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Episode Notes
Myles Dungan is joined by Cathy Scuffil, Noelle Grothier and Lar Joye to talk about what was happening at Christmas time one hundred years ago.
Christmas 1922
Tonight, we're going to look back a century ago to Christmas 1922 - the first Christmas celebrated in the newly independent Irish Free State.
A lot had happened over the preceding 12 months, as the Provisional Government got to work setting up new institutions to serve the Irish people – institutions like the Civic Guard, later An Garda Síochana. There were big changes, like the withdrawal of over 50,000 British army soldiers from Ireland.
And there were smaller ones, that were nonetheless symbolically important. For example, among the first acts of the populace was the painting of red post boxes green – and they’re still with us. A National Army was created, and details about individual soldiers in this new army are recorded in a census, conducted in late 1922. All this against the backdrop of a bitter civil war.
Myles is joined by three guests. Cathy Scuffil is a Dublin City Council Historian in Residence. Noelle Grothier is an archivist with The Military Archives. Lar Joye is Port Heritage Director at Dublin Port.