An investigation into the links between the Official IRA and the Workers Party.
Profile of the carnage over the years caused by joy/riders. Begins with 43rd victim, Debbie McCombs death in west Belfast, and profile of her killer Harry Marley. Also the case of Nial Blaney who killed John McDonald. PSNI's viewpoint, and two former joyriders Mark Hamill and Ned McComb appeal to youths to stop.
Jennifer O'Leary investigates leading republican Thomas 'Slab' Murphy and asks what his recent conviction means for Sinn Fein in the forthcoming Irish election.
Exclusive filming with new first minister Arlene Foster in her first month in office. Reporter Declan Lawn examines her rise from a childhood during the Troubles in rural Fermanagh to the top of Northern Ireland's political establishment.
It took 30 years to convict child killer Robert Black for the murder of Jennifer Cardy. The Co Antrim child was one of four girls murdered by Black in the UK. Following his recent death in a NI prison, Chris Moore looks back at his life of crime.
After a spate of gangland killings in Dublin, Jennifer O'Leary investigates links between the Irish criminal underworld and dissident republicans.
Chris Moore reports on the story of a Vietnamese man who says he spent almost half his life as a modern slave in Britain, the Irish Republic and most recently in Northern Ireland.
Noel Thompson presents this specially extended programme, as consultation on legacy proposals enters its final weeks. With interviews from serving chief constable George Hamilton and former chief constable Sir Hugh Orde, as well as studio reaction from victims' representatives and politicians.
Jennifer O'Leary speaks to Máiría Cahill about the Police Ombudsman's report into the PSNI's handling of her abuse allegations.
Hard-hitting investigations. Spotlight goes undercover to investigate what is being done about diesel emissions in Northern Ireland.
Peter Coulter meets a woman who was sexually abused as a child by her adoptive father and asks why he was not prosecuted for over three decades.
Stormont is on ice and now a make-or-break Brexit summit in Brussels is looming where the border could scupper a deal. Jim Fitzpatrick asks if 'no deal' could put politics into deep freeze and mean the return of a hard border.
Noel Thompson chairs as a studio audience puts topical questions to a panel of decision makers. Panellists include former Downing Street spokesperson Matthew O'Toole, Labour TD Joan Burton, Guido Fawkes news editor Hugh Bennett, DUP MLA Christopher Stalford and Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard.
The RHI Inquiry has placed politicians and civil servants in Northern Ireland under scrutiny like never before. Conor Spackman reports.
Will Theresa May survive her Brexit deal? As the politics are played out at Westminster, Jim Fitzpatrick goes on the road to ask what happens next and what it means for Northern Ireland
Datshiane Navanayagam reveals a risky money-making scheme in which the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service has been targeted through one of its own.
Peter Coulter investigates claims that leaders of the Roma community in Belfast have been exploiting their own people, and travels to Romania to see their lavish houses complete with gold-coloured gates.
Spotlight travels to the Indian Ocean to investigate another luxury holiday taken by the North Antrim MP Ian Paisley. Lyndsey Telford reports.
A studio audience discussion. Panellists are Sinn Fein’s Mairtin O Muilleoir, DUP’s Edwin Poots, Alliance leader Naomi Long, historian Diarmaid Ferriter and economist Liam Halligan. Noel Thompson presents.
With the DUP’s 10 MPs at the heart of the Brexit debate, Conor Spackman asks why the government has seemingly repeatedly misjudged its partners in power.
As the pace of political events intensifies, Jim Fitzpatrick examines the latest developments ahead of a crucial meeting of European leaders this week that will determine the fate of Brexit.
Two days before voters go to the polls in the European election, Noel Thompson hosts a debate with 6 candidates in front of a studio audience.
The controversial far-right group Britain First has based itself in Northern Ireland. Stephen Dempster investigates the organisation and accusations of violence and criminality in its ranks.
Following the murder of Lyra McKee in April, Spotlight investigates the New IRA. With reporter Conor Spackman.
Conor Spackman examines the challenges posed to the PSNI by the New IRA and other dissident republicans.
New contenders for Theresa May's job are promising to leave the EU without a deal. We examine what that will mean for NI and follow new MEP Naomi Long to Brussels to find out more.
