Stories in Sound — the Kilcullen Diary podcasts

I'm recently learning, and sometimes relearning, a variety of things about the wider history of the world, writes Brian Byrne. They come through my researches to write scripts for the 'On This Day' podcast series I've been doing on weekday mornings on the Diary.



For instance, in the first of the five pods I did last week, I gained an insight into the Irish Fenians movement in the US in the late 19th century, a rather unsuccessful group which targeted Canada in the fight for Irish freedom. They hadn't really crossed my radar strongly enough in my schoolboy history to stick in my consciousness.



Next up came something I did as a motoring journalist have some knowledge of, the Ford Model T car, credited with putting the world of everyman on wheels. But I learned new details, not least that when the old Tin Lizzie was at its height, one in every two cars in the world was a Ford.



The story of the Guinness barges on Wednesday last was among other things a reminder of the usefulness of the canals and when that ended, but also brought home the historical importance of Guinness's 'black stuff' both in Ireland and as an export to England before the company established breweries in other parts of the world.



I had known previously about Alan Turing, who led the team that broke the German Enigma Code during WW2, but until I dredged through his career on Thursday morning I hadn't realised the full breadth of his genius, largely unacknowledged for decades because of his sexuality.



The conquest of Everest which was the subject of Friday's podcast brought back to life the story of Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary, but also the extraordinary attraction of a mountain to be climbed just because it's there.



Finally, not in the On This Day series, but very much of local interest, my programme based on a mid-80s interview with the late Paddy Nugent has garnered a consistent flow of listeners since I published it on Sunday week last. His recollections of growing up in Kilcullen in the 1930s were only a generational difference from my own experience, but very much removed from the lives of people in the town today.

If you listened to the programmes — and clearly many of you have done — I hope you enjoyed them all as much as I did in making them. Keep listening. All the Diary audio contributions are available on the Apple Podcasts site.

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