St Mary’s Lecturer to Appear on BBC’s Heir Hunters

Dr Ivan Gibbons, Programme Director and Senior Lecturer in Irish Studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham will contribute to BBC One television series Heir Hunters later in 2014. Dr Gibbons, who was the founding editor of the Irish Studies in Britain journal, was recently interviewed to provide a political and social background of inter-war Ireland for the show. Drawing upon experiences of his own father who grew up in Mayo in the 1920s, Dr Gibbons will describe the extreme political unrest in Ireland in 1921, when the Irish War of Independence was in full flow and led to the subsequent Irish Civil War of 1922-23. He will also explain the ‘economic war’ that erupted in the 1930s between Ireland and Great Britain, which led to an increase in Irish poverty and emigration. He will also provide an insight into life for Irish farmers during the conflict and to what extent their livelihoods were affected. Heir Hunters was first broadcast in 2007 and follows the work of probate research companies as they attempt to track heirs to wealthy estates. More information on the new series will be available on the BBC website.