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Episode Notes
On this week's show: Death, murder and politics in 19th century Monaghan; and Paul Bew on the lives of Charles Stewart Parnell and John Dillon.
The Irish Coroner
Coroners who conducted inquests into sudden and suspicious deaths in nineteenth-century Ireland were viewed with disdain and disrespect in a society that was highly politicized and deeply divided. While the men who served in this role represented the authority of government, and the need for social order and justice, it often put them at odds with the local elites. This was particularly apparent when they were exposing corruption, social and moral failures, and sectarian murders.
William Charles Waddell served as coroner of north County Monaghan for over three decades. His detailed casebooks, spanning over 31 years, chart the evolving role of the coroner in this crucial period in Irish history. Waddell's inquest reports cover everything from the harsh reality of death by starvation, political murder. They tell the story of a society that was politically polarised, placing the coroner at the centre of the conflict.
This is explored in a recently published book from Four Courts Press – it’s called The Irish Coroner: Death, murder and politics in Co. Monaghan, 1846-78
The author is Dr Michelle McGoff-McCann, who joins Myles to talk about Waddell's career as a coroner in 19th century Monaghan.
Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics: Judging Dillon and Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was one of the greatest Irish leaders of the nineteenth century and one of the most renowned figures of the 1880s on the international stage. John Dillon, Parnell's lieutenant, was the last leader of the Irish party in Westminster.
A new book from Oxford University Press looks at their lives and overlapping political careers, and explores issues of social and cultural division that still complicate Irish politics, even 25 years after the Good Friday agreement.
The author is Paul Bew, Emeritus Professor of Irish Politics at Queens University Belfast, and a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
It's called Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics: Judging Dillon and Parnell. Paul Bew joins Myles in studio to talk about the contrasts and commonalities in the lives of Dillon and Parnell.