Jeffrey Donaldson given 15 years - but will be out in seven

Jeffrey Donaldson received a 15 year sentence in prison for his crimes. He was given 11 years for rape against Victim B and four years for all offences against Victim A, to be served consecutively. The former MP and ex-DUP leader was sentenced in Newry Courthouse on Thursday morning. However, later…

Drumcree: Garvaghy Residents’ challenge dismissed, dispute rumbles on despite parade ban

The parading crisis in Portadown seems over on the ground, but it is very much alive in the courts, on the airwaves, and in politics. The Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Bryant stepped in on Friday to ban the Portadown Orange lodge from marching down the Garvaghy Road, now the Orange O…

From green fields to factory farms: How ‘catastrophic’ industrial agriculture policy is trashing environment

Northern Ireland’s Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir interviewed by Belfast Telegraph Northern Ireland Editor Sam McBride, discussing how what he says has been a ‘catastrophic’ agricultural policy went disastrously wrong in the race for cheap meat... and whether he is inadvertently e…

The St Andrews Agreement 20 years on: Paisley signs up to power-sharing

The St Andrew’s 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 bo…

‘They’ve got Marty’: the unsolved murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O’Hagan

A fearless investigative reporter who exposed the criminal underworld behind Northern Ireland’s paramilitaries, O’Hagan had made dangerous enemies on both sides, but no one has ever been convicted of his murder. Joining Fionnán Sheehan on the is Sunday World Northern editor Richard Sullivan and Ir…

Drumcree: nationalist and unionist camps completely divided over Garvaghy march

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 …

Siobhán Fenton: Former insider on Sinn Féin' ideological conundrums

When journalist Siobhan Fenton was headhunted by Sinn Féin in 2020 she was an outsider. Entering the party press office in Dublin, she was from Belfast, and didn’t support IRA violence. At the time Sinn Fein was soaring, with Mary Lou McDonald expected to eventually become Ireland’s first female …

The mistake that left ‘Slab' Murphy with a big bill and a massive problem

In 1990, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy lost his seminal libel case against the Sunday Times. But formerly secret files reveal the south Armagh republican was actually expected to win it – and that the paper was considering throwing in the towel. But a tactical error by Murphy led to the paper deciding …

‘We’ll forget her soon enough’ - Earl Spencer’s explosive claims about Princess Diana and King Charles

“We’ll forget her soon enough.” That is the extraordinary comment Charles Spencer, Princess Diana's brother, claims King Charles made in the days following her death. Now, Spencer’s new book has reignited old tensions and prompted a rare response from Buckingham Palace. Daily Mail features writer …

‘Beast of Kincora’ William McGrath manifesto cassette emerges after 55 years

William McGrath, was an influential loyalist, founder of the paramilitary group Tara, and a hardline evangelical Protestant He was also a notorious predatory paedophile who rape dozens of young boys. Widely known as the ‘Beast of Kincora’ McGrath was convicted of abuse at the notorious e…