At the dawn of the seventeenth century Europe is caught in the maelstrom of religious war. Irish chieftains had allied with Catholic Spain against England. For nine years the Protestant armies of Elizabeth I fought the Irish and their Spanish allies. The final Irish defeat came in Ulster. Fergal Keane, The Story of Ireland 3/5: The Age of Revolution
The country would witness savage bloodletting as it became a battleground in Europe’s religious wars. ibid.
King James I would plant thousands of Protestant settlements on the lands of the exiled Gaelic lords. ibid.
There had been a long tradition of Scots’ migration to Ulster, but these were Presbyterians. ibid.
On September 11th 1649 Cromwell and his army of 12,000 men began to lay siege to the town [Dromeda]. ibid.
In Ireland however his [William of Orange] victory ensured the survival of Protestant supremacy. ibid.
Catholics were banned from parliament and public office. They were banned from voting and public schools. ibid.
Ireland was now part of a rapidly expanding British empire. ibid.
One of the themes of the story of Ireland: emigration. ibid.
The Ulster Presbyterians joined the American War of Independence. ibid.
They called themselves United Irishmen and they sought a secular Irish republic. ibid.
The Orange Order – the voice of Protestant fear. ibid.
The United Irish army numbered around 100,000 men. ibid.
The revolution had ended all hope of uniting Catholic and Protestant. ibid.
To this very day men are willing to kill to try to break the union. Fergal Keane, The Story of Ireland 4/5: The Age of Union
Catholic alienation would be deepened by economic decline. ibid.
The hunger for land would become one of the defining themes of the Irish story. ibid.
In Ulster there were more than a million Protestants. ibid.
The tumult of O’Connell’s era had created a generation of more radical nationalists. ibid.
The blight swept west throughout Europe. ibid.
Government soup kitchens were closed after being open for just six months. ibid.
A brief Fenian revolution in Ireland was quickly crushed. ibid.
Potato blight struck again and threatened another famine in 1878. ibid.
A rent strike was declared. ibid.
Irish nationalists were a force in parliament. ibid.
By 1886 Gladstone was prepared to put a home rule bill before parliament ... The bill was defeated by thirty votes. ibid.
Rioting had spread across Belfast. ibid.
The GAA [Gaelic Athletic Association] would also become central to the first great campaign of cultural nationalism reviving the Irish language. ibid.
The Boar War had proved that there was a dedicated minority of Irish committed to breaking the link with Empire. ibid.
The Act of Union had given Catholics economic power but their political destiny remained in the hands of London. Fergal Keane, The Story of Ireland 5/5: The Age of Nations
Fears grew that Britain would introduce conscription in Ireland. ibid.
[Patrick] Pearse stepped outside and read from a proclamation signed by himself and the six other leaders: he declared an Irish republic. ibid.
Public anger deepened following mass arrests and the imposition of martial law. ibid.
The volunteers evolved into the Irish Republican Army. ibid.
Collins would find himself directing a guerrilla war. The IRA campaign which began in 1919 was met with fierce reprisals against civilians by security forces like the Black & Tans. ibid.
In October 1921 a Sinn Fein delegation led by Michael Collins arrived in London to discuss a political settlement. ibid.
The slide to civil war had begun. ibid.
Michael Collins was assassinated in County Cork. ibid.
In the Protestant-ruled six counties of Ulster electoral boundaries had been drawn to ensure majorities for unionists in most areas. ibid.
A place of discrimination and exclusion. ibid.
Physical and sexual abuse on a large scale was part of the secret history of the new state. ibid.
Ireland remained neutral ... Germans bailing out over the South were interned. ibid.
Television challenged the voice of both priest and politician. Women joined the workforce in growing numbers and challenged discriminatory laws. ibid.
Republican and loyalist paramilitaries, policemen and soldiers, fought over the old ground. ibid.
Bloody Sunday: January 30th 1972. ibid.
