A video version of this episode is available on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/irish-history-podcast/id363368392

On the day Hitler invaded Poland, another Hitler was making headlines in Britain. It was not the dictator, but his Irish sister-in-law, Bridget Hitler, who had been hauled before the courts in London over a mundane, unpaid electricity bill. This episode explores the life of this woman and the strange reality of the "Irish Hitlers."

For eight decades, the story of Bridget and her son has been muddied by sensational claims: that she hosted a young Adolf Hitler in her Liverpool flat, that she helped shape his infamous physical appearance, and that she enjoyed intimate access to his private mountain retreat. But how much of this narrative is grounded in reality, and how much is the product of post-war myth-making?

In this episode, I reconstruct the documented history of this Irish woman’s connection to the Hitler family. We follow the journey from when Hitler’s brother, Alois, arrived in Dublin and married Bridget, through to how she reacted when her brother-in-law became the most notorious figure in history. I also reveal how much of what has been written about Bridget is based on a memoir that may actually be a forgery.

Sound and Video Editing: Kate Dunlea

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Family history is often where the heroic version of the past falls apart.

We like to imagine our ancestors standing on the right side of history. Someone in the GPO in 1916 or in the IRA in 1920. We like to think they made brave choice when it mattered. But most people were not heroes, revolutionaries or figures from the history books. They were ordinary people trying to survive events they could not control.

That is what makes family secrets so revealing. They show us how people actually lived through history, without knowing how things would turn out. They hedged their bets, backed the side they thought would win, followed the crowd, made compromises and sometimes buried the truth when it all looked very different in hindsight.

In this episode, I look at the murkier side of family history through my own ancestors. Across five generations, the stories include a shotgun marriage, someone being sent to prison during the Great Famine for stealing food, support for the local landlord and opposition to Irish independence, followed by a very convenient change of heart when independence became unavoidable.

These are not exactly stories that have aged well, but they are probably far more common than we like to admit. From the Great Famine to the Irish Revolution and beyond, this episode is about the awkward, uncomfortable and often hidden ways ordinary people lived through extraordinary times.

Sound: Kate Dunlea

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the summer of 1907, the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from the heart of British power in Ireland, under the noses of the police, the military and the political establishment. Worth £50,000 at the time, their disappearance made headlines around the world. It was also deeply humiliating for the British authorities, coming just days before King Edward VII was due to visit Dublin.

On the surface, it seemed like the perfect crime. The jewels were never recovered, and more than a century later, it remains unclear exactly when the theft even took place.

But behind the mystery lay something even more explosive. Within days, detectives uncovered a scandal the British government could not afford to make public. This would lead to a major cover-up.

In this episode, I take you back to Edwardian Dublin to explore Ireland’s most infamous unsolved crime: a story of privilege, scandal and secrecy at the heart of British rule in Ireland.

Sound by Kate Dunlea

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Sources:

Myles Dungan, The stealing of the Irish Crown Jewels: an unsolved crime https://www.amazon.com/stealing-Irish-Crown-Jewels-unsolved-ebook/dp/B00C80K09G/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bOREnIOZl9l8Nl9OFsawFw.NpvKSTSvbFr7u5uAzCkP6Ex_SzFeGsfO5PF1fPu5Bsg&dib_tag=se&keywords=9781860591822&linkCode=qs&qid=1781869038&s=books&sr=1-1

F. Bamford & Viola Banks Vicious circle; the case of the missing Irish crown jewels https://archive.org/details/viciouscircle0000unse/page/202/mode/2up

Bulmer Hobson Burean of Military History Witness Statement https://bmh.militaryarchives.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1089.pdf#page=2

Sean Murphy A Centenary Report on the Theft of the Irish Crown Jewels in 1907

https://www.academia.edu/9802230/A_Centenary_Report_on_the_Theft_of_the_Irish_Crown_Jewels_in_1907

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