collins is killed in an ambush at Béal Na Bláth on 22nd August 1922. His death remains one of the most shocking moments in Irish history resulting in endless speculation and conspiracy theories on what happened on the fateful day.

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On the 22nd of August 1922, Michael Collins, the Commander in Chief of the National Army was shot dead. He was just 31.

Almost immediately the myth making around Michael Collins began, starting with the last words he’s alleged to have uttered.

But what is the real legacy of Michael Collins? He was a man who operated as a politician but was capable of ruthless violence.

On this week’s What Were We Like, we talk about Michael Collins, a man that has captured the imagination of the Irish public, film makers, artists and politicians like no other figure in modern Irish history.

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In the early hours of February 14th 1981, a fire ripped through the Stardust Nightclub in Artane in Dublin.

48 people, aged between 16 and 27, die in the tragedy. It is one of the worst fires, in terms of loss of life and significant injury, in the State’s history.

In 1982 a Tribunal controversially found that the fire was "probably caused deliberately" despite no evidence.

For 43 years, the families fought for justice for the 48 people who died and to get answers how their love ones died. This is the story of Stardust.

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He was one of Ireland’s greatest and most controversial playwrights. Sean O’Casey’s remarkable life began in the slums of Dublin and took him to the biggest stages in the world, including the Abbey Theatre.

His work caused riots in Dublin and caused protests around the world, from Texas to Berlin to London. O’Casey made enemies of the Church and the Censors, forcing him to choose self-imposed exile in England.

Through his plays, O’Casey asked fundamental questions about violence and challenged the founding myths of the new Irish state. They were questions a new Ireland wasn’t ready for.

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After committing one of the worst atrocities in the Irish Civil War, the State attempts to cover up its role in the massacre.

As “Terror Month” in Kerry continues, further atrocities are carried out with more prisoners blown up by landmines.

However, the man who gave the order at Ballyseedy, Paddy O'Daly, remains unrepentant, stating: “No one asked me to take my kid gloves to Kerry and I didn’t take them.”

Diarmaid and Catriona discuss the fall out from Ballyseedy, how the truth finally emerges, and why the Dáil record still contains the cover-up.

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On the 7th of March 1923, nine anti-Treaty prisoners were taken to a field in Kerry, tied to a landmine and blown up. It was one of the most shocking events of the Irish Civil War and became known as the Ballyseedy Massacre. The State immediately tried to cover it up but incredibly, one man survived and his witness account revealed just how brutal the civil war had become. Diarmaid and Catriona recount the whole affair, and also the wider conflict in Kerry at the time, which is often referred to as "Terror Month".

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John Paul II, the "rock star" Pope took Ireland by storm in 1979, and millions came out to see him. (Everyone except Catriona, who went to Donegal in a sulk but kept an eye on proceedings through the television). This was an iconic moment, and everyone was swept away by his good looks, his "deep baritone" voice, and his ability to connect with young people. Yet his abilities as a showman belied a deep conservatism, particularly on women's issues, and his visit turned out to be a last hurrah for the Catholic Church before it was rocked by child sexual abuse scandals, the rise of feminism and plummeting mass attendances in later years.

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RTÉ's podcast intern Arran returns with the second instalment of his favourite parts of What Were We Like. This time around, grumpy Patrick Kavanagh, "airhead" Ronald Reagan, and the insertion of the Eighth Amendment into the Constitution all feature. This is Arran's last selection - he's off to Electric Picnic on Thursday where he'll be boring his pals with his newfound knowledge of history. Diarmaid and Catriona are back next Monday, 31 August.

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Diarmaid and Catriona are on holidays, so RTE's podcast intern, Arran has selected some of his favourite parts of What Were We Like so far. Bobby Sands, The Contraceptive Train, and John Charles McQuaid all feature in the first part of this "Best of" series. Part 2 of Arran's selections will be out next week, and Diarmaid and Catriona return on Monday 31 August.

