The BelTel

Incidents of violent drug-debt intimidation are rising in Ireland – and the methods are becoming more concerning and elaborate.

Brutal enforcers are now using 'disappearing' video technology on social media platforms to capture and distribute graphic footage of torture.

The targeted aggression goes beyond those allegedly in arrears, with innocent friends and family members increasingly caught up in the cruel crossfire.

What are the gardaí doing about it?
Is there a class issue at play?
And what about the incidents we're not hearing about?

Fionnán Sheahan is joined by Irish Independent Southern Correspondent Ralph Riegel to examine a terrifying new trend in Ireland's underworld.
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A judge has dismissed an Orange Order against the Secretary of State’s decision to ban the Drumcree parade from going down the Garvaghy Road.

But Mr Justice Scoffield said those against the march should take “no particular joy in the outcome”.

He said that a lawful decision-making process has established the lodge’s right to parade in law.

He also told the court that Sir Chris Bryant’s decision was lawful but highly regrettable that it happened in the circumstances it did.

And he threw some shade on nationalist protesters saying, “the law does not apply only when you agree with it”.

Ciarán Dunbar was joined by Allison Morris.
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The Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has been to the forefront of Northern Ireland's politics ever since the re-emergence of the Drumcree Parade issue.

The DUP-woman has stridently defended the rights of Orangemen to march down the Garvaghy Road in the face of nationalist opposition.

She has been clear - the DUP must get Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill out of power over her actions in the Garvaghy protest.

The problem is, the party leader Gavin Robinson disagrees – so what happens next?

Who is Carla Lockhart, what are her options, and how does this affect unionism?

Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Professor Jon Tonge and by Belfast Telegraph reporters Claire Dickson and Andrew Madden.
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Jeffrey Donaldson was doing paid work for the ministry of defence in Africa even as acute political turmoil was engulfing his party at home in Northern Ireland.

Why was the then DUP leader undertaking sensitive work in dictator-led Cameroon just a week after he himself collapsed Stormont in 2022?
Why was he helping sell arms in Egypt alongside a British general?

Why did a special forces officer say he’d worked with Donaldson before?

Profound political questions remain over who all the now convicted paedophile was working for – alongside concerns about whether he had access to children in developing countries.

Sam McBride joined Ciarán Dunbar.
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The Metropolitan Police in London are investigating Jeffrey Donaldson over a rape allegation
It is alleged to have happened in the former MP's Westminster office.
Donaldson is currently serving a prison sentence in Maghaberry for 18 counts of child sex abuse, including the rape of a child.
The former DUP leader Donaldson was sentenced last week to 15 years but will serve just half of that term in prison.
Ciarán Dunbar is joined by Allison Morris.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.