The BelTel

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 has also been culled.The BBC is making major cuts across the corporation as budget cuts take hold.BBC bosses say they have to make difficult decisions – but the cuts mean there will be no more local comedy on our screens.Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Tim McGarry and Damon Quinn and Michael McDowell from the Hole in the Wall Gang. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 victims’ identity.On Thursday, the former DUP leader was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of 18 charges of child sex abuse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 etched in Jerry’s memory. Patrick went missing from his home in Co Kerry that year, and despite extensive searches and emotional appeals, efforts to find him proved fruitless. It would take the O'Sullivan family 34 years to find out the truth.Tessa Fleming is joined by Kerryman journalist Sinead Kelleher and by Jerry O'Sullivan, Patsy’s brother, to discuss his disappearance and how they eventually found out what happened to him.This episode of The BelTel was produced by our sister podcast, The Indo Daily. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 about some profound changes in Northern Ireland’s politics.It saw the DUP and Ian Paisley signing up to the peace process.Sinn Féin bought into policing, agreeing to work with the PSNI; the DUP agreed to go into government with them.The two parties have dominated Stormont politics ever since.Ciarán Dunbar is joined by political commentator David McCann. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Multiple prison sentences have been handed down to some significant figures from Northern Ireland’s criminal world.Gangsters like ‘cute hur’, ‘mint wind’ and ‘ultra gold’ are just some of those who went down after the notorious platform spilled its secrets.Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Belfast Telegraph’s crime correspondent Allison Morris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Westminster, ate in fancy restaurants, and commanded media attention. But now he spends his days behind bars in Maghaberry, reading, doing jigsaws and doing art. The home in Dromore, in which he lived in with wife Eleanor, who was found to have aided and abetting child sexual abuse, has appeared on the market for a modest £650,000. Donaldson was convicted of 18 charges concerning child sexual abuse in June. Prosecution lawyers want him to serve at least ten years in prison. To talk about Donaldson’s new life, Ciarán Dunbar is joined by the Belfast. Telegraph’s Kurtis Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The standoff between the Orangemen on Drumcree and the residents of the Garvaghy Road continues in Portadown. Negotiations involving the Secretary of State Chris Bryant, the Orange Order and Garvaghy Road residents have so far failed to reach an agreement. Garvaghy Road residents' spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith, confirmed on Wednesday that there was a document on the table. However, both Jamie Bryson and Carla Lockhart said the Portadown district won’t be accepting any deal that sees them walk away from their right to parade down the Garvaghy Road. Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald and First Minister Michelle O’Neill were back on the Garvaghy road with residents on Wednesday – with the First Minister saying that standing on the road with residents on Sunday was "the right thing to do". Meanwhile, the leaders of the DUP and UUP say they expect to see prosecutions over the protest in the next few days. Ciarán Dunbar is joined by the Belfast Telegraph’s Kevin Scott, Kurtis Reid, and Allison Morris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 traditional route – backed by a legal ruling. On the Garvaghy Road, a community feels that march is sectarian harassment - and a relic of another age. This is a local issue, but one which deep historical resonances, and one which many fear has brought Northern Ireland to the political brink.Unionists accuse nationalists of not accepting the rule of law, while nationalists accuse unionists of unnecessarily opening an old wound.Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Sam McBride and Allison Morris and hears from Claire Dickson in Portadown, and from Andrew Madden in Stormont. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 more than 35 people, including five named marshals, to take part in the parade, which will depart Drumcree Church at 8am on Sunday September 27. Nationalists are outraged by the decision; unionists have welcomed it. Ciarán Dunbar is joined by the Belfast Telegraph's security correspondent, Allison Morris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 brother Sean, guilty of the same murder, wasn’t.The 29-year-old was sentenced to a minimum tariff of 15 years for his role in the murder of father-of-five Karol Kelly in 2018.The manhunt continues on both sides of the border as we wonder why Anderson was granted the leave in the first place.Olivia Peden is joined by our crime correspondent Allison Morris.This episode was recorded on the afternoon of Tuesday 22nd September. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 innocent Catholics were more often than not his real victims. His C Company of the west Belfast UDA also turned their guns on their fellow loyalists. Who is Mad dog Adair, what does he believe, and how does he view his murderous reign?  Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Aaron Edwards, a Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and author of ‘Enemies within: The explosive true story of Johnny ‘Mad dog’ Adair’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.