**My new weekly series 'Partisans: Irish Stories from the Spanish Civil War' launches on Monday Nov 18th**This bonus show looks at a famous event that haunts Irish history - the Four Courts Explosion. In June 1922 during the opening phase of the Irish Civil War, the Public Records Office was destroyed in a massive explosion that rocked Dublin City Centre. Several centuries of Irish historical records had been stored in the building, most of which were incinerated. In this episode I explain the background to the explosion and what was lost. Then in the second part of the podcast I visit the National Archives on Bishop Street where I meet Zoe Reid who works restoring items rescued from the site in the aftermath of the explosion.Thanks to Zoe Reid (twitter.com/NAIConservator) for taking the time to talk to me & Joanne Carrol in the National Library for her help in organising this episode.For more details on Explore Your Archive Week mention in the podcast check out www.araireland.ieSupport the show www.patreon.com/irishpodcasttwitter/Insta irishhistory For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy