The Troubles Podcast

After 28 years of bans, Drumcree is back. The story of the 2026 Garvaghy Road standoff: a court case, a midnight legal battle, and a crisis that threatened to bring down Stormont.

For 28 years, the Parades Commission said no. Every July, Portadown’s Orangemen applied to walk home from Drumcree Church along the Garvaghy Road, and every July they were refused. Then, in the summer of 2026, a procedural mistake changed everything.

In part two, we follow how one of the Troubles’ most notorious flashpoints ignited again: a court case that exposed the Parades Commission’s sloppy workings, a midnight series of legal battles, and thousands of people blocking the Garvaghy Road in the pouring rain.

We look at loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, Garvaghy Road spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith, a First Minister standing at the protest, and a two-week standoff that ended with the Northern Ireland Secretary stepping in, and threatened to bring down Stormont.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Few parades in the world are as controversial as the one at Drumcree Church in Portadown.

In this episode, we go back to the very beginning and try to explain how exactly one mile of road became a flashpoint for the entire conflict in Northern Ireland.

From the founding of Portadown as a plantation town to the birth of the Orange Order and the Obins Street dispute, we trace the route that led to the first standoff on the Garvaghy Road in 1995.

With Drumcree back in the headlines, part 2 will focus on current events.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the 1990s, Lee Lavis was a young British soldier sent to South Armagh. Crossmaglen. Bandit Country. In this episode, I sit down with Lee to hear what it was like to patrol the fields and border roads of South Armagh at the height of the Provisional IRA's campaign there.

We then talk about life after, in which Lee experienced drug addiction

and homelessness.

This is the first episode of Season 7. Lee will also be joining me at CrimeCon London on the first weekend of October for a panel on the prosecution of British soldiers for Troubles-era killings so come along and say hi if you are there.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on the podcast, Johnny Adair talked about his role during the Troubles.

"Mad Dog" Adair progressed from a skinhead youth to lead the UDA's C Company, directing over 40 murders, robberies, and operations.

He waged a war against the Nationalist population, but he wanted more and was eventually expelled from Northern Ireland after turning on his fellow loyalists and trying to seize control of the Shankill.

This is his story in his own words.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair played a significant role in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He commanded the UDA's C Company and through his leadership they enacted a fierce campaign of violence against Republican paramilitaries and the Nationalist population as a whole.

For the first time in the Troubles, loyalists were out-killing republicans and much of this was down to the actions of C Company.

But Adair wanted more power and ended up taking the fight to fellow loyalists, as he ousted the UVF from the Shankill.

But this move would see the full weight of the UDA come down upon him, and would lead to his expulsion from Northern Ireland.

This is the story of Johnny Adair.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices