Pat Bradley read out the result of the Good Friday Agreement referendum after running elections in Northern Ireland throughout the Troubles.

Despite violence and voting early and voting often, he was determined that the ballot boxes would remain open.

Host: Allan Preston; Guest Pat Bradley

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

Voter fraud, bombs and bullets, from the Armalite to the ballot box, the reality of NI elections

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 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. 

Voter fraud, bombs and bullets, from the Armalite to the ballot box, the reality of NI elections

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