Shows / The BelTel
The BelTel
The BelTel brings you some of Northern Ireland's top journalists, Allison Morris, Sam McBride and Suzanne Breen to name but a few, giving you the inside stories behind what is in the news. Presented by Ciarán Dunbar, the Bel Tel investigates, debates and informs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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Episodes
The BelTelThe murder of two Belfast Telegraph delivery drivers, 50 years on
On the 30th of October 30, 1976, two Belfast Telegraph delivery men Charles Corbett and John Maguire were shot dead in north Belfast. John Maguire's…
The BelTelDUP: Lockhart set to walk as Robinson fudges forcing O'Neill out
DUP leader Gavin Robinson says Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly will quit joint engagements with First Minister Michelle O’Neill - but he won’t be…
The BelTelHow torture videos are escalating drug debt intimidation in Ireland
Incidents of violent drug-debt intimidation are rising in Ireland – and the methods are becoming more concerning and elaborate. Brutal enforcers are now using…
The BelTelJudge dismisses Orange Order challenge but warns against "joy in the outcome"
A judge has dismissed an Orange Order against the Secretary of State’s decision to ban the Drumcree parade from going down the Garvaghy Road. But Mr Justice…
The BelTelIs Carla Lockhart going to leave the DUP?
The Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has been to the forefront of Northern Ireland's politics ever since the re-emergence of the Drumcree Parade issue. The…
The BelTelJeffrey Donaldson: Dark questions over ex-DUP leader’s curious African shadow career
Jeffrey Donaldson was doing paid work for the ministry of defence in Africa even as acute political turmoil was engulfing his party at home in Northern…
The BelTelJeffrey Donaldson: Former MP being investigated over alleged Westminster rape
The Metropolitan Police in London are investigating Jeffrey Donaldson over a rape allegation It is alleged to have happened in the former MP's Westminster…
The BelTelPortadown District’s offers to secure Drumcree parade deal revealed in court
Offers made by Portadown District to allow Orangemen to walk the Garvaghy Road have been revealed in court – including a 4AM march, accompanied by a residents’…
The BelTelGive My Head Peace: Comedies axed as BBC makes deep cuts
Perforated Ulster, Give My Head Peace, and The Long and the Short of it, all produced by the Hole in the Wall gang are being axed by the BBC. The Blame Game…
The BelTelAmmi Burke: Solicitor's legal showdown with her former employer
The Burkes are back, but this time it's not Enoch grabbing the headlines, it's his sister Ammi. In 2019, Ammi Burke was dismissed from her role at one of…
The BelTelJeffrey Donaldson’s victims in their own words
The PSNI has released the audio statements of Jeffrey Donaldson’s victims, Victim A and Victim B. Their voices have been artificially generated to protect the…
The BelTelJeffrey Donaldson given 15 years - but will be out in seven
Jeffrey Donaldson received a 15 year sentence in prison for his crimes. He was given 11 years for rape against Victim B and four years for all offences against…
The BelTelMissing for 34 years: Patsy O’Sullivan and the secret family no one knew about
It was in April 1992 when Patrick 'Patsy' O'Sullivan called into his brother Jerry's home like it was any other day, but it’s a day that will forever remain…
The BelTelDrumcree: Garvaghy Residents’ challenge dismissed, dispute rumbles on despite parade ban
The parading crisis in Portadown seems over on the ground, but it is very much alive in the courts, on the airwaves, and in politics. The Northern Ireland…
The BelTelThe St Andrews Agreement 20 years on: Paisley signs up to power-sharing
The St Andrews Agreement was signed twenty years ago on 13 October 2006. Officially. it just amended the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement, but it did bring…
The BelTelBONUS: From green fields to factory farms: How ‘catastrophic’ industrial agriculture policy is trashing environment
Northern Ireland’s Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir interviewed by Belfast Telegraph Northern Ireland Editor Sam McBride, discussing how what…
The BelTelEncrochat: Spy hack on gangster phones still decimating NI drug dealers’ ranks
