This week: Athlone's Nuclear Bunker; The extraordinary life of Howe Peter Browne and his reforming Governorship of Jamaica; plus an investigation into the tragic death of a Nigerian woman in Dublin in 1965

Athlone's Nuclear Bunker

What would you do in a nuclear war? That was the question facing successive Irish governments during the 1950s and 1960s. It was a time when the world's superpowers were on the verge of open conflict: a conflict that would likely end with missile strikes, mushroom clouds and radioactive fallout.

In such a war, no country could hope to remain unharmed. So, the Irish government began to consider how it might respond to that awful possibility.

In this report, Ian Kenneally explores one aspect of that response: Ireland’s so-called nuclear bunker. He talks to Dr. John Gibney, assistant editor with the Royal Irish Academy's 'Documents and Irish Foreign Policy’; Retired Colonel Éibhear O’Hanlon of the Irish Defence Forces; and Paul Mulvey, retired telecommunications technician and lecturer

From Rake to Radical: An Irish Abolitionist

We're looking now at a man who lived life to the absolute limits. An intrepid traveller from Westport to the West Indies - and pretty much everywhere in between. An intimate of kings and emperors, he lived a life of incredible range and diversity.

This man is Howe Peter Browne, the 2nd Marquess of Sligo. From a youth of hedonistic self indulgence in Regency England, this Anglo-Irish aristocrat became a reforming, responsible legislator and landlord. Browne became enshrined in the history of Jamaica as "Emancipator of the Slaves", and in Ireland as "the poor man's friend", during the most difficult of times.

He's the subject of a biography by Anne Chambers, it's called From Rake to Radical: An Irish Abolitionist, and it's published by New Island Books. Anne joins Myles to talk about Howe Peter Browne's life and his reforming Governorship of Jamaica.

Funmi and Augustine

It's not often you go into an Irish graveyard and come away curious about an African woman and a man charged with her murder. But, that’s what happened to Ronan Kelly of RTE Documentary on One when he was in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.

He was on his way to visit a grave there when he spotted a gravestone that stopped him in his tracks. In this essay, Ronan investigates the death of Funmi Aina from Nigeria, who died in Dublin in 1965, and discusses the subsequent charging with murder of her boyfriend, Augustine.