Episodes

  • 1: Power and Protest

    1: Power and Protest
    Nov 22 2024
    In 1969, violence explodes across Northern Ireland. Catholics, who were treated as second-class citizens by the Protestant majority, march in protest and are beaten back by the country’s sectarian police force. The British Army arrives to restore order, but the violence escalates further into guerrilla war, led by a revived Irish Republican Army. The Troubles have begun. All seven episodes of From Bomb to Ballot are available now. Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine and Bella Soames Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Sound Design: John Scott Podcast Artwork: Lindsay Fagan Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    35 mins
  • 2: Guerrilla War

    2: Guerrilla War
    Nov 22 2024
    The Provisional IRA run a disciplined and efficient operation and prove capable of bringing bloody war to the British Army. A cat and mouse game on the streets of Belfast and Derry intensifies with each passing week, each side becoming further entrenched in a brutal cycle of violence that will define the 1970s. And, at a pub in Armagh, near the Irish border, a young British army officer called Robert Nairac disappears. He will never be seen again. All seven episodes of From Bomb to Ballot are available now. Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine and Bella Soames Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Sound Design: John Scott Podcast Artwork: Lindsay Fagan Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    32 mins
  • 3: Coffins

    3: Coffins
    Nov 22 2024
    Ten young men starve themselves to death in a prison outside Belfast. One of them – Bobby Sands – is an elected MP. Their deaths bring widespread sympathy to the Republican cause and the Provisional IRA’s little-known political wing, Sinn Féin, is bolstered by increasing electoral success. Two years later – at the height of the hottest summer on record – Gerry Adams, widely believed to be a former leader in the IRA (something he denies), is elected to Westminster. Militant Irish nationalism has gone political. All seven episodes of From Bomb to Ballot are available now. Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine and Bella Soames Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Sound Design: John Scott Podcast Artwork: Lindsay Fagan Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    31 mins
  • 4: The Spectaculars

    4: The Spectaculars
    Nov 22 2024
    Two IRA men – John Crawley and Martin Ferris – are caught with seven tons of ammunition on their boat, just off the coast of Kerry. They are sentenced to 10 years in prison. Meanwhile, the IRA take their fight to the British mainland with renewed vigour. Bombs explode in Brighton, Hyde Park, and Manchester, killing thousands of innocent civilians and… nearly, Margaret Thatcher. But, behind closed doors, Sinn Féin politicians and their British counterparts take the first, faltering steps towards peace. A decade after his arrest, Martin Ferris is released from prison to a changed political landscape. He decides the time for armed struggle is over, and becomes a prominent Sinn Féin political activist. All seven episodes of From Bomb to Ballot are available now. Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine and Bella Soames Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Sound Design: John Scott Podcast Artwork: Lindsay Fagan Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    37 mins
  • 5: Call the Boys Off

    5: Call the Boys Off
    Nov 22 2024
    The Provisional IRA end their ceasefire in spectacular fashion, and the scale of the bomb detonated in the middle of Canary Wharf sparks renewed attempts to end the Troubles. Britain and Ireland have new Prime Ministers, who share a personal connection and a desire to get an agreement over the line, fast. And.. behind closed doors, Monica McWilliams is forging connections with Sinn Fein’s women, and Labour Minister Paul Murphy is having fish and chips with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. The stage is set for an historic peace agreement. Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine and Bella Soames Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Sound Design: John Scott Podcast Artwork: Lindsay Fagan Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    36 mins
  • 6: A Fragile Peace

    6: A Fragile Peace
    Nov 22 2024
    In Omagh, a car bomb kills 29 people, including two unborn children. It is the biggest single atrocity of the Troubles and comes just four months after the Good Friday Agreement is signed. The peace holds… but the Omagh Bomb shows that Pandora’s Box of paramilitary violence opened decades earlier will not be straightforward to close. Nonetheless, a new generation of Sinn Fein activists – untouched by the violence of the previous decades – are climbing the party's ranks. But even after the arrival of peace, Republican communities across Northern Ireland continue to distrust the state, often with harrowing consequences… as Mairia Cahill is to discover. Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine and Bella Soames Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Sound Design: John Scott Podcast Artwork: Lindsay Fagan Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    43 mins
  • 7: Changed Utterly?

    7: Changed Utterly?
    Nov 22 2024
    Gerry Adams stands down as the President of Sinn Fein and is replaced by Mary Lou McDonald, a middle-class Dubliner with no personal connection to the Troubles. Sinn Fein achieves an historic result in the 2020 election and announces itself as Ireland’s main opposition party. That’s until Dublin explodes into far-right riots and Sinn Fein’s uneasy coalition of voters unravels. And the party struggles to shake off other scandals – some historic, others more recent – that cast doubt on their fitness for government. Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine and Bella Soames Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Sound Design: John Scott Podcast Artwork: Lindsay Fagan Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    40 mins