A senior DUP member set out their explicit support for violence - just weeks before the Good Friday Agreement.  

Files released in the National Archives in Kew have revealed the details of a politician’s comments to a government official - the individual wasn’t named but there were clues to their identity. 

It’s also been revealed that First Minister David Trimble was being paid thousands of pounds more than the deputy first Minister, Seamus Mallon, a year after the agreement – despite the roles being equal.  

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Sam McBride. 

The BelTel brings you some of Northern Ireland's top journalists, Allison Morris, Sam McBride and Suzanne Breen to name but a few, giving you the inside stories behind what is in the news. Presented by Ciarán Dunbar, the Bel Tel investigates, debates and informs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The BelTel

Kew Files: Who was the senior DUP member who supported violence just weeks before the Good Friday Agreement? 

When many people hear the words ‘Holy Cross’ - short for Holy Cross Girls Primary School – the words take them back to a dark time.  

Holy Cross is a Catholic School in a loyalist area, Upper Ardoyne or Glenbryn. 

In 2001, community tensions boiled over and led to loyalist residents protesting nationalist parents from Ardoyne taking their kids to schools through their part of the area. 

That protest became notorious for its viciousness. 

Two clerics, one Catholic, one Protestant became synonymous with the events of Holy Cross and attempts to resolve them.  

 They were Fr Aidan Troy and the Rev Norman Hamilton. 

Fr Troy joined Ciarán Dunbar in the BelTel studio with the Rev Hamilton down the line. 

Holy Cross: Clerics Fr Troy and Rev Hamilton on the protest and resolving it 

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.  

God, Religion, the Troubles, and the Christian Peacebuilding  

Paddy Mackin and Eamon MacMahon's bodies were found on the morning of the 13th of July, 1983.  

They both had been blasted with a shotgun as close range.   

The murders of the 34 year olds were first blamed on INLA leaders Dominic and Mary McGlinchey.  But their families don’t believe that – they believe “other republicans” were involved.  

They claim that an informer recruited by Captain Robert Nairac helped set up their loved ones   They say this man later fled Northern Ireland after Freddie Scappaticci tipped off MI5 that his identity had been compromised.  

The story was broken by our political editor, Suzanne Breen. 

Kew Files: Who was the senior DUP member who supported violence just weeks before the Good Friday Agreement?

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