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What Were We Like is on holidays for the next two weeks. We'll be back with a podcast about the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979, and that will come out on Monday the 24th of August.

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Ireland was gripped by a bizarre phenomenon in the summer of 1985: sightings of moving statues of the Virgin Mary. Tens of thousands of people flocked to villages in Kerry - and elsewhere - to catch a glimpse of these monuments, which eyewitnesses claimed would move, beckon and even undergo strange facial transformations. Diarmaid and Catriona chart this crazy story, look at how it challenged the Catholic Church, and also trace the history of holy apparitions in Ireland.

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In 1985, the body of a newborn baby washed up on a beach in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, stabbed to death. What followed was one of the most infamous incidents in the history of An Garda Síochána. Diarmaid and Catriona trace the botched Garda investigation into the baby's death, carried out by the notorious Heavy Gang, the shocking Tribunal of Inquiry which followed, and how it became a watershed moment in the treatment of women in Ireland.

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Today, Diarmaid and Catriona kick off a new series focusing on Ireland in the 1980s. This was a decade of great political instability, with three general elections alone happening between 1981 and 1982. Unemployment and emigration were high. Heroin took hold in Dublin and spread around the country. But one of the most polarising issues of all was abortion. In the first of this series, What Were We Like looks at how the extremely controversial Eighth Amendment came to be inserted into the Constitution in 1983 - and remained there until its repeal in 2018.

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Monaghan born Patrick Kavanagh was a notorious presence in Dublin for much of his life. Broke, drunk and often bitter, he boozed in the bars around Grafton Street, clashing with the likes of Brendan Behan and railing against the literary establishment. Always an outsider, he nonetheless transformed Irish poetry by focusing on the ordinary aspects of rural Ireland, paving the way for the likes of Seamus Heaney, and writing perhaps the greatest love song of all time, Raglan Road.

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On 5 May 1981, 26-year-old Bobby Sands became the first of ten IRA hunger strikers to die at the Maze Prison, changing the course of history in Northern Ireland. In this episode, Diarmaid and Catriona assess his life, his status as a Republican icon, and how he impacted the career of his chief antagonist, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher among others.

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The Irish Women's Liberation Movement, Mary Magee and the fight for contraceptive rights in Ireland.  It was the 1970s and in many ways, things were grim for the women of Ireland. Marital rape was permitted, women had to stop working in the public service when they got married, and most relevantly for this podcast, contraception was illegal. Here, Diarmaid and Catriona tell the stories of the brave women and men who fought to change that. Two key events feature: the famous "Contraceptive train" of 1971, in which a group of women bought contraceptives in Northern Ireland - where they were legal - and brought them back across the border, and dared the Gardai to arrest them. The second is the remarkable bravery of Mary Magee, whose legal case paved the way for contraceptives to become legal in Ireland.

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In this special recording, What Were We Like appears before a live audience at this year's Listowel Writers Week, to discuss the 1926 census. Diarmaid and Catriona talk about what the census tells us about Irish society in the early part of the 20th century - both in Kerry, and in Ireland in general. Catriona takes umbrage at the performance of Garda Daniel Rooney, who was responsible for some of the less-than-impressive record keeping at the time. But nonetheless, the census provides a remarkable insight into Ireland back then - and a great opportunity for us to snoop on our neighbours.

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To mark Bloomsday, Diarmaid and Catriona tell the remarkable story of how two of James Joyce's friends made false allegations of infidelity against Nora Barnacle, something which sent Joyce into a jealous rage. The impact on Joyce was severe, and caused him to question the paternity of his son, Giorgio - but it also had major literary consequences, forming the basis of one of the key chapters of Ulysses. Joyce's political beliefs are also explored, as well as the social history of Dublin at the time.

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In the 1960s, John Charles McQuaid faced a number of serious challenges that saw his influence over Ireland wane. The advent of television and the women's movement were major problems for him - and Vatican 2 presented the biggest threat to his authority. But McQuaid still wielded considerable power, and went after people who crossed his path, including novelist John McGahern, various Protestants and more or less anyone interested in sex. McQuaid gradually came to be regarded as out of touch with the country. He resigned in 1972, and died the following year.

