On this day in 1940, a murder in Mexico City demonstrated the far-reaching power of Josef Stalin. It was not the first raid on the house that sheltered Leon Trotsky, the exiled political theorist and veteran of the Russian revolution, but it was the fatal blow. Ramón Mercader, a Spanish agent loyal to Stalin, used an ice-pick to eliminate Stalin’s opponent.

Could this murder have happened on Irish soil? Potentially, as a few years earlier, there had been much debate over potentially granting Leon Trotsy asylum in Ireland. So, why didn’t we?

Donal Fallon joins Gavan for another episode of Hidden Histories to discuss.