Ian Paisley MP faces new questions over trips to the Maldives in a special Spotlight investigation.
Northern Ireland’s leading team of investigative journalists reveal important new discoveries about the outbreak of the conflict known as the Troubles, 50 years after troops were deployed.
New revelations about how the IRA went from anticipating victory to fighting a bloody, long war against Britain, with Gerry Adams emerging as the republican leader of his time.
Jennifer O’Leary uncovers IRA arms connections around the world and charts how republicans built a political strategy in parallel with their armed campaign.
New revelations about how agents of British intelligence infiltrated the Irish Republican Army. By 1979, the British security forces believed the IRA had become so security conscious that they were impossible to penetrate. But reporter Jennifer O’Leary reveals how one weakness in the IRA’s internal security was exploited to unlock many of the group’s secrets. She charts how Britain used informers and combined that advantage in secret intelligence with the use of special forces to take on one of the IRA’s deadliest units – a strategy that culminated with the Loughgall ambush, when the SAS killed eight IRA men attacking a police station. The programme shows that the aftermath of the attack only made the IRA’s informer problem worse.
Episode five traces how unionist anger grew as IRA attacks on the security forces killed members of their community. When Margaret Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, giving the Republic of Ireland political influence in the North, the anger spilled over into talk of insurrection. The programme reveals how loyalist groups rearmed and used intelligence leaks from soldiers and police to boost their campaign of killing, including new information about MI5 agents operating inside the largest loyalist group, the Ulster Defence Association.
Revelations from the Northern Ireland conflict. Loyalists killed more people than the IRA in the closing years of the Troubles. Through an insider in one of the most notorious killer gangs, Mandy McAuley discovers that not only was the Ulster Volunteer Force carrying out more attacks, it was also deliberately targeting families of Irish republicans. Revelations about the murders of two young brothers lead to calls for the investigation into the killings to be reopened.
The End Game. How the IRA's war stopped after 25 years of conflict.
This film shows how the critically acclaimed television series Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History was made. Reporters, producers – even the bosses – were filmed over two years as they uncovered incredible new stories about the past. How did Jennifer O'Leary persuade a former missionary priest to reveal his role in smuggling money and weapons to the IRA? How did Darragh Macintyre find out the British and American intelligence connections to a long-hidden documentary about a senior IRA man? And how did Mandy McAuley discover that a church charity worker was actually a suspect in a series of murders across Mid Ulster?
A studio audience put questions to politicians and opinion-formers in a Brexit special. Noel Thompson chairs.
Kevin Lunney, a senior executive in cross border company QIH, who was abducted and tortured by a gang in September speaks publicly for the first time to Jim Fitzpatrick in an exclusive interview for BBC Spotlight. He details the horror of his ordeal and what it’s like living under threat of death.
Following the death of Cyril McGuinness, the main suspect in the kidnap and torture of cross border businessman Kevin Lunney, Jim Fitzpatrick examines the criminal career of the man nicknamed Dublin Jimmy. Plus he talks to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about law and order in the border area.
Spotlight’s Stephen Dempster investigates allegations that a paedophile network abused boys in the Enniskillen area in the 80s and 90s and hears the harrowing story of a man who says he was one of the victims.
Northern Ireland has the worst hospital waiting lists in the UK. Datshiane Navanayagam investigates.
Lyndsey Telford investigates what led to the downfall of the family business Wrightbus and asks questions about the millions of pounds that went from the company to fund a local church.
In an observational documentary, Darragh MacIntyre unearths significant new evidence about the murders of three Scottish soldiers, lured from a Belfast bar and shot in 1971.
What is the future of the Union? Stephen Dempster and Jennifer O’Leary report from different parts of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rate in the UK. Mandy McAuley investigates the reasons behind it and speaks to those on the frontline determined to reduce it.
Conor Spackman reports on the outcome and potential consequences of the RHI inquiry.
Inside the Pandemic. Spotlight follows frontline health care workers and sees inside a hospital ICU.
Jim Fitzpatrick assesses the economic impact of the lockdown and asks what can Stormont do to help some of those most affected.
