The BelTel

Sinn Féin, and others, continue to call for a border poll in Northern Ireland, a referendum on a United Ireland. But it takes two to tango, not only would Northern Ireland have to vote for unity – so would the Republic of Ireland. Fionnán Sheehan is Ireland Editor at with the Sunday Independent and Irish Independent – Ciarán Dunbar asks him the simple question – would the south vote for a united Ireland?

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Liz Truss was the UK’s shortest serving Prime Minister, ever. How did it come to pass that the UK has seen three prime ministers in two months and why did the Conservative Party lose faith in Truss in a matter of weeks? David McCann explains the chaos in the Conservative Party and if new leader Rishi Sunak can bring it to an end.

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What could we expect from a Sinn Féin government and more importantly what do we know about its leader Mary Lou McDonald? Former TD Shane Ross attempts to answer the question in his new book ‘Mary Lou McDonald : A Republican Riddle’.Host: Fionnán Sheehan.

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Ian Paisley was the the founder of both the DUP and the Free Presbyterian Church. He was the firebrand preacher and uncompromising street agitating politician always seeming to prefer confrontation. But in the end, he compromised, sitting down in joint-office with Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, becoming one half of the so-called ‘Chuckle Bros’. Joining Ciarán Dunbar to discuss Ian Paisley’s career, from a very personal point of view, is the Belfast Telegraph’s political editor - Suzanne Breen.

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The prestigious global body that governs Irish dancing is mired in allegations of competition fixing and cheating. Irish Independent News Correspondent Ellen Coyne reveals the revelations that have rocked the Irish dancing world.

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Patricia Curran’s mutilated body was discovered just 40 yards from her home at 2 o’clock in the morning on the 13th of November 1952. She was a judge’s daughter – savagely stabbed to death - the pressure was on to find her killer. An innocent - but compromised man - Iain Hay Gordon, was eventually blackmailed into signing a confession and sent to a Psychiatric hospital – only to be quietly released and packed off to home to Scotland. In this episode of the BelTel, Journalist Stephen Gordon, tells us about meeting Patricia’s brother Desmond – who spent his life as a Catholic Priest in South Africa – a life some think was an act of redemption. And we ask the biggest question of all – if Ian Hay Gordon didn’t kill Patricia – then who did?

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The early hours of the morning on the 12th of November 1952, a judge’s daughter, Patricia Curran, is found dead in the garden of her family home. She had been stabbed 37 times. The BelTel looks at the shocking killing and how Iain Hay Gordon, a young Scot doing his national service in the RAF, was intimidated into signing a false confession, frightened that his mother would find out about his sex life. Ciarán Dunbar is joined by journalist Stephen Gordon, who’s been fascinated by this horrific murder for a long

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Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair was behind the murder of many innocent Catholics during the Troubles but his lower Shankill mob, ‘C Company’, was also behind two bloody feuds with fellow loyalists. The first with their rivals the UVF, the second with the rest of the UDA - that’s when C-Company went too far. Ciarán Barnes tells the story of the fall of Johnny Adair and the banishment of his supporters and their families from west Belfast.

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Johnny Adair’s name is well known, his face instantly recognizable, his voice familiar but he’s not a famous actor or singer, he’s a ‘celebrity terrorist’. He was the pumped-up skinhead hardman who led a bloody loyalist faction in carrying out over 40 murders – most of his victims were entirely innocent Catholics. The Sunday Life’s Ciaran Barnes tells the story of how Adair rose to power in the lower Shankill.

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Sean Fox was gunned down while drinking in the Donegal Celtic Social Club in west Belfast, on Sunday 2 October, in front of more than 100 people. It’s the latest in a series of murders carried out in west Belfast linked to drug-dealing and the so-called ‘Marbella Crew’. Who is responsible for carrying out these killings and why?

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