The Troubles Podcast

How deep did collusion go during the Troubles?

This week I’m joined by Anne Cadwallader, the veteran journalist and long-time caseworker at the Pat Finucane Centre. Her landmark book Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland exposed the Glenanne gang, a loyalist group linked to around 120 killings in the mid-1970s whose members included serving RUC officers and UDR soldiers. Though that name seems to have become a bit antiquated .

We go back over what Lethal Allies uncovered and how it changed the conversation about collusion.

Then we turn to her brand new book, Crossing Over: which is a legal thriller set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the height of the Troubles in 1987.

In this episode we talked about why she wrote it, and where her work goes from here.

This was one of my favourite interviews of the year so I really hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did!

📖 Crossing Over by Anne Cadwallader is out now: https://www.mercierpress.ie/books/crossing-over/

Also available on Amazon, Kindle and all the usual places.

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After 28 years of bans, Drumcree is back. The story of the 2026 Garvaghy Road standoff: a court case, a midnight legal battle, and a crisis that threatened to bring down Stormont.

For 28 years, the Parades Commission said no. Every July, Portadown’s Orangemen applied to walk home from Drumcree Church along the Garvaghy Road, and every July they were refused. Then, in the summer of 2026, a procedural mistake changed everything.

In part two, we follow how one of the Troubles’ most notorious flashpoints ignited again: a court case that exposed the Parades Commission’s sloppy workings, a midnight series of legal battles, and thousands of people blocking the Garvaghy Road in the pouring rain.

We look at loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, Garvaghy Road spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith, a First Minister standing at the protest, and a two-week standoff that ended with the Northern Ireland Secretary stepping in, and threatened to bring down Stormont.

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Few parades in the world are as controversial as the one at Drumcree Church in Portadown.

In this episode, we go back to the very beginning and try to explain how exactly one mile of road became a flashpoint for the entire conflict in Northern Ireland.

From the founding of Portadown as a plantation town to the birth of the Orange Order and the Obins Street dispute, we trace the route that led to the first standoff on the Garvaghy Road in 1995.

With Drumcree back in the headlines, part 2 will focus on current events.

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In the 1990s, Lee Lavis was a young British soldier sent to South Armagh. Crossmaglen. Bandit Country. In this episode, I sit down with Lee to hear what it was like to patrol the fields and border roads of South Armagh at the height of the Provisional IRA's campaign there.

We then talk about life after, in which Lee experienced drug addiction

and homelessness.

This is the first episode of Season 7. Lee will also be joining me at CrimeCon London on the first weekend of October for a panel on the prosecution of British soldiers for Troubles-era killings so come along and say hi if you are there.

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This week on the podcast, Johnny Adair talked about his role during the Troubles.

"Mad Dog" Adair progressed from a skinhead youth to lead the UDA's C Company, directing over 40 murders, robberies, and operations.

He waged a war against the Nationalist population, but he wanted more and was eventually expelled from Northern Ireland after turning on his fellow loyalists and trying to seize control of the Shankill.

This is his story in his own words.

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Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair played a significant role in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He commanded the UDA's C Company and through his leadership they enacted a fierce campaign of violence against Republican paramilitaries and the Nationalist population as a whole.

For the first time in the Troubles, loyalists were out-killing republicans and much of this was down to the actions of C Company.

But Adair wanted more power and ended up taking the fight to fellow loyalists, as he ousted the UVF from the Shankill.

But this move would see the full weight of the UDA come down upon him, and would lead to his expulsion from Northern Ireland.

This is the story of Johnny Adair.

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When it comes to the history of the Provisional IRA, there are many divisive figures within the paramilitary group. 

Some were beloved who then fell out of favour, either by leaning too far towards peace, or refusing to give up the violence. 

Few are as beloved as Brendan Hughes

His story is also rather unique, in the years before he died, Hughes was extremely candid about his time in the Provisional IRA. He contributed to the Boston College Tapes between 2001 and 2006, providing an insight into his time in the IRA that was revealed after his death in 2008.

What was revealed had significant repercussions for people still alive today, and especially Gerry Adams. 

Brendan was a unique person, and through these interviews we have been given an extremely rare insight into his life behind the veil of being a paramilitary. 

This is the story of the troubles, told entirely from the perspective of The Dark, Brendan Hughes,

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In the early days of the Troubles, the Provisional IRA needed two things: guns and money.

As hundreds of thousands of Irish Americans watched the troubles unfold, many of them wanted to help. NORAID was born out of this need.

But was it just humanitarian aid that they were sending home, or was it weapons? This is the story of NORAID.

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Chris Ward is at home with his parents. He’ s watching football on the television with his father when they hear a knock on the door.

He answers and a man says “Alright Chris, I’m here to talk to you about Celtic”. The man then pushed past Chris into the house. A second man then appeared, dressed in black and a third.

Chris worked at Northern Bank in Belfast, which was the largest retail bank in Northern Ireland, which distributed cash to its 95 branches, and hundreds of ATMS in Northern Ireland. It was one of four banks in Northern Ireland which had the capacity to print its own banknotes.

The men made it clear to Chris that they were here because of the bank he worked in, and if he and his family cooperated they would be fine. If they didn't they would be killed. What transpired that night ended up being the largest cash robbery in British and Irish history.

This is the story of the Northern Bank Robbery.

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This episode is being released on the 50-year anniversary of the Kingsmill Massacre; an attack which saw members of the provisional IRA march 11 Protestant factory workers off a bus, line them up and execute them.

All were killed, except for Alan and this week he tells us what life is like after such a life-altering event.

We talked about a lot of things, and honed in on that English accent heard on the night of the killing and how Alan does not believe that was Captain Robert Nairac but instead the clues point toward ex-paratrooper turned IRA paramilitary, Paddy O' Kane.

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