33. Ben Franklin's Forgotten Trip to Ireland

In 1771 Benjamin Franklin spent more than six weeks traveling through Ireland at a moment when tensions between Britain and her colonies were rising. In this episode Damian and Fin trace his route from Dublin through the Irish countryside and explore the people he met and the conditions he witnessed. Despite being laid low with food poisoning on his first day he quickly became absorbed in what he saw. The poverty of rural Ireland the restrictions placed on Irish trade and the political frustrations of the Protestant elite all left a deep impression on him. These experiences helped shape the ideas he carried back to America and influenced his thinking in the years before the Revolution.

Further Reading

Carla Mulford, Benjamin Franklin and the Ends of Empire

James B. Nolan, Benjamin Franklin: In Scotland and Ireland 1759 and 1771

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