On September the 15th, 1976, the Belfast Telegraph offices in Belfast centre was bombed by the Provisional IRA. 

Journalists were clattering at their typewriters when the second evacuation warning of the day went out on the Tannoy. Following the evacuation, a bomb in a van exploded in a loading bay, before many employees had the chance to get out. 

One of them – 64-year-old production worker Joe Paton - who'd been in a locker room above the bay - died from his injuries four days later. 

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by former Belfast Telegraph journalists Billy Graham and Alf McCreary, who were there on the day. 

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

The Belfast Telegraph Bomb: The day the IRA attacked the newsroom 

Once Ireland's richest man, Seán Quinn has returned to tell his story once again, this time through his new podcast, The Quinn Files. 



Fionnán Sheahan is joined by Sunday Independent’s Liam Collins and the Irish Independent’s Sean Pollock to examine Quinn's latest account of the events that transformed him from billionaire businessman to one of the most controversial figures of post-crash Ireland. 



From the extraordinary success of the Quinn Group to the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank, prison and life after bankruptcy, they ask whether Quinn's latest intervention brings fresh insight or simply revisits a story the public already knows. 

Seán Quinn's podcast: How is his version of the story going down?

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. 

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. 

The Belfast Telegraph Bomb: The day the IRA attacked the newsroom

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