Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland

Episode 1: It Wasn’t Like a Movie Anymore
How tensions between Catholic and Protestant communities quickly escalated into conflict.

A time of relative peace in Northern Ireland escalates to full-blown conflict. When tensions between Catholic and Protestant communities explode, the British Army is deployed. With the situation compounded by tactical mistakes, soldiers quickly find themselves caught up in violent clashes, leading to 13 unarmed Catholics being shot dead in Derry in an event known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.

Episode 2: Do Paramilitaries Lie Awake at Night?
As divisions widen and intensify, music brings some members of the divide together.

It’s 1972, and community divisions have deepened and intensified. Many working-class Catholic and Protestant communities are in the grip of paramilitary organizations. A deeply segregated society is established as the violence escalates. But punk music emerges as a unifying force for some young Catholics and Protestants, who defy the chaos and segregated world around them.

Episode 3: So Many Broken Hearts
The killing and violence has a devastating impact on the people of Northern Ireland.

Fatigue sets in as a desperate nation suffers endless violence, misery and unrest. The devastating impact of The Troubles is explored through the stories of three women, as IRA prisoners begin a hunger strike in protest against Margaret Thatcher’s policies. Tit for tat killings, car bombs and assassinations are now part of everyday life in Northern Ireland.

Episode 4: Loose Talk Costs Lives
Attempts to infiltrate paramilitary groups leads to more suspicion and more violence.

By the late 1980s, as the Troubles escalate, the news in Northern Ireland is a daily list of the dead. But 14 bloody days in March 1988 mark a new level of harrowing savagery. Tensions rise as the police and army infiltrate paramilitary organizations to gain intelligence. No one can be trusted as fear and suspicion run rife, leading to even more violence and devastation.

Episode 5: Who Wants to Live Like That?
An escalation of violence proceeded the Good Friday agreement and an end to the Troubles.

Rather than a slow cessation of violence, the Troubles seemed to escalate during the 1990s. But behind the scenes, following years of negotiations between politicians and paramilitaries, an IRA ceasefire was announced in 1994. There is widespread joy when the Good Friday Agreement was finally announced in 1998. But peace came at a cost. The violence of the past is hard to forget.