Belfast, May 1996. A 17 year-old boy is bundled into a car by four masked men. A sock is shoved inside his mouth to dull his screams. He is beaten before being driven at speed to an alleyway in the nearby republican heartland of Ballymurphy. He is removed from the car; his arms and legs are bound with tape and rope. His attackers hang him upside do…

What is ‘collusion?” The dictionary quotes it as: a secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy in order to deceive others.” In Northern Ireland, far too many know its devastating reality. On November 9, 1997, 22 year-old Raymond McCord Jnr was lured to the grounds of a disused quarry on the outskirts of Belfast. There, members of the Ulster Volunt…

In the mid 1990s, Donal Gray was a rising star on the football scene. Gaining caps for the Northern Ireland youth squad, he played in the Irish League before his talent saw him signed in Scotland where he had the chance to play against his heroes. But his dream of playing professional football was cruelly taken away when, in 1996, the then 19 year-…

Born in New York to Irish parents, John Crawley knew from a young age exactly what he wanted to do with his life - join the IRA. Enlisting in an elite unit of the US Marine Corps, his only goal was to receive the most intensive military training possible so he could go 'home' to Ireland and fight to end the British occupation of the North. He did, …

Thomas 'Dixie' Elliott was just 16 years old when he was recruited into the ranks of the Provisional IRA. By the age of 19, he was in jail. Sentenced to 12 years in prison for the the attempted murder of a British soldier, he had fully committed himself to violent republicanism. He claims he saw no other alternative. Born to a Catholic mother and a…

Martin O'Hagan had been at the height of his journalism career when he was brutally executed in the street by members of a loyalist paramilitary gang in September 2001. His last act of bravery was to sheild his wife from the bullets that took his life. The Sunday World reporter's brave exposes, hard hitting articles and insightful investigations in…

On December 27, 1997, loyalist gunmen unleashed a hail of bullets at the entrance of a packed out disco in Northern Ireland. The ruthless attack at the Glengannon Hotel in Co Tyrone left one man dead and three others seriously injured. The shooting was in revenge for the INLA prison murder of Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright just …

Loyalist Alec 'Ozzo' Calderwood was just 17 years-old when he brutally beat Catholic Alexander Reid to death with a breeze block in 1980. The father of one was targeted solely because of his religion. In this episode, the man who carried out that killing talks about his involement in the purely sectarian murder, being sentenced to life imprisonment…

On July 8, 1981, a mother of three left her Northern Ireland home to get milk. She never made it home. Norah McCabe, 33, was gunned down as she walked down the street by a plastic bullet fired from the barrel of a police man's gun. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) would later claim they were defending officers who were about to be attacked with …

Frank Portinari supplied weapons to the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Freedom Fighters at the height of the loyalist gangs' killing campaign in Northern Ireland. But how did a north London lad with seemingly no links to paramilitarism become not only a gunrunner, but the boss of the UDA's Britain base during the deadliest days of The Troubl…

This is the final episode in a special 4 part series. In 'A Spy in Exile - Defiant until Death' former British Agent Martin McGartland talks about surviving an attempted IRA assassination whilst under the protection of MI5. The spy known as 'Agent Carol' reveals what life is really like three decades on since being recruited into the ranks of the R…

On March 5, 1996 John Fennell - a founding member of the republican paramilitary group the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) - was bludgeoned to death at a caravan park in Ireland. The 40 year-old's brutal breeze block killing marked the second in a vicious internal feud that would see many others, including a nine year-old schoolgirl, lose the…

This is Episode Three in a special four part series. In 'A Spy in Exile - Defying Double Death', former British agent Martin McGartland talks about the day that changed his life forever.Kidnapped by the IRA and awaiting execution, the unmasked MI5 spy manages to escape torture and death. But that day wasn't to be his worst.Despite starting a top se…

This is the second espisode in a special four part series. During the Northern Ireland Troubles, Martin McGartland was one of MI5's most priceless assets. Born into a staunchly republican family in the IRA heartland of west Belfast in the 1970s, the British spy, codenamed Agent Carol, went on to infiltrate one of the most feared and ruthless terror…

During the Northern Ireland Troubles, Martin McGartland was one of MI5's most priceless assets. Born into a staunchly republican family in the IRA heartland of west Belfast in the 1970s, the British spy, codenamed Agent Carol, went on to infiltrate one of the most feared and ruthless terror gangs in the world. He stopped shootings, bombings and mur…

At 16 years-old he joined the Provisional IRA. By the age of 18, he'd carried out murder. Prominent Belfast-born republican Anthony McIntyre talks candidly about his life before and after joining the Irish Republican Army. From picking up a machine gun at the age of 14, to prison, the Blanket Protests and hungerstrikes, McIntyre speaks rawly about …

He was one of the UK's most ruthless terrorists. Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair was so dangerous, the British authorities brought in a law to jail him for life. Now in 2022, over 20 years since he was released from prison, Adair talks about his paramilitary past, attempts on his life, fleeing Northern Ireland and his continued support for peace - but at wh…

Former undercover police officer turned crime author Stephen Bentley reveals the unknown details of one of the most audacious covert cop operations in UK history. Operation George saw British police officers form a fake organized crime gang that duped loyalist terror killer Jim Fulton into confessing to a litany of crimes, including the sectarian m…

It was a tragedy that shocked Ireland, and beyond. The bodies of three children, aged just 9, 7 and three years-old, were discovered at their Dublin home. Conor, Darragh and Carla McGinley lost their lives to homicide - their mother Deirdre Morley, a paediatric nurse, was arrested on suspicion of their murders. In May 2021, the 44 year-old was foun…