Ireland: 100 years on from Partition (with Ivan Gibbons)

The Number 10 Podcast

In this episode, released on the 100 year anniversary of Irish partition, we talk with Ivan Gibbons about the statesmen involved in the decision and whether it was a success. We talk about the implications of partition that are still being felt to this day. Throughout the twentieth century, partition would become the most contested and fought-over issue in Irish politics. But the history of how Ireland came to be divided and why at the time it was seen as the only workable solution, at least by the British, is much less understood. Our view is now clouded by the complex history and struggles of the century that followed, but Partition takes us back to the first decades of the 1900s. Gibbons tells us how the idea of dividing Ireland came about, how it gained acceptance and popular support, about its complex and controversial implementation, and the turmoil of the years that followed. IVAN GIBBONS is a lecturer in Modern Irish and British history specialising in the relationship between the British Labour Party and Ireland. He was lecturer and MA and BA Programme Director in Irish Studies at St Mary’s University. Book link: https://www.hauspublishing.com/history-and-biography/partition-how-and-why-ireland-was-divided-by-ivan-gibbons/ Want to learn more about partition before we reach it? The Hammersmith Irish Cultural Centre has released a number of great lectures that you can watch here: https://irishculturalcentre.co.uk/digital-lecture-series-2021/ Image: (Original Caption) 5/11/1916 – Dublin, Ireland: Easter Rebellion – Photo shows British troops armed with machine guns and rifles behind a moveable barricade composed of household furniture and which could easily be pushed foreward, in a street in the central section of Dublin. (Bettmann/Getty Images)