This episode of The Irish History Boys goes back 100 years to examine the high stakes of the 1925 Boundary Commission, which was established following the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty to determine the final boundaries between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.

We explore the intense hopes in border areas, such as Clonus, that large sections of the North would be transferred south. While nationalists were completely in the dark and relied on wild kind of guesses based on rumours of customs posts moving, the unionist leaders appeared a lot more relaxed as they seemed to know what was going on.

Additionally, the episode delves into the history of Proportional Representation (PR) in the North, noting its initial introduction as a safeguard for minority representation, but explaining how it was systematically abolished by unionists in local and parliamentary elections to maintain their political dominance and control.

Finally, we discuss the mysterious fate of the lost 1926 Northern Ireland census, a significant historical collection that disappeared soon after the boundary settlement.

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On this episode, we're getting into a really serious part of Irish history. We'll be looking at the sad history of sectarian violence on the streets of Belfast in 1975.

Then, we'll fast forward to 1925 and the curious story of Ireland's upper chambers, north and south.

Finally, we'll dive into the bizarre case of US heiress Patty Hearst, who was kidnapped in 1974 by the revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

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Cormac and Tim delve into the deep political divisions within unionism and the significant influence of loyalist paramilitary groups in 1975 Northern Ireland, where anti-power-sharing unionists held sway and paramilitaries publicly backed William Craig's call for talks, contributing to a decade of political stagnation. The discussion also delves into the economic landscape of the 1920s, revealing how Northern Ireland and British companies established factories in the Irish Free State to circumvent new customs duties, highlighting the early economic impacts of partition. Finally, they explore the "spiky spicy language" used by the British press in 1925 to influence the Irish Boundary Commission, even suggesting extreme measures like military action and the "naval bombard" of Belfast if the Northern government resisted its decisions, underscoring the intense political pressure of the era.

View the full episode on YouTube

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