This week Pop Goes Northern Ireland focusses on 1972. A tumultuous year with the watershed events of Bloody Sunday and the imposition of direct rule.The programme also charts the rise of the Loyalist movement, Vanguard, and the emergence of the UDA as a major paramilitary force. A brief moment of hope engendered by an IRA ceasefire evaporates in the carnage of Bