The BelTel

Erika Kirk is rumoured to be visiting Northern Ireland as part of a tour to recruit young people to the conservative organisation founded by her murdered husband, Charlie Kirk. The organisation started out among conservative students on campuses across the US. It’s understood that former DUP MP Ian Paisley has been consulted about setting up a branch of the group Northern Ireland to carry forward their christian-right ethos.
Could Turning point come to NI, what would it stand for, and would the group’s views resonate with young people in Northern Ireland?

Olivia Peden is joined by Belfast Telegraph Journalists Brett Campbell and Kurtis Reid.
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Stormont should not be treated as a “soft-play area” for politicians, the SDLP leader Claire Hanna has said in an in-depth interview with the BelTel podcast. In it, she gave her views on Irish unity, on Stormont reform and on the SDLP’s chances of recovery. Claire Hanna became the leader of the SDLP unopposed in October 2024 having been an MP for south Belfast since 2019.

Many commentators say the SDLP has been more stridently pro-unity under Hanna’s leadership. Does she agree?
Can she square making Northern Ireland work with not wanting it at all?
And can she turn around the SDLP’s long-term decline.

Claire Hanna, joined Ciarán Dunbar on the BelTel.
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It’s been a rough week for prime minister Keir Starmer. First, the Labour leader offered a direct apology to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking network while declaring that “none of us knew the depth and darkness” of the relationship between Epstein and former British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson. Then came the resignations of Morgan McSweeney and Tim Allan. Can Mr Starmer hold onto his job?

Meanwhile, the latest tranche of Epstein files contained references of a distinctly Irish nature – what are they, and what conclusions can we draw from them?

Host: Tabitha Monahan
Guests: Enda Brady and Kim Bielenberg
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Lauren Bradford-Clarke grew up believing her mother Lesley had taken her own life before finding out the truth – her father was a murderer. She was told her mum Lesley took her own life, eventually being told it was part of a ‘suicide’ pact with a man, Trevor Buchanan – the husband of the woman who would eventually become a mother figure to her. That woman was Hazel Stewart, how had been having an affair with Lauren’s father, Colin Howell. 18 years after the deaths, Colin Howell walked into a police station and confessed to murdering them, implicating Stewart as his partner in crime.

Dr Lauren Bradford-Clarke, now a criminologist, spoke with the Belfast Telegraph’s Claire Williamson.


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Former UVF man Mark Haddock has been released from prison in England. A serial killer, Haddock was previously the commander of the notorious Mount Vernon UVF gang. But the loyalist informer has been told he is a ‘dead man walking’ if he tries to return to home to Belfast – might he chance it?
The Belfast Telegraph’s security correspondent Allison Morris joins Ciarán Dunbar.
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