Category: Life after Stalin – A Dubliner’s Diary

Life after Stalin – A Dubliner’s Diary is a podcast series written and presented by Paul Harrison. In the series Paul reflects on how he was born in 1953, the day before Joseph Stalin died. Paul take’s a light-hearted look at what has happened in the world since his entry into it and Stalin’s exit from it. Paul being a North-sider born and bred, offers personal reflections on events and issues from the 1950s, 60s and 70s that all have a Dublin connection. Subscribe to the series on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get podcasts.

Episode 24 – Crowning the Customer

A nostalgic look back at Dublin’s old department stores in an era when a bit of grandeur and customer service counted for something, and the customer didn’t have to serve themselves. About the series Life after Stalin – A Dubliner’s Diary is…

Episode 23 – Roger Casement’s Funeral

Casement was a distinguished British public servant who was executed for treason following an attempted gunrunning in 1916 and became one of the principal Irish martyrs in the rebellion against British rule in Ireland. He was re-interred in Glasnevin Cemetery with full military honours after a State…

Episode 22 – Artane Industrial School

We could hear the Artane Band practicing from our back garden. My mother used to say it was where the bold boys were sent. It’s only in retrospect I realise what those children were going through. About the series Life after Stalin…

Episode 21 – Tomorrows World

Tomorrow’s World. When the TV remote control was a futuristic device; the moon landing in 1969 and how, in 1977, Dunsink Observatory managed to loose the moon rock which President Nixon presented to Ireland. About the series Life after Stalin – A…

Episode 20 – The gin didn’t agree with me

The gin didn’t agree with me. Teenage drinking in the late 1960s and one particular night at the dance in the school hall. About the series Life after Stalin – A Dubliner’s Diary is a podcast series written and presented by Paul Harrison.…

Episode 19 – Leave no trace

Leave no trace. I’m not a fan of bucket lists but, the older I get, the more I wonder about legacy. ‘Leave no trace’ is the hikers’s motto – but it would be a sad life that didn’t leave even the faintest…

Episode 18 – Who is my neighbour?

Who is my neighbour? In the early 1970s I volunteered one night a week in a Simon Community night shelter to work with Dublin’s street drinkers and rough sleepers. Later on Simon started to buy suburban houses to provide long term accommodation for…

Episode 17 – Under cabbage leaf

Episode 17 – Under cabbage leaf. Remembering the coyness about the fact of life in the 1960s, ‘the Talk’ in school, the banning of all contraception until 1980 when condoms became available on prescription, the social stigma of unmarried motherhood; and the…

Episode 16 – The Troubles

Episode 16 – The Troubles. Recalling the start of the Troubles when, on a shopping trip to Newry with my parents in 1968, we came across a civil rights march. They were calling for ‘One man, one vote’. My experience of studying…

Episode 15 – Something in the water

When fluoride was added to the water supply in Dublin in 1964 our next door neighbour refused to use it. Another householder went further, bringing an action against the State. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where she…