The BelTel

On September the 15th, 1976, the Belfast Telegraph offices in Belfast centre was bombed by the Provisional IRA. Journalists were clattering at their typewriters when the second evacuation warning of the day went out on the Tannoy. Following the evacuation, a bomb in a van exploded in a loading bay, before many employees had the chance to get out. One of them – 64-year-old production worker Joe Paton - who'd been in a locker room above the bay - died from his injuries four days later. Ciarán Dunbar is joined by former Belfast Telegraph journalists Billy Graham and Alf McCreary, who were there on the day. 

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 his disappearance did not contribute to his death.   However, the jury did find that police failings impacted on their ability to come to a conclusion in the inquest and found that the Department of Infrastructure “erred” in its management of the culvert in which the teenager died.  But it also found that it was not probable that the Department’s management of the culvert more than minimally contributed to Noah’s death.  They were unable to explain Noah’s behaviour on the day he went missing because the evidence was insufficient to enable them to reach a conclusion.   14-year-old Noah’s body was discovered in north Belfast six days after he went missing as he cycled to meet friends.  Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Belfast Telegraph’s Liam Tunney, who has been in court throughout the inquest. 

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 by Sunday Independent’s Liam Collins and the Irish Independent’s Sean Pollock to examine Quinn's latest account of the events that transformed him from billionaire businessman to one of the most controversial figures of post-crash Ireland. From the extraordinary success of the Quinn Group to the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank, prison and life after bankruptcy, they ask whether Quinn's latest intervention brings fresh insight or simply revisits a story the public already knows. 

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 seven-year-old Kevin Halfpenny – but he has been better known ever since as ‘the hen house boy’.Robbed of human interaction – he seemed to have learned his behavior from the chickens around him. His widowed mother Margaret Halfpenny was arrested and pleaded guilty to neglect. 70 years later, the heartbreaking story has been surrounded by folklore. Olivia Peden is joined by Belfast Telegraph Journalist Kurtis Reid.  

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 have revealed the details of a politician’s comments to a government official - the individual wasn’t named but there were clues to their identity. It’s also been revealed that First Minister David Trimble was being paid thousands of pounds more than the deputy first Minister, Seamus Mallon, a year after the agreement – despite the roles being equal.  Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Sam McBride. 

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 School in a loyalist area, Upper Ardoyne or Glenbryn. In 2001, community tensions boiled over and led to loyalist residents protesting nationalist parents from Ardoyne taking their kids to schools through their part of the area. That protest became notorious for its viciousness.  Two clerics, one Catholic, one Protestant became synonymous with the events of Holy Cross and attempts to resolve them.   They were Fr Aidan Troy and the Rev Norman Hamilton.  Fr Troy joined Ciarán Dunbar in the BelTel studio with the Rev Hamilton down the line. 

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 of the most disturbing flashpoints of the post-Agreement era. Holy Cross was a Catholic Girls' primary school but sat a few hundred yards inside the loyalist Glenbryn estate, in an area known as Upper Ardoyne. Within days of the school year starting, the world watched in horror as demonstrations involving abuse, spitting and a bomb attack ensued. What legacy has the Holy Cross dispute had, what impact did it have on the children involved, and why did protesters feel that they had no other choice? Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Allison Morris and Olivia Peden. 

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 driver David Sullivan, who had gone missing 17 months earlier.  There were things that were particularly disturbing about this discovery – the first of which was that Sullivan was the subject of dozens of allegations of child abuse, the second was that his body had no head. Olivia Peden is joined by Belfast Telegraph’s Andrew Madden and former DCI Norman Baxter. 

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 this day to describe members of the two main communities, it's easy to see why.  But whilst for some the conflict clearly included a religious element, the role of religion is certainly up for debate.  But what about peacebuilding – what role did Christians have in ending the conflict?  Professor Gladys Ganiel’s research focuses on the role of religion in conflict in Northern Ireland.  She has written a new short book – it's entitled Christianity and Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. She joined Ciarán Dunbar.