In recent weeks, the 2020 French hack into the secret gangster phone network Encrochat has continued to see Northern Ireland drug dealers sent to Maghaberry…
The BelTelDrumcree: Suzanne Breen on how the impact Garvaghy dispute is having on politics
The stand-off between the Drumcree Orange men and the Garvaghy residents continues. In Belfast on Monday – a court reserved judgment on the residents’ renewed…
The BelTelDonaldson still in Maghaberry hospital as old home goes up for sale
He was once known as the Right Honourable Sir Jeffrey Donaldson but is now known as inmate number E5032. Donaldson once proudly walked the corridors of…
The BelTel‘They’ve got Marty’: the unsolved murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O’Hagan
A fearless investigative reporter who exposed the criminal underworld behind Northern Ireland’s paramilitaries, O’Hagan had made dangerous enemies on both…
The BelTelDrumcree: No deal over Garvaghy march, £3m spent so far, O'Neill defiant
The standoff between the Orangemen on Drumcree and the residents of the Garvaghy Road continues in Portadown. Negotiations involving the Secretary of State…
The BelTelThe mistake that left ‘Slab' Murphy with a big bill and a massive problem
In 1990, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy lost his seminal libel case against the Sunday Times. But formerly secret files reveal the south Armagh republican was actually…
The BelTelDrumcree: nationalist and unionist camps completely divided over Garvaghy march
There is a stalemate in Portadown and deep division in Stormont. On the Orange side, the issue is the rights of a small number of people to march their…
The BelTelSiobhán Fenton: Former insider on Sinn Féin' ideological conundrums
When journalist Siobhan Fenton was headhunted by Sinn Féin in 2020 she was an outsider. Entering the party press office in Dublin, she was from Belfast, and…
The BelTelDrumcree: Orange Order to march Garvaghy road again after 28 years
The Parades Commission has given go ahead for Drumcree Orange march down the Garvaghy Road - but with stringent conditions. Permission has been granted for no…
The BelTel'Donaldson should get 10 years', court hears
The former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson should serve at least 10 years in prison, a court in Newry has heard. The remarks were made during a submission hearing…
The BelTelManhunt continues as Derry murderer remains on the run
Gary Anderson is a dangerous murderer –and he’s on the run. The Derry man had been granted compassionate leave for his father's funeral, even though his…
The BelTel‘We’ll forget her soon enough’ - Earl Spencer’s explosive claims about Princess Diana and King Charles
“We’ll forget her soon enough.” That is the extraordinary comment Charles Spencer, Princess Diana's brother, claims King Charles made in the days following her…
The BelTelJohnny ‘Mad dog’ Adair: “He created the mad dog persona”
Johnny Adair, commonly referred to as ‘Mad dog Adair’, was one the most well-known terror bosses of the Troubles. He said his war was aimed at the IRA, but…
The BelTel‘Beast of Kincora’ William McGrath manifesto cassette emerges after 55 years
William McGrath, was an influential loyalist, founder of the paramilitary group Tara, and a hardline evangelical Protestant. He was also a notorious predatory…
The BelTelThe Belfast Telegraph Bomb: The day the IRA attacked the newsroom
On September the 15th, 1976, the Belfast Telegraph offices in Belfast centre was bombed by the Provisional IRA. Journalists were clattering at their…
The BelTelNoah Donohoe: Fiona Donohoe says PSNI and DfI "sought to blame Noah", as jury finds police didn’t contribute to teen’s death
The jury in the inquest into the death of Noah Donohoe has found that the teenager died on the night of his disappearance, meaning that the PSNI’s response to…
The BelTelSeán Quinn's podcast: How is his version of the story going down?
Once Ireland's richest man, Seán Quinn has returned to tell his story once again, this time through his new podcast, The Quinn Files. Fionnán Sheahan is joined…
The BelTelThe ‘Hen House Boy’: 70 years on from the story of neglect which shocked NI
In September 1956 a Crossgar schoolboy made a shocking discovery after peering into a hen house and locking eyes with a child. The eyes belonged to…
The BelTelKew Files: Who was the senior DUP member who supported violence just weeks before the Good Friday Agreement?