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The powerful and fearsome John Charles McQuaid was the archbishop of Dublin from 1940 to the early 1970s, and was described as the ruler of Catholic Ireland. He was obsessed with protestants, communists and "moral purity", and ran a huge spying operation on the Irish population, both at home and abroad, to keep everyone in check. In the first part of this series, Diarmaid and Catriona chart his early life, his ascent to power, and his often difficult relationship with Eamon De Valera.

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More giants of Irish politics feature in this episode. Enda Kenny – was he lucky, was he devoid of strong convictions, was he Fine Gael's most successful Taoiseach? Probably all three. Prickly Des O’Malley won his famous uncle’s seat in a by election and went on to found the influential Progressive Democrats. And two trailblazers of Irish politics, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, the first woman to hold a seat at cabinet since the foundation of the state, and the Susan Sontag-esque Eileen Desmond also feature. 

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With by-elections in the air, Diarmaid and Catriona look back at some of the most significant ones in Irish history. Part one features big beasts Sean Lemass and Sean MacBride, as well as Ireland's most handsome communist. Lemass succeeded Dev and is credited with modernising Ireland, as well as smoking vast amounts of tobacco through a pipe. The more “exotic” MacBride founded Clann Na Poblachta and Amnesty International, but his abilities as a politician are questioned, and the roots of his unusual French accent considered. 

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This episode charts the Tricolour's 20th Century evolution: its formal adoption in 1937; getting the Brits to return the Tricolour that flew over the GPO in 1916; all the way up to Italia '90.

The gruesome digging up of Roger Casement's body features, as does John McGahern's most famous novel, Amongst Women, which came out in 1990 with a Tricolour splashed across its cover.

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Patrick Pearse’s dramatic ‘The fools, the fools’ speech at Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral was a key moment in the story of Ireland’s flag. Pearse made the oration alongside a Tricolour draped across the veteran Fenian’s coffin. The Green White and Gold was then flown over the GPO during the Easter Rising, and it was Sinn Féin’s skill as propagandists, alongside the monumentally 'stupid’ British reaction to 1916, that helped the Tricolour ascend, leaving Parnell’s green flag in its wake. 

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Who owns The Tricolour? Over the last year it has appeared on polls and lampposts all over Ireland – put there by anti-immigration campaigners, causing fights and debates all over the country. This happened in Catriona’s neighbourhood, and when she and other residents brought this to the attention of the Council, they were told officials were too afraid to take them down. In this episode, Diarmaid and Catriona trace the early origins of the flag, including the key moment when the dashing Thomas Francis Meagher was given a prototype of the Irish Tricolour by three mysterious women in revolutionary France.

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June 1984, and Ronald Reagan, the controversial, transformative Republican President of the United States visits Ireland. Opposition is widespread, and an unexpected alliance of lefties and priests man the barricades, with Reagan’s foreign policies the focus of their anger. Diarmaid and Catriona unearth all kinds of paddy-whackery, with the Americans asking the Irish Government if the Pope would say mass (lol), British journalists paying people in Ballyporeen to bring a donkey into a pub and feed it Guinness, and one man is arrested for throwing a tomato. Catriona herself was one of the protesters. “We thought he was the devil – little did we know what was coming down the tracks.”  

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General election campaigns in the early years of the State were utterly vicious, with fresh cow dung, sticks, and nasty insults being hurled about as Fianna Fáil attempted to wrest power from the pro-Treaty Cumann na nGaedheal. Despite the shouts of “traitor”, “murderer” and “Spanish bastard” on the campaign trail, Dev and the Soldiers of Destiny take power for the first time in 1932. The Brits are not happy – Winston Churchill famously refers to Dev as the “devil”. But he assumes control of Ireland, dismantles the Treaty, introduces a new Constitution – yet his ultimate goal of uniting Ireland is stymied by the outbreak of World War Two.

