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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

BBC Radio Ulster

The teams assume nothing as they examine events through fresh eyes.

Assume Nothing

The story of a 35 year old nursing assistant who collapsed and died following an altercation with a patient at a psychiatric hospital in Northern Ireland.

35 years later, her family is still searching for answers.

Episode 1: The Last Shift

23rd March, 1991. Mary is finishing her night shift when a patient suddenly becomes violent. A colleague hears a loud commotion and rushes to help.
Meanwhile, Mary’s husband Norman is on his way to collect her, unaware of an unfolding tragedy.

Readings by:

Declan Rodgers
Christine Clare
Colm Herron

Series produced by Nathan Edgar

Executive editor Andy Martin

1. The Last Shift

Short Description 
8. The Journal 

Medium Description 
A security breach. A top-secret surveillance operation. A government collapsed. The exposure and death of a spy. 

Long Description 
Twenty years on, nobody has been convicted of the murder of Denis Donaldson. One potentially key piece of evidence, a journal he was supposedly writing around the time of his death, is being held by Irish police. His family wants it returned, but their efforts are unsuccessful.

8. The Journal

A matter of months after he confesses to being a spy, Denis Donaldson is murdered at a remote cottage in Donegal. Questions are asked about his death, his life, and his true loyalties. 

Presenter: Martin McCann 
Additional Voice: Nicolas Boulton 

Produced by BBC Northern Ireland

7. At the Double

A journalist gets a tip that a political backroom man who’s just confessed to being a spy is living in the wilds of Donegal. He sets out to track him down and secure a major scoop. 

The old, whitewashed stone cottage where the spy is living has a dark history that’s about to take another chilling turn. 

Presenter: Martin McCann 
Additional Voice: Nicolas Boulton 

Produced by BBC Northern Ireland

6. The Cottage

The dust has barely settled on the shock news that prosecutors have dropped all charges against three men accused of running a republican spy ring in government, when one of them makes a jaw dropping confession. 

Presenter: Martin McCann 
Additional Voice: Nicolas Boulton 

Produced by BBC Northern Ireland

5. In the Public Interest

Four people are arrested when police swoop to break up what they claim is a republican spying network operating at the heart of Northern Ireland’s volatile government. A convoluted legal process ends with an outcome nobody sees coming. 

Presenter: Martin McCann 
Additional Voice: Nicolas Boulton 

Produced by BBC Northern Ireland

4. Disclosure

A massive surveillance operation into IRA intelligence gathering has led police to the home of a political party administrator. They recover material they believe to have been stolen from government offices, but some of the intelligence is missing. Their efforts to find those missing items turns the covert operation into a full-blown political scandal that threatens the future of Stormont’s shaky coalition. 

Presenter: Martin McCann 
Additional Voice: Nicolas Boulton 

Produced by BBC Northern Ireland

3. Politically Pear Shaped

Police investigating a daring break in, supposedly by the IRA, at their counter terrorism unit’s headquarters get a tip off. Apparently, there’s another republican intelligence operation happening and its reach extends to the heart of Northern Ireland’s volatile government. 

Presenter: Martin McCann 
Additional Voice: Nicolas Boulton 

Produced by BBC Northern Ireland

2. The Easy Art of Espionage

A daring raid at the Belfast headquarters of Special Branch, the police counter terrorism unit, triggers a massive investigation. The finger of blame is pointed at the IRA, at a time when the paramilitary ceasefire is just about holding but government in Northern Ireland is far from stable.

Presenter: Martin McCann 
Additional Voice: Nicolas Boulton 

Produced by BBC Northern Ireland

1. Agent of Influence

In August 2020 Katie Simpson was brutally murdered by Jonathan Creswell, the partner of her older sister.

For months he convinces her family, the hospital, the pathologist and even the police that she'd taken her own life. 

He portrays himself as the Good Samaritan, who'd tried to save her.

But for a small group of people, close friends and family, a Detective Sergeant and journalist Tanya Fowles, the truth about how she'd died might never have come out.

For the first time, Tanya reveals how in the weeks after Katie's death, while she'd been asking questions of the police about Creswell, she receives a phone call from someone employed by one of Northern Ireland's politicians.

The message is clear, unusual and unnerving. 

The journalist has no idea how her caller knew she was enquiring about the case as she hadn't published a word about it yet.

But it convinces her more than ever that there is definitely more to Katie's death than suicide.

8. The Journal

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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