The Brighton Bombing - the attempt to kill Ma...

In the late 1960s, the Provisional IRA and what became modern Sinn Féin emerged from a bitter split in the Irish republican movement. This split would shape not only the Troubles but also Irish politics down to the present day.However, for the last five decades, the story of how ...  Show more

The 18th century was a golden age of Irish smuggling. It's estimated that as many as one third of all luxury goods entering Ireland were brought in by smugglers. Far from being a fringe activity, smuggling was woven into the wider economy and remarkably was often a community ente ...  Show more

Matt revisits the last night of the Conservative party conference in 1984 when the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton in an attempt to kill Margaret Thatcher. 

Author Rory Carroll explains how the attack was carried out and journalist Philip Webster remembe ...

The horrific Guildford Pub Bombings of Saturday 5th October 1974 sent shockwaves through Britain, worsening the sense of crisis sweeping through the nation. It cast a dark shadow over the election campaign due to take place five days later. The future had rarely seemed grimmer, w ...  Show more

Martha Kearney uncovers the secrets within the Government files of 1984.Margaret Thatcher's government faced some formidable adversaries. The long-anticipated battle with the National Union of Mineworkers and its leader, Arthur Scargill, finally erupted, dominating the political ...  Show more

Three days after one of the most devastating IRA attacks launched upon British soil, the Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath called an election, in circumstances that had never been more dire. Running against him was the veteran Labour leader, Harold Wilson, now as tired and ...  Show more