A senior DUP member set out their explicit support for violence - just weeks before the Good Friday Agreement. Files released in the National Archives in Kew…
The BelTelHoly Cross: Clerics Fr Troy and Rev Hamilton on the protest and resolving it
When many people hear the words ‘Holy Cross’ - short for Holy Cross Girls Primary School – the words take them back to a dark time. Holy Cross is a Catholic…
The BelTelHoly Cross 25-years-on: Allison Morris on what she saw, and the loyalist point of view
The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, but certain areas of Belfast felt little effect of peace. In September 2001, the Holy Cross dispute became one…
The BelTelDavid Sullivan: The mystery of the headless alleged paedophile’s murder
In September 2000 a body was found in a bog in Fermanagh. This was not a so called ‘bog-body’, sacrificed long ago - the body turned out to belong to local bus…
The BelTelGod, Religion, the Troubles, and Christian Peacebuilding
For much of the world, the Troubles in Northern Ireland were about Catholics and Protestants fighting each other. With those labels being used as shorthand to…
The BelTel“Everything that I was told was a lie”: Lauren Bradford-Clarke, Colin Howell’s daughter
Lauren Bradford-Clarke grew up believing her mother Lesley had taken her own life before finding out the truth – her father was a murderer. She was told her…
The BelTelThe IRA’s infamous escape from Belfast’s prison ship, the HMS Maidstone
HMS Maidstone, an ex-Royal Navy Ship, was used in the early 1970s to hold internees. In January 1972, a group of IRA prisoners swam 270 meters through an…
The BelTelDrumcree: The crisis over an Orange parade which brought NI to the brink
The Parades Commission acted wrongly in blocking Orangemen from seeking to march down a mainly nationalist road in Portadown, a court has ruled. Senior figures…
The BelTelMaura Lyons: The Rev Ian Paisley and the 15-year-old 'abducted' from west Belfast
The Rev Ian Paisley rose to prominence as the face of hardline unionism but the first time some would have heard of him would have been in connection with…
The BelTel‘Peace at last’: The 1994 Loyalist Ceasefires
On the 13 October 1994, six weeks after the IRA announced a ‘complete cessation’, the Loyalist paramilitary groups declared their ceasefires. The UVF’s Gusty…
The BelTelJon Burrows and the UUP in a fix as Mike Nesbitt resigns
The UUP's Mike Nesbitt has resigned as health minister – with a stinging public resignation letter aimed at his UUP leader Jon Burrows The row is over…
The BelTel'It’s Over’: The 1994 IRA 'ceasefire'
After 25 years of what it termed ‘Armed Struggle’ and the ‘Long War’ , the Provisional IRA called a “complete cessation of military operations” on 31st August…
The BelTelFamilies search for truth over 1983 south Armagh murders
Paddy Mackin and Eamon MacMahon's bodies were found on the morning of the 13th of July, 1983. They both had been blasted with a shotgun as close range. The…
The BelTelCulture war rages in the wake of Prof Jason Arday resignation
UPDATE: Professor Jason Arday was found deceased in London on Friday afternoon. He was found at an address in Battersea and pronounced dead at the scene. At…
The BelTelFleadh Cheoil hailed as an enormous success for Belfast
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann took over Belfast City Centre for over a week drawing huge crowds. The all-Ireland traditional Irish music competition and festival…
The BelTelInside the court as alleged godfather Daniel Kinahan charged and jailed
Daniel Kinahan sounded bemused when he described the frenzy around his life as “movie stuff”, but the scenes that accompanied his trip back to Ireland were…
The BelTel'Where have all the Prods gone?': 'Exodus' from Londonderry 'ignored'
The Protestant exodus from Londonderry's cityside was ‘largely ignored or denied’ according to a new report. Its authors say they would like to see…
The BelTelMystery as News Letter editor Ben Lowry dumped – and won't be replaced
Ben Lowry is no longer the editor of the News Letter. The outspoken commentator was removed from his position without explanation. Mr Lowry had spent 19 years…
The BelTelNew IRA: Republican terror group active on both sides of the border
The seizure last week of a bomb containing almost 400g of Semtex plastic explosive has put the New IRA back on to the front pages after a lull in violence. Two…
The BelTelWest Belfast accountant blames office arson on death driver's friends
A west Belfast Accountant whose business was destroyed in an arson attack is blaming associates of a convicted death driver. Tim ‘Timo’ Molloy says people…
The BelTelLucidTalk Polling: DUP's support tanks in Donaldson aftermath
The DUP's support has slumped disastrously – that's according to the latest Belfast Telegraph / LucidTalk polling. The dramatic fall in backing for the party…
The BelTelThe alleged New IRA bomb plot, the law student and the museum worker
A “significant” bomb built for “catastrophic” damage, and a suspected plot to bring violence to the north-west of Northern Ireland. The foiling of an alleged…
The BelTelThe Derry murder of Paul McCauley: ‘It was like a black cloud of grief over this city’
In July 2000, a summer barbecue ended in unimaginable violence. Father-of-one Paul McCauley (29), alongside his two friends, were brutally beaten by a loyalist…
The BelTelNI’s poshest hotel offers prize for hard-right gathering featuring conspiracy theorists and antivaxxers
Last week in London the great and good of the political right arrived for a conference focusing on ‘saving the west’. The three-day CPAC event hosted a…
The BelTelAndrew and Tristan Tate's falling empire – 59 charges, Miami jail and UK extradition fight
This episode contains references to rape and sexual assault, and may not be suitable for everyone. Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, like to talk about…
The BelTelDoes Andy Burnham really care about Northern Ireland?
Andy Burnham has officially entered Downing Street, and has shook up the Labour Cabinet. In his maiden speech, the former mayor of Manchester has vowed “take…