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Black and white photograph of a man and young girl looking out of a caged up window

1980s

Intense conflict, politics, and efforts toward peace. 

The decade began with the Hunger Strikes of 1981 which saw 10 republican prisoners die without achieving their demand for political status. The signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 gave the Irish government a consultative role in Northern Irish affairs but failed to bring about political stability. Despite the growing importance of electoral politics for the republican movement, IRA violence continued. However, the Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen in 1987 undermined support for Sinn Féin and the IRA, and encouraged some in paramilitary ranks to move further towards democratic politics.

Key Events

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Photograph of policeman at rear doors of a landrover with a rubber bullet gun. A line of policemen behind with riot shields at funeral of a hungerstriker.

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Image of two firemen dousing the smoking wreckage of Printing Works in Union Street Belfast after its destruction in a bomb attack. The bomb was planted by two men who held up the manager as he opened the building; the wreckage is seen behind a 'Stop' roadsign, which forms an ironic, accidental comment on the scene.

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Photograph taken from the roof of Robinson & Cleaver of the crowds at Belfast City Hall during an anti-Anglo-Irish Agreement rally. In the aftermath of the Anglo-Irish Agreement there were demonstrations, strikes and rioting.  The DUP’s Peter Robinson was arrested in Clontibret, Co. Monaghan when he and several hundred loyalists temporarily took over the village in protest. 

Ulster in Danger

This message from Rev. Ian Paisley was published in the wake of a meeting between Taoiseach Charles Haughey and Margaret Thatcher in Dublin on 8 December 1980 at which it was agreed to examine 'the totality of relationships within these islands'.  Believing this to pose a threat to the very existence of Northern Ireland, he promoted a province-wide campaign and a parade departing from the Shankill Road on 28 March 1981. 

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BELUM.Zg14346. Seeds of Injustice Poster Produced by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of November 1985, this poster shows the British and Irish Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Garret FitzGerald, signing the Agreement. The text states ‘Violence has a source, and that source is injustice… New seeds of injustice have been sown in Ulster by the Anglo-Irish Agreement’.
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BELUM.Zg10207. ‘Ulster Says No’ Poster This iconic poster from 1985 featured heavily in unionist protests against the Anglo-Irish Agreement after it was signed at Hillsborough in November of that year. The ‘Ulster Says No’ campaign was led by Ulster Unionist Party leader James Molyneaux and Democratic Unionist Party leader Rev. Ian Paisley. It is associated with a rally at Belfast City Hall attended by an audience estimated at over 100,000 people.
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BELUM.Zg14346. Seeds of Injustice Poster Produced by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of November 1985, this poster shows the British and Irish Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Garret FitzGerald, signing the Agreement. The text states ‘Violence has a source, and that source is injustice… New seeds of injustice have been sown in Ulster by the Anglo-Irish Agreement’.

Traditional industries continued to decline. Male unemployment passed 20%. Government job creation led to DeLorean Motors' brief opening and collapse in 1982. Belfast's nightlife re-emerged on the ‘Golden Mile’ outside the city center's security cordon.

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BELUM.Zg10198. Workers’ Research Unit Poster. This poster was produced by the Workers’ Research Unit after the first private health clinic was opened in Northern Ireland. An independent group of researchers, the Workers’ Research Unit aimed to provide information on matters of interest to socialists, including the effects of the economic recession, and issued a series of ‘Belfast Bulletins’.
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BELUM.W2018.19.1. Ulster Motor Show Programme. The DeLorean DMC 12 went on show to the public at the Ulster Motor Show in Belfast in 1981, at which John DeLorean himself was present. The DeLorean Motor Company was based in Dunmurry, but was unable to make production viable and declared bankruptcy in 1982. Just three years later the car featured in the Back to the Future films and has since gained an iconic status. You can see a DeLorean DMC 12 on display at the Transport Museum in Cultra.
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BELUM.Zg10198. Workers’ Research Unit Poster. This poster was produced by the Workers’ Research Unit after the first private health clinic was opened in Northern Ireland. An independent group of researchers, the Workers’ Research Unit aimed to provide information on matters of interest to socialists, including the effects of the economic recession, and issued a series of ‘Belfast Bulletins’.