Trisha Shetty (Editor)

1979 in Northern Ireland

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Centuries:
  
20th 21st

Decades:
  
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

Incumbents

  • Monarch - Elizabeth II
  • January to March

  • 5 January - Two members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), are killed in Ardoyne, Belfast, when the car bomb they are transporting explodes prematurely.
  • 4 February - A former prison officer and his wife are shot dead at their home in Oldpark Road, Belfast, by the IRA.
  • 17 February - Twelve people are killed in the La Mon restaurant bombing near Belfast.
  • 20 February - Eleven Loyalists, known as the Shankill Butchers, are sentenced to life imprisonment for 112 offences, including nineteen sectarian murders.
  • 24 February - Two Catholic teenagers, mistaken in the dark for a British Army foot patrol, are killed by the IRA in a remote controlled bomb explosion at Darkley, County Armagh.
  • 16 March - The Bennett Report, investigating allegations of ill-treatment of people held in interrogation centres in Northern Ireland, is published and Government undertakes to implement major recommendations.
  • 22 March - The IRA kills Richard Sykes, British Ambassador to the Netherlands, and his Dutch valet, in a gun attack in The Hague, Netherlands.
  • 22 March - The IRA carries out a series of attacks across Northern Ireland with 24 bomb explosions.
  • 30 March - Airey Neave, Conservative Party Spokesman on Northern Ireland, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) booby trap bomb attached to his car at the House of Commons, London.
  • April to June

  • 5 April - Two British Army soldiers are shot dead by the IRA while standing outside Andersonstown joint Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army base in Belfast.
  • 11 April - Two British Army soldiers die as the result of a gun attack carried out by the IRA in Ballymurphy, Belfast.
  • 16 April - A prison officer is shot dead by the IRA as he leaves a church in Clogher, County Tyrone, where his sister had just been married.
  • 17 April - Four RUC officers are killed when the IRA explodes a 1,000-pound van bomb at Bessbrook, County Armagh.
  • 19 April - A female prison officer is shot dead and three colleagues are injured in an IRA gun and grenade attack outside Armagh women's prison.
  • 19 April - A British Army school cadet officer is shot dead by an IRA sniper in Belfast.
  • 7 June - European Parliament election, the first direct election to the European Parliament. The Democratic Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party and Official Ulster Unionist Party each gain an MEP.
  • July to September

  • 14 July - In Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Gaelic Athletic Association supporters parade silently in protest against the British Army's commandeering of part of the local football pitch.
  • 27 August - In the Warrenpoint ambush the IRA kill eighteen British soldiers in two bomb explosions.
  • 11 September - BBC Radio Foyle begins broadcasting.
  • 29 September - Pope John Paul II, in Drogheda at the start of a 3-day visit to Ireland, appeals for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. Plans for him to extend his visit to Northern Ireland have been abandoned.
  • Football

  • Irish League
  • Irish Cup
  • Motorcycling

  • Robert Dunlop makes his road race debut at the Temple 100.
  • January to June

  • 11 January - Michael Duff, soccer player.
  • 27 February - Neil Anderson, cricketer.
  • 3 April - Neil Best, rugby player.
  • 15 May - Sean Friars, soccer player.
  • 18 May - Richard McKinney, soccer player.
  • 25 May - Andy Kirk, soccer player.
  • 28 May - Michael Halliday, soccer player.
  • 19 June - John Duddy, boxer.
  • 20 June - Stuart Robinson, radio DJ.
  • 30 June - Darren Kelly, soccer player.
  • July to December

  • 30 July - Graeme McDowell, golfer.
  • 3 August - Paul McCloskey, boxer.
  • 5 August - Richard Graham, soccer player.
  • 5 August - David Healy, international soccer player.
  • 8 November - Aaron Hughes, international soccer player.
  • 24 November - Aidan O'Kane, soccer player.
  • 5 December - Gareth McAuley, soccer player.
  • Deaths

  • 4 June - James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Abercorn, soldier and politician (born 1904).
  • 10 August - Joseph O'Doherty, Sinn Féin MP, Fianna Fáil TD and Seanad member (born 1891).
  • 15 November - Patrick McGilligan - Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael TD and Cabinet Minister (born 1889).
  • 17 December - Harold Jackson, cricketer (born 1888).
  • Full date unknown

  • Billy McCracken, footballer and football manager (born 1883).
  • References

    1979 in Northern Ireland Wikipedia