This week: The untold story of a brutal murder in Donegal; and Pirates, power, and the seas around Medieval Ireland

Finding Mary: The untold story of an Inishowen murder, 1844

Now we're visiting the Inishowen peninsula, in North Donegal, on the Eve of the Great Famine. In March of 1844, in the small rural community of Culdaff, a shocking murder caused a sensation in the newspapers.

It’s a story that lived on in local lore - but the victim – 14 year old Mary Doherty - is virtually absent from the historical record.

Historian Dr Angela Byrne aims to open a window into Mary’s world, as she tells this story in a new book: Finding Mary: The Untold Story of an Inishowen Murder, 1844 which is part of the Maynooth Studies in Local History series from Four Courts Press. Angela joins Myles in studio.

Pirates, Power, and the Seas Around Medieval Ireland

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the seas around Ireland were a haven for pirates from across Europe. Not only did Gaelic Irish marauders attack English settlements in Ireland, but the period also saw French, Scottish and Spanish fleets raid English holdings from Ulster to Kinsale.

Such pirates emerged from a period of international conflict and environmental change: a convergence of events that left England vulnerable and which afforded opportunities for Gaelic dynasties, such as the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell, to build extensive maritime, diplomatic and economic networks.

Those events have been researched by Dr Simon Egan, Lecturer in Medieval Irish History at Queen's University Belfast. He joins us to discuss how late medieval Ireland was shaped by piracy, shifting alliances, climate change, and the prolonged struggle for control of the seas. Simon joins Myles in studio.