Radio review: Two momentous controversies that shaped the North’s future

A pair of new documentaries look back at the Arms Crisis and the Northern Bank robbery

Neil Blaney, James Kelly, John Kelly and Albert Luykx leave the Circuit Criminal Court, Dublin during the Arms Trial. Photograph: Dermot Barry

As Belfast undergoes its latest bout of strife, two new radio documentary series, produced on either side of the border, use history as a way of reflecting upon the present moment.

Gun Plot (RTÉ Radio 1), a new eight-part podcast series produced by the experienced Documentary On One team, centres on the discovery in 1970 that members of the serving government were conspiring to smuggle guns into Ireland, to help the IRA defend Catholics ...