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Having won instant success in their first election, the Soldiers Of Destiny are faced with an intractable dilemma – how to take their Dáil seats while also swearing a mandatory oath to the hated King of England. Cunning old Dev solves this by getting a letter from a friendly bishop, which he claims allows his TDs to take the oath without actually meaning it. They enter Leinster House in farcical and dramatic fashion in 1927. But Sean “No Craic” Lemass puts a major downer on things by banning his deputies from drinking in the Dáil bar. Diarmaid and Catriona have all the details from this momentous time for Irish politics.

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Since the crash, Fianna Fáil has become 'just another political party'. But for nearly a century it was THE leading force in Irish politics, synonymous with power, influence and flash suits; and dominated by outsized personalities like Pee Flynn, Charlie Haughey and Bertie Ahern. In this series, From the Civil War to the Crash, marking the centenary of Fianna Fáil, Diarmaid and Catriona trace how The Soldiers Of Destiny built up one of the most successful election machines in the world, and how it fell apart. Part 1 looks at its foundation, when a gang of idealistic young men lead by Eamon De Valera formed the party out of the ashes of the Civil War. 

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Political insults part 2/2. The civil war is well in the past, but Irish politicians are still roaring at each other. From Paul Gogarty’s viral, foul-mouthed outburst during the economic crash, to Brian Lenihan Sr. being derided as the ‘13th stroke of Irish political clock’, and the ‘Bismarck of lobster pots’, Diarmaid and Catriona unearth more angry gems from the Dáil archive.

What Were We Like is a podcast from RTÉ about modern Irish history co-hosted by Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe. It comes out every Monday morning on the RTÉ Radio Player app, and wherever else you get your podcasts. 

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Political insults part 1/2. Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe look at the angriest and most bizarre Irish political insults of the last 100 years. In part one of this catalogue of mudslinging, the civil war dominates. Dev is a ‘Spanish Bastard’, TDs are jealous of Michael Collins’ fame, and one politician is accused of shooting off his own toe to commit pension fraud. It’s no holds-barred madness from start to finish.

What Were We Like is a podcast from RTÉ about modern Irish history co-hosted by Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe. It comes out every Monday morning on the RTÉ Radio Player app, and wherever else you get your podcasts.

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In the final episode of What Were We Like, Diarmaid and Catriona talk about Ireland’s two female Presidents, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, and how their visions of the Presidency reflected the events of the day. They talk about Mary Robinson’s harrowing trip to Somalia in 1992, and the crowning diplomatic achievement of Mary McAleese’s Presidency, the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 2011.

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In the fourth episode of What Were We Like?, Diarmaid and Catriona talk about Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh’s remarkable offer to swap places with kidnap victim Tiede Herrema while he was in the Áras; and how Garrett Fitzgerald and Noël Browne were being talked up as possible candidates in the 1990 Presidential election. 

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In the third episode of What Were We Like?, Diarmaid and Catriona talk about how Douglas Hyde was removed as a patron by the GAA for attending a soccer match; why Muhammad Ali was not considered a suitable guest at Áras an Uachtaráin; and how Eamon De Valera almost failed to win a second term because he refused to campaign at all.

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In episode two of What Were We Like?’s special series on the history of the Presidency, Diarmaid and Catriona take a deep dive into the two most critical powers that the President has, and recall the resignation of Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh and Brian Lenihan’s infamous “mature recollection” moment. 

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In the first episode of What Were We Like?’s special five-part series on the history of the Presidency, Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe talk about how the office came into being in the first place, Eamon de Valera’s role in shaping its powers, and what the president actually can and cannot do. 

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Diarmaid Ferriter and Catriona Crowe bring us on a journey through the hidden histories, humanity and humour of our past. In this first mini series, they’ll explore the history of the presidency, and what it means, as Ireland gets ready to choose its next Uachtarán.

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