麻豆约拍

November 1883. Bombs explode on the London Underground as part of the first organised, sustained terrorist bombing campaign in Britain. Fergal Keane tracks the dynamiters, discovers one of their original bombs and hears about their nemesis, Sir Vivien Dering Majendie, the pioneer of bomb disposal.

In the second part of a major new series on the roots of modern terror Fergal charts the rise of Fenianism and the powerful challenge these Irish revolutionaries offered to British rule. Gathering recruits and money amongst the Irish diaspora of the United States they discovered the power of dynamite, 'the proletarian artillery'. Compact but intensely powerful this was the perfect weapon to take the fight for Irish independence to the heart of Empire.

In the 1880s the Fenians attacked the London Underground and mainline railway stations before offering the ultimate challenge to the British state with a bomb in the chamber of the House of Commons itself.

Historians Roy Foster and Shane Kenna chart the progress of the campaign whilst Fergal uncovers the last surviving Fenian bomb at the National Army Museum in Chelsea.