Sam McBride Northern Ireland Editor
  • Belfast
  • Belfast Telegraph

Sam McBride is the Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph and the Sunday Independent. His 2019 book Burned: The Inside Story of the Cash-for-Ash Scandal and Northern Ireland’s Secretive New Elite became a Sunday Times and Irish Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize. He is a regular presence on radio and television, giving analysis of events which impact on Northern Irish politics and society.

Published In

Belfast Telegraph, Sunday Independent

Focus Areas

  • Northern Ireland

834 Articles
4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Chief vet Robert Huey allowed to retire with £1m pension, despite scandal-hit final two years in ...

Northern Ireland’s chief vet is to retire, it can be revealed, and within months will be picking up a pension worth a...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Hefty bill for Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly as judge throws out ‘scandalous’ attempt to sue Malachi O’...

A senior judge has thrown out a “scandalous” attempt by Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly to claim he should be compensated by ...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

The dangers of consensus: How Stormont was often at its worst when it was unanimous

For decades, Northern Ireland was an example of the danger of conflict. But for years it has exemplified the danger o...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Northern Ireland’s top 100 newsmakers of 2023, No 2: Lough Neagh

Not for more than half a century has Lough Neagh been as famous – but for the worst of reasons.

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Half of fuel sold in NI from 1992-2000 was smuggled across the border, files reveal

About half of all fuel sold in Northern Ireland was being smuggled from the Republic, according to declassified paper...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Up to £40,000 fee for Jon Snow to chair seminar at Stormont labelled ‘outrageous’

The Head of the Civil Service was appalled at the “outrageous sum” being quoted for journalist Jon Snow to lead a sem...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

State papers: London aware DUP intended to take up ministerial posts even if IRA kept its guns

Almost a year before the DUP appointed its first Executive ministers, the NIO privately knew Ian Paisley’s party was ...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Some top NIO officials didn’t want to speak to PUP and UDP after a spate of loyalist killings

Senior NIO officials were split on whether the Government should break off contact with the political representatives...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Queen personally intervened to ensure Irish passport holders from NI got to Buckingham Palace gar...

The Queen requested that those invited to summer garden parties at Buckingham Palace should include Irish passport ho...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Catholic teacher investigated by the RUC on basis of anonymous note

An 80-year-old file from the Second World War which has just been declassified reveals the alarm within Stormont caus...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Stormont releasing fewer files under law it passed to supposedly make itself more transparent

Despite claiming to love transparency, Stormont is getting more secretive, with a dramatic decrease in the number of ...

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4 months ago
belfasttelegraph.co.uk

State papers: IRA was evenly split on peace process just months before ceasefire

Just eight months before the IRA’s first major ceasefire in 1994, intelligence showed there was a “close to 50/50 spl...

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