4. Panic
Assume Nothing10 Maalis 2025

4. Panic

Strikes, panic, stock market shares in freefall. Corporate espionage has some very odd results.

In this series, casually scanning old newspaper archives, Ophelia Byrne comes across an odd headline: “Hush hush process in Ballyclare firm.”

The newspaper was printed in 1967. “Strictly no photographs” was the order issued at the opening of the new factory.

“90 guests steered clear of a top-secret process.” All workers “will have to sign an oath of secrecy.”

What, she wonders, is this factory making?

Ophelia doesn’t know it when she starts out, but her subsequent investigation into this company, Turner and Newall, will take her from a small town in Northern Ireland across the Irish Sea to places like Rochdale, Leeds and London.

It will bring her to one million documents released for a transatlantic trial – papers which show cover-ups and even corporate espionage.

The product, of course, is asbestos. You may think you know the story – it’s a dangerous substance.

But Ophelia marries previous journalistic investigations to new documents which reveal what government agencies knew about its risks, and when.

She combs through company correspondence which the manufacturers claimed did not exist, and clearly never imagined would become public. This is the story of Killer Dust, from mountains of the material in mines still operating in countries today, to the skyscrapers of Manhattan, and the terraced streets of the north of England.

It is the story too of the people who fought and died for the truth to expose the reckless pursuit of profit in the making of one of the most dangerous building materials on the planet.

Presenter/ Producer: Ophelia Byrne Studio Engineer: Gary Bawden Executive Editor: Andy Martin

Jaksot(194)

Episode 1: The Find

Episode 1: The Find

In the summer of 1969, weeks before the Troubles would ignite, children playing in the rubble of a demolition site struck gold! While searching for treasure hundreds, maybe thousands of gold sovereign...

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Episode 2: The Rush

Episode 2: The Rush

In the summer of 1969, weeks before the Troubles would ignite, children playing in the rubble of a demolition site struck gold! While searching for treasure hundreds, maybe thousands of gold sovereign...

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Episode 3: Whose Gold?

Episode 3: Whose Gold?

In the summer of 1969, weeks before the Troubles would ignite, children playing in the rubble of a demolition site struck gold! While searching for treasure hundreds, maybe thousands of gold sovereign...

1 Huhti 202314min

Episode 4: Tragedy

Episode 4: Tragedy

In the summer of 1969, weeks before the Troubles would ignite, children playing in the rubble of a demolition site struck gold! While searching for treasure hundreds, maybe thousands of gold sovereign...

1 Huhti 202314min

Episode 5: (Long, long) After the Gold Rush

Episode 5: (Long, long) After the Gold Rush

In the summer of 1969, weeks before the Troubles would ignite, children playing in the rubble of a demolition site struck gold! While searching for treasure hundreds, maybe thousands of gold sovereign...

1 Huhti 202314min

Episode 1: The Train

Episode 1: The Train

Heavy winds and rain batter the seaside town of Portrush in January 2009. A fourteen-year-old boy’s night out has gone badly wrong. He lies on the railway tracks in front of an oncoming train. Less th...

7 Tammi 202321min

Episode 2: The Call

Episode 2: The Call

We retrace Ryan Quinn’s movements that day. Exactly where had he been and what brought him to the tracks? A breath-taking phone call strikes fear into the heart of a concerned father. Produced and pr...

7 Tammi 202319min

Episode 3: Attacked?

Episode 3: Attacked?

We know how Ryan died and that he allegedly ran from a nearby bar and got trapped on the tracks. But why? Serious allegations emerge about what happened before Ryan found himself in the path of an onc...

7 Tammi 202317min

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