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. 

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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. 

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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.  

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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 mum Lesley took her own life, eventually being told it was part of a ‘suicide’ pact with a man, Trevor Buchanan – the husband of the woman who would eventually become her stepmother. That woman was Hazel Stewart, how had been having an affair with Lauren’s father, Colin Howell. Ten 18-years after the deaths, Colin Howell walked into a police station and confessed to murdering them, implicating Steward as his partner in crime.

Dr Lauren Bradford-Clarke, now a criminologist, spoke with the Belfast Telegraph’s Claire Williamson. 

This episode of The BelTel originally aired in February 2026.

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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 ice-cold Belfast Lough in a bid to escape, greasing themselves in butter to squeeze out of the ship’s portholes. 

They then hijacked a double-decker bus before slipping across the border, humiliating the authorities. 

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by James Durney, author of ‘Jailbreak: Great Irish Republican escapes’. 

This episode was originally published in January 2025.

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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 at Portadown District believe it now clears the way for Orangemen to walk back along the Garvaghy Road after almost 30 years, and intend to table a fresh application to march “in the near future”.

But what are the origins of the dispute which almost brought Northern Ireland to the edge of anarchy?

In this episode of The BelTel, originally published in July 2023, Ciarán Dunbar is joined by former BBC Journalist Mervyn Jess. 

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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 Maura Lyons.

In 1956, the west Belfast teenager was smuggled to Scotland by members of the Free Presbyterian Church. She was a 15-year-old Catholic girl who converted to Free Presbyterianism, in the face of the strong objections of her family.

They accused the Rev Ian Paisley of “abduction”. At one point, he gathered his supporters in the Ulster Hall to listen to a recording of Maura’s voice at the Ulster Hall, renouncing her Catholic faith as a “religion of fear and dread”. Ciarán Dunbar is joined by journalist Malachi O’Doherty, who grew up in west Belfast.  

This episode was originally released in October 2025.

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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 Spence announced loyalist violence was over, in a step that is seen as one of the vital steps towards a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. Ciarán Dunbar is joined by former PUP leader Billy Hutchinson, Historian Aaron Edwards, and journalists Allison Morris, Mark Simpson, and Vincent Kearney. 

This episode was originally published in October 2024.

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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 retaining emergency general surgery at the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine. The Northern Trust had recommended its closure, despite widespread local opposition.

Jon Burrows told a public meeting in Coleraine that he wouldn't support any closure – despite the health minister being a UUP man.  

Mike Nesbitt is understood to have asked his leader to publicly move away from that position, but Jon Burrows refused.

What's going to be the outcome of all of this for the UUP? 

Ciarán Dunbar joined by the Belfast Telegraph's political editor, Suzanne Breen.

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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 1994 – 30 years ago.

By that stage, the organisation was responsible for the deaths of 1,700 people. Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Journalists Brian Rowan and Allison Morris, Former Belfast Telegraph Editor Ed Curran and historian Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh.

This episode was originally published in August 2024.

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