麻豆社

The series that blends archive with the thumping hits of the time.

This week Pop Goes Northern Ireland focuses on 1984. The violence continues across Northern Ireland and March sees the attempted murder of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who is shot by the UDA. May brings the publication of the New Ireland Forum report, which advocates a United Ireland but also suggests a federal Ireland, or joint authority, over Northern Ireland by the Irish and British governments.

Sean Downes is killed in August by a plastic bullet when the RUC try to arrest Noraid leader Martin Galvin in west Belfast, while September sees the Marita Ann, a boat carrying seven tonnes of arms for the IRA, intercepted by the Irish navy. In October, an IRA bomb at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, kills five people - prime minister Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative cabinet had been the target of the attack. The year comes to a close with the prime minister bluntly rejecting all the recommendations of the New Ireland Forum report.