From the late 1960s to 1998, Northern Ireland was gripped by "The Troubles" - three decades of bloodshed, resulting from competing visions for its future. This week, we're releasing a two-part series that explores why this conflict erupted and how it played out. For this, Dan is joined by Dr Thomas Leahy, Lecturer in British and Irish Politics and Contemporary History at Cardiff University.

In this first episode, we trace more than 750 years of British-Irish history to uncover how centuries of religious tension, social division and political strife laid the foundations for this conflict.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.

You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

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

The Puzzle: Solving the Madeleine McCann Case