Pop Goes Northern Ireland

1988 (3x3)

Air date: Nov 26, 2017

This episode goes back to 1988, a year which sees Anglo-Irish relations deteriorate in the wake of the Birmingham Six's failed appeal. The situation is exacerbated by the shooting of Catholic man Aidan McAnespie by a soldier at a border checkpoint. The killing of three IRA members in Gibraltar by the SAS leads to a grim sequence of events, among them being Michael Stone's attack on a funeral at Milltown Cemetery and the murder of "the two corporals." The violence continues with SAS operations against the IRA, and the IRA killing a number of soldiers in bomb attacks in Lisburn and Ballygawley.