Hunger strikes begin in the Maze Prison October 27th 1980. ibid.
Inequality between rich and poor was still amongst the worst of western Europe. ibid.
The full scale of clerical child abuse was revealed. ibid.
In 2008 a financial catastrophe unleashed public anger. ibid.
IRA disarmament September 26th 2005. ibid.
No-one stood more respected in his community than Father Ivan Payne. A master of deception he terrorised children for three decades – the true scale of his crimes remains unknown. Evil Up Close s1e5: Ivan the Terrible, FYI 2010
In 1969 the newly ordained priest Ivan Payne begins working at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin. ibid.
The Church moves him to a parish of his own. However, the Church keeps secret those stories it has heard. ibid.
Finally in 1996 the police are brought in. ibid.
His Church masters had effectively allowed him to serial offend. ibid.
Tony Walsh was Ireland’s most notorious paedophile ... The Archdioces of Dublin had known about Walsh’s activity for almost twenty years. Storyville: Silence in the House of God: Mea Maxima Culpa, BBC 2013
New religions are filling the void ready to exploit vulnerable people looking for that spiritual guidance. Exposed: Ireland’s Secret Cults, TV3 2011
On the west coast of Ireland on the island of Akyll, Christina Gallagher has been operating an organisation called The House of Prayer for almost twenty years. Her followers see her as a holy visionary, and claims to speak regularly with the Virgin Mary. ibid.
The House of Prayer has gone international over the years with five branches in the US and even one in Mexico. Meanwhile, the money has poured in. ibid.
An extreme religion called the Palmarians ... A dissident branch of the Catholic Church they have their own pope, priests and ascribe to a set of rules that among other things forbids its members from speaking to other non-Palmarians. ibid.
The Palamarians survive on donations from their members. ibid.
It is possible we will die in the struggle. The Palmarians
Dublin: the capital of Ireland. Nowadays a vibrant city of culture. But behind the bustling facade violent gangland killings have transformed it into the murder capital of Europe. Dublin’s brutal gangland culture evolved from the shadow of the troubles – a bloody civil war that tore apart the north of Ireland. For thirty long years. Out of the chaos emerged a new breed of mobster who copied terrorist techniques and amassed huge fortunes from armed robberies and kidnapping. Others made money from the drugs trade. Underworld: Dublin Gangland, 2011
Christy Dunne was in the thick of it. ibid.
Michael Cahill’s fledgling gang was taking its opportunities to make its mark. ibid.
This expertise – gleaned from their paramilitary cellmates – was put to use by a growing number of gangstas on Dublin’s streets. ibid.
Who would buy world-class works of art? ... Cahill put the word out in the underworld he was keen to sell the paintings. This gave the police the opportunity they needed: they set up a sting ... He got away with paintings worth over thirty million pounds. ibid.
Dublin was now facing up to a new unprecedented crisis: the city’s impoverished estates had become awash with drugs, in particular heroin. ibid.
Suspected dealers were called to community meetings – Concerned Parents Against Drugs – to answer questions. If they wouldn’t turn up, or wouldn’t stop dealing, activists evicted them. ibid.
The community uprising was given the support of the IRA. ibid.
He was Ireland’s most famous mastermind. He became a living legend. He organised one of the biggest art heists in the world. Masterminds: The Dublin Job, truTV 2004
Russborough House near Dublin, Ireland ... The paintings were protected by a sophisticated alarm system. ibid.
Of the one hundred paintings in the collection they had taken the eighteen most valuable works ... Sixty million in rare paintings. ibid.
The man behind the crime was Martin Cahill, a notorious Irish criminal gangster known as The General. ibid.
Cahill’s gang pulled off a series of successful jewellery and bank robberies in Dublin. ibid.
Cahill knew nothing about art, but he knew how to move stolen goods. ibid.
Cahill took the paintings to the hiding place in the Dublin mountains. ibid.