After months of lockdown and isolation, Northern Ireland is braced for another crisis, mental health. There’s a new plan to tackle it, but where’s the money and is it too little too late? Jim Fitzpatrick presents.
Spotlight investigates the Covid-19 care homes crisis.
Conor Spackman investigates the damage Covid-19 has inflicted on the NHS and its patients, including a look at the problems the pandemic is storing up for the future.
Spotlight goes on the frontline with the Police, Fire Service and Ambulance teams as they work through the Covid-19 storm. With exclusive access, reporter Darragh MacIntyre charts how the three main emergency services have been dealing with this unprecedented challenge.
What are the implications of tighter virus restrictions? And, as Parliament votes on the Internal Market Bill, what does the UK’s new negotiating stance mean for NI?
Exclusive interviews. Two NI GPs speak face to camera about their trauma as a result of what they say was LGBT ‘conversion therapy’, as the Prime Minister commits to pushing forward with legislation to ban the practice.
Once more the deadly Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Northern Ireland and restrictions are ramped up. But can the politicians save lives without killing the economy? Jim Fitzpatrick meets those affected here and goes to Sweden to see if it offers lessons in how to live with the virus.
As full Brexit comes closer, the cost of your supermarket shop and online purchases may be affected. BBC Northern Ireland’s business and economics editor John Campbell investigates how consumers will have to adjust to the consequences of Northern Ireland’s position as a bridge between the UK and the EU. What will the goods border in the Irish Sea mean for your household budget?
Conor Spackman investigates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cancer patients in Northern Ireland.
Lockdown has led to a surge of domestic abuse incidents. Spotlight investigates and goes behind the scenes in one of Northern Ireland’s women’s refuges.
Mandy McAuley looks at the impact of the second Covid-19 wave on the Northern Ireland health service.
How effective is Stormont’s test and trace strategy to reduce the spread of coronavirus? Jim Fitzpatrick investigates.
Stephen Dempster exposes ongoing paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland, using intelligence from a secret MI5/PSNI security assessment.
Conor Spackman investigates a controversial green energy scheme set to cost electricity billpayers across the UK billions over the next 20 years.
2020 has been a year like no other. Jennifer O’Leary looks back on a dramatic 12 months. As the pandemic remains a challenge to governments across the world, she hears from the Taoiseach Micheál Martin. And, with a panel of commentators, she asks if the virus has pulled relationships at the Stormont Executive together or further apart.
BBC Spotlight reporter Mandy McAuley meets people across Northern Ireland facing financial hardship and poverty as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic
Northern Ireland has a new post-Brexit trade border in the Irish Sea which unionists want scrapped, but some businesses spot opportunity. Jim Fitzpatrick examines the politics and the economics.
Conor Spackman speaks to experts and those receiving vaccinations, and asks if we can be sure this lockdown is the last.
With an independent inquiry looming, Lyndsey Telford reports on what happened inside Northern Ireland’s mother and baby homes, investigates the legality of cross-border adoptions, and hears exclusively from a Protestant home survivor.
A brutal murder and a community in fear. Jennifer O’Leary investigates one of Northern Ireland’s largest criminal gangs – one which trades in drugs and murder but stands under the banner of loyalism - South East Antrim UDA.
On the anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown, families pay tribute to over 2,000 people who have lost their lives to Covid in Northern Ireland.
Topical TV debate with Jim Fitzpatrick. Panellists are MLAs Gordon Lyons and Matthew O’Toole, MP John Finucane, Conservative Peer Peter Lilley and Independent TD Verona Murphy.
Jim Fitzpatrick & Mark Devenport discuss where Northern Ireland is headed after 100 years
The Prime Minister, Taoiseach and others help former BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport chart his way through Northern Ireland’s century. One hundred years after the partition of Ireland, he speaks with some who suffered during our contentious past and others who will decide our uncertain future. Plus the results of a major opinion poll assessing the views of the public, on both sides of the border, on what lies ahead.
From Bobby Storey’s funeral to protests like Black Lives Matter, the response to Covid-19 posed unexpected questions about the PSNI’s behaviour. As society emerges from lockdown restrictions, Jennifer O’Leary investigates how the pandemic - along with the Irish Sea border - exposed tensions over policing.
