The BelTel

Two members the Burke family have confronted the education minister Paul Givan accusing him ‘promoting sodomy’ and ‘deceiving the people of Northern Ireland’. The Burkes have also confronted Edwin Poots, Mervyn Storey, and Free Presbyterian minister Roger Higginson recent weeks.  

So, who are the Burkes, what have they been up to in Northern Ireland, and why are they targeting the DUP? 

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Kurtis Reid and Shane Phelan. 

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The funeral of 65-year-old Mark Lenaghan in Castlewellan attracted a large crowd and plenty of well-wishes for the beloved local deacon, but not everyone present knew about his former life as an IRA gunman.

How did Lenaghan find faith and leave the Troubles behind?

Host: Tabitha Monahan Guest: Hugh Jordan  

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Sam McBride sits down with Stephen Walker who has published a biography on the Nobel Peace Prize winner, entitled ‘Peacemaker’. 

‘David Trimble: Peacemaker’ is based on 100 interviews, including with many members of the Trimble family. Later Lord Trimble, he was one of the key architects of the Belfast agreement, leading the largest unionist party at the time, the UUP. 

Stephen Walker worked as a journalist for the BBC for 34 years. He sat down with the Belfast Telegraph’s Northern Ireland editor, Sam McBride. 

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A Crossmaglen man with Republican family connections has plead guilty to drug and money laundering. The so-called ‘B-Man’, 37-year-old Brendan O’Callaghan, who has links to prominent republicans, admitted 16 charges at the last minute after denying the charges for 5 years. O’Callaghan was caught after French intelligence hacked the secret Encrochat phone network used by criminals.  

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by the Sunday Life’s Ciaran Barnes. 

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There are billions of pounds worth of gold under the Sperrin Mountains in County Tyrone. A US-based company, Darlriadan Resources, wants to mine it. But local people are divided over whether the mine would benefit or harm them, some are mounting legal challenges against it. Sinn Féin is struggling with the decision and with its policy on mining. Will the gold ever be brought out of the ground and it is – who will benefit from it?  

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by the Belfast Telegraph’s Northern Ireland editor, Sam McBride. 

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The trial of Soldier F has begun in Belfast. The former paratrooper is accused of murdering James Wray and William McKinney, two of the thirteen civil rights protests shot dead on Bloody Sunday in 1972. He is also charged with five attempted murders in Derry’s Bogside area. 

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Sunday World’s Investigations Editor, Nicola Tallant, who was in court. 

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Michael Briggs has a famous scientist but as it turns out he had faked some of his qualifications. He also faked research that supposedly showed the safety a brand of oral contraceptives. His daughter Joanne has written a book about him - ‘The Scientist Who Wasn't There’ 

She joined Ciarán Dunbar to tell her incredible story and to try and answer the question, who really was her father?  

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Marianne Smyth had a long career on both sides of the Atlantic as a swindler and a con-woman. Smyth has now been convicted in Downpatrick of swindling more than £115,000 from four victims, including Derry GAA player Dermot McNicholl. Born in Maine, Smyth claimed she had ordered IRA killings, been the heir of a multi-million dollar fortune, and survived cancer, among many other absurd lies.  

Smyth had even had her pet dogs euthanised before she fled Northern Ireland. 

The Belfast Telegraph’s Kurtis Reid joined Olivia Peden.

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Thirty-one-year-old conservative activist and father-of-two Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during a public event on Wednesday. With an intense manhunt underway, US president Donald Trump has blamed the “radical left” for the gruesome killing. How is an already splintered America responding to the murder of Charlie Kirk? And what happens next in a bitterly divided county awash with guns? 

Host: Kevin Doyle Guests: Terry Sheridan and Gina London   

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Riots were a familiar feature of the Troubles, but with political violence now almost a thing of the past, rioting is rare. However, sparked by a decision not to allow the Orange Order to parade on west Belfast’s Springfield Road, the September 2005 riots were complete mayhem. Loyalists rampaged for three nights causing two thousand police and soldiers to be deployed. 

Belfast Telegraph’s security correspondent Allison Morris was there, she joins Ciarán Dunbar. 

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