Please help keep the mics on at:patreon.com/tortoiseshack Eilish Rooney is Emeritus Scholar in the School of Applied & Social Policy Sciences and at the Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) in the School of Law at Ulster University. As an academic and social activist from Ballymurphy, West Belfast her pioneering work at University of Ulster on the Transitional Justice Grassroots Toolkit and […]
Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Beano Niblock is a playwright, poet and former loyalist prisoner. His current play, The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary, charts the life of former PUP leader the late David Ervine. In this episode of Shrapnel Beano talks to the lads about how he came to write the play, what his friendship with David was like […]
Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack On Thursday July 20th Sam travelled down to Dublin to take part in the tortoise shack live at the sugar club. It was a special night with amazing people, a very lively audience some great contributors. In this part you’ll hear from Sam, writer, campaigner and host of the Lost in Implementation podcast, Emma DeSouza […]
Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Shrapnel Returns. As a soft launch Sam and Gareth decided to talk about the NI conflict, its legacy and some of the difficult conversations that need to be had if things are ever to move forward. They also answer some listener questions and talk about what’s to come in Season 2. It’s great to be […]
Join us in 2023 at patreon.com/tortoiseshack In this end of series episode, Sam and Gareth, look back on a successful first run of Shrapnel. The lads talk about Loyalism, mental health and the cost of living crisis, and link these important themes to the conversations with guests they’ve had on in season one of the pod. Shrapnel will be back […]
Ed Spence is the nephew of Gusty Spence. In the late 1960s Ed, along with his father Billy, campaigned for the release of Gusty Spence who maintained his innocence against a murder charge. When the Northern Ireland conflict began to escalate Ed and Billy started a Loyalist prisoners welfare association called The Orange Cross. In this episode of Shrapnel, Ed […]
On Friday Nov 18th, Shrapnel cohost Sam Mcilwaine came down from Belfast to the wonderful Axis Theatre in Ballymun to chat all things Northern Ireland, Loyalism, Unionism, socioeconomic issues and politics with Echo Chamber host, Martin McMahon. This is a great conversation and features an engaged and lively Q&A with members of the audience. Don’t miss it. We want to […]
E.S. ‘Ed’ Haggan is a former Royal Ulster Constabulary officer who is active on Twitter as @redbrickedslums. He describes himself as ‘a writer of fiction about Irish terrorism and the lives it damages’. In this episode Ed talks about his experiences of living with CPTSD, shifting from wanting to be a marine biologist to joining the RUC as a teenager […]