How a one pound deal for public land on the scenic Causeway Coast put an ardent unionist and a staunch republican on the same side of a planning fight. Conor Spackman investigates.
With the drive for Scottish independence gathering pace, Jim Fitzpatrick asks voters there what the latest election results mean for the future of the UK – and he explores how an independent Scotland might affect Northern Ireland’s place in the union.
With next year’s assembly election on a knife-edge and a sea border seen to threaten the integrity of the union, Lyndsey Telford examines how unionism can find a way forward.
Libya helped arm the IRA, and for two decades victims have sought compensation from the African country. Reporter Stephen Dempster investigates the political obstacles thrown up in their path and why their pleas for government intervention have not been heard.
On the panel: DUP’s Gavin Robinson, UUP’s Doug Beattie, Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy, Alliance’s Naomi Long and SDLP’s Nichola Mallon
Get up to date on the issues of the day – join Jim Fitzpatrick for challenging questions and answers in Spotlight Special’s TV debate programme.
New allegations against former Belfast Trust consultant neurologist Dr Michael Watt, at the centre of Northern Ireland’s biggest patient recall. And with investigations under way, will patients and families get the answers they want? Conor Spackman investigates.
Around 20,000 people in Northern Ireland may have long Covid. Stephen Dempster hears the compelling stories of four sufferers and asks what Stormont is doing to provide specialist services to help
As the Taliban advanced on Kabul and Western forces fled, a Northern Ireland naval officer fought from afar to rescue his interpreter's family. Jim Fitzpatrick hears of their dramatic escape and arrival in Ireland, and meets others from here for whom Afghanistan's fate is a deep concern.
As the price of puppies has rocketed during lockdown, illicit dealers from Ireland have flooded the British market with sick and dying dogs. Mandy McAuley investigates how puppies are trafficked through NI for big cash returns and confronts one of the sellers.
A gold mine, the promise of jobs and a community divided. As a planning decision on a Tyrone gold mine draws nearer, Lyndsey Telford investigates the potential economic benefits, the environmental risks and the growing rift between supporters and objectors in a rural community.
Mandy McAuley investigates how rising energy prices and limits on government support may mean a winter of hard choices for the deprived.
Conor Spackman investigates what happened when the pandemic hit care homes and examines the case for Northern Ireland to have its own public inquiry into the response to Covid-19.
Mid and East Antrim Council is in crisis. Police have launched an investigation and raided its offices. Jim Fitzpatrick investigates what has led to this unprecedented situation.
With government plans to bring in an effective amnesty for Troubles-related offences here, Stephen Dempster reports on the reaction of victims and former soldiers affected and what it could mean for how we deal with the past in Northern Ireland.
At a key point in the pandemic, the government signed a £107 million deal to buy PPE from a NI sweet company. Lyndsey Telford investigates what happened next, and how a box of kit that cost the taxpayer £1,000 came to be sold for just a fiver.
Political discussion. With DUP’s Christopher Stalford, Sinn Fein’s Chris Hazzard, Tory MP Simon Hoare, commentator Felicity Huston and business representative Aodhán Connolly.
Journalist Martin O’Hagan was murdered in 2001. His killers have never been caught. Stephen Dempster investigates allegations that security force informers were involved and are being protected.
Conor Spackman investigates controversial plans to build a waste incinerator near north Belfast. Backers say it is a greener way to get rid of waste and will help ease energy concerns. Opponents says it is expensive and not needed.
In public, David Tweed was well known as an Ulster and Ireland rugby star turned politician. But in private, his children and ex-wife say he was an abuser. In their first televised interview as a family, they tell Lyndsey Telford that they suffered years of years of physical and sexual abuse.
Millions are fleeing the war in Ukraine, creating one of the biggest refugee crises in recent history. Jennifer O’Leary travels to the Polish border alongside aid workers from Northern Ireland and meets some of those hoping to escape to the UK.
Jennifer O’Leary exposes the practices of a clinic claiming to give desperate fertility patients a much greater chance of getting pregnant, and charging thousands of pounds for drugs and treatments.
Two Police Service of Northern Ireland whistleblowers speak publicly for the first time about serious allegations of misconduct and negligence in one of the largest police districts in Northern Ireland. Mandy McAuley reports.
Are we funding and enabling Putin’s war in Ukraine through energy contracts and legal loopholes for dirty money? Spotlight investigates. Jim Fitzpatrick follows the money trail of one of the most notorious Kremlin-linked crimes from Moscow to the UK, Ireland and beyond.
Mark Devenport, the former BBC NI political editor and Ireland correspondent, scrutinises the United Kingdom of Charles III. The new king inherits a realm that held together in his mother’s reign, despite being rocked by independence movements, powerful social change and even violent insurrection in Northern Ireland. Can the kingdom survive today’s pressures on the constitution and the crown?
Hunting with dogs comes under scrutiny. Conor Spackman investigates the hunters who use dogs to track and kill wild animals, exposing some of those at the heart of the hunting networks and the online groups used to share their secrets.
What happened when families, who noticed strange behaviour around the treatment of elderly dementia patients in a care home, started to ask questions? Stephen Dempster investigates their shocking allegations.
An undercover investigation reveals a Belfast marketing company is just one in a network of identical companies across the UK accused of exploiting workers, as Lyndsey Telford uncovers allegations of cult-like practices in the workplace.
Mandy McAuley investigates paramilitary links to illegal money lending in Northern Ireland, and the impact on vulnerable people during a cost of living crisis. She speaks to the victims and asks what the authorities have done to crack down on this crime.
Patients are spending hours on trolleys while waiting for admission to hospital. Conor Spackman goes inside an Emergency Department to learn why beds are being blocked.
Sean had a history of drug use and mental health problems when doctors decided to detain him in a psychiatric unit for his own good. Hours later, he managed to evade supervision and ultimately take his own life inside the hospital. Alan Haslam speaks to his grieving mother and investigates what lessons have been learned.
In 1970 the army invented a new weapon for Northern Ireland, one intended to save lives and keep peace - the rubber bullet. But after 17 people were killed by that weapon and its successor, the plastic bullet, Stephen Dempster investigates claims that the government knew of their deadly potential. Spotlight speaks to the soldiers who fired them, the families who lost loved ones and those still searching for answers.
The true story of an American trucker who became one of MI5’s most important spies. Just when the Real IRA was bombing Britain and threatening to wreck the Northern Ireland peace process, the group’s boss was spilling his secrets to David Rupert, who passed everything on to the FBI and MI5. In a broadcast exclusive, Rupert tells his extraordinary story to Jennifer O’Leary.
A suspected police corruption case became real-life Line of Duty. Mandy McAuley investigates how, after the case collapsed, failings were exposed in secret surveillance.
Conor Spackman hears chilling testimony from relatives of those slain in a spate of gun murders in north and west Belfast over the past five years. He examines links between the killings and investigates a shadowy dissident republican group claiming to be on ceasefire.
Freddie Scappaticci was a killer working for the state inside the IRA. Jennifer O’Leary investigates the most notorious agent of the Troubles.
The criminal justice system in Northern Ireland is burdened by long delays in cases getting to court. Murder and rape cases can take five years or longer to conclude. Reporter Stephen Dempster investigates why cases are taking so long, talks to victims who have found themselves in what they call a 'traumatic, nightmare situation', and hears from experts who fear the system is at breaking point, with potential consequences for the rule of law.
The summer has seen a wave of deaths and overdoses from a powerful wave of synthetic drugs. Mandy McAuley find out about the risk posed by dealers and hears from families who have suffered most.
The government has pushed back a ban on new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035. Will more time make a difference to the electric car revolution? Conor Spackman investigates how ready Northern Ireland is for the switchover, and examines whether the public charging network is fit for purpose.
NHS waiting lists in Northern Ireland are the worst in the UK, with patients waiting for more than half a million hospital appointments. Lyndsey Telford hears some of their stories, including a four-year-old boy who’s been waiting half his life for surgery on his hips, and a woman who has saved to go private. She asks a panel of some of the UK’s top health experts how we fix this healthcare crisis.
The crisis that took down a chief constable: starting with a massive data leak, followed quickly by a court ruling that sparked a row over political interference in policing. As a result, the Police Service of Northern Ireland wound up without a leader. BBC NI’s crime and justice correspondent Julian O’Neill investigates inside the crisis that rolled over the PSNI in a matter of weeks.
In the wake of the discredited neurologist Michael Watt being struck off the medical register, Conor Spackman investigates the death of a patient under his care, claims of a cover-up within Belfast Trust and finds thousands of cases are still awaiting review.
A family’s story of domestic abuse. Mandy McAuley investigates the hidden toll of women who take their own lives after enduring violence in the home. She hears calls for the law to change to hold abusers to account for those deaths, and pleas for the issue to be recognised in Northern Ireland’s suicide-prevention strategy for the first time.
As race attacks are on the rise, Lyndsey Telford is on the ground to investigate behind the hate. Victims spell out how attacks wrecked livelihoods and risked lives – and ask who speaks for the communities where hate crimes are increasing
The hidden trap of drugs debt. Mandy McAuley investigates what happens when drug users can’t pay for what they take. She learns that dealers are forcing some, including teenagers, into sex or running drugs to pay off what they owe.
Stakeknife was a super-spy, a secret agent working for both the British and the IRA. He walked a precarious tightrope in an undercover war where exposure meant death. Operation Kenova, the long-running investigation into Stakeknife and the so-called dirty war, which is now coming to a close, brings Peter Taylor back to Northern Ireland. He revisits the chilling IRA interrogation tapes he initially uncovered and talks again to grieving families devastated by the loss of their loved ones to the IRA’s brutal interrogators and killers.
Thirty years after they declared ceasefires, the UVF has moved against the leaders of its east Belfast unit - standing down and replacing them in a move that may signal loyalist groups are moving away from paramilitary activity. There are calls for the appointment of an intermediary to aid that process, but Conor Spackman hears others saying they have seen this before.
An unsolved murder in a ground-breaking gay bar. Darren Bradshaw was a young, gay police officer enjoying a night out when a republican gunman walked into the crowded bar, shot him next to the dance floor and escaped into the night. The killing came at a pivotal time for both the gay scene in Northern Ireland and the peace process. The murder shattered the gay scene as rumours swirled about who knew he was in the bar and who may have betrayed him. Jordan Dunbar hears from the DJs, drag queens and police officers who were there – and who helped the LGBT community rebuild.
As Troubles inquests are shut down, Mandy McAuley investigates why the government stepped in to stop the release of information about the involvement of state agents in several murders by Mid-Ulster UVF. Testimony from inside the gang raises new questions about the role of state agents.
Conor Spackman investigates how Northern Ireland can handle wetter weather and extreme floods resulting from climate change.
Toxic algae, sewage spills and pollution – all in a major source of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. Environmentalists and users of Lough Neagh contend the largest lake in the UK or Ireland is dying. Patrick Fee investigates the Lough Neagh crisis and tracks down polluters.
Showjumper Katie Simpson’s killer told everyone she had taken her own life. His history of violence and her injuries should have raised red flags but his lie almost went undetected.
Conor Spackman reports on recent racially motivated violence, speaking to victims of racism. He also hears from those who took part in protests against immigration, and counter-protests, at Belfast City Hall during the summer.
Mothers reveal to Tara Mills the challenges of living with their sons with autism, who are being violent towards them. They tell Tara they feel judged and blamed by the system that is meant to protect them and feel there is no safety net. Extraordinary personal videos.
A custody battle in the shadow of war. David left home at ten months old and never came back. Spotlight investigates the story of a mother separated from her child by a looming war and her fight for custody with a father defying the UK authorities. Patrick Fee follows the trail of the boy to Beirut.
Mandy McAuley follows people desperately searching for a home and talks to families struggling to raise children in temporary accommodation. She investigates a support system at breaking point and hears demands for more social housing.
Get up to date on the issues of the day – join Jim Fitzpatrick for challenging questions and answers in Spotlight Special’s TV debate programme. On the panel: Justice Minister Naomi Long, MPs Gavin Robinson, DUP, Chris Hazzard, Sinn Fein, and Simon Hoare, Conservative. And Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond.
