Conquest: Rise of the Gaels

The Irish Passport

The most expensive, most all-consuming war in Elizabethan England was not waged against France or Spain, but against Ireland. In the third instalment in our Conquest series, we see how the great clan chiefs of Ireland united under the banner of "Arch Traitor" Hugh O'Neill to stage a momentous uprising against the colonial English state. From Gaelic pirate ships sailing up the Thames to fearsome crowns of peacock feathers gifted by vengeful Popes, we follow the dramatic events that led to Ireland's disparate clans combining to form an unprecedented front of resistance - one so seemingly unbreakable that it threatened the financial ruin of England itself.

Special thanks to Gráinne Smyth, who sang "Óró sé do bheatha abhaile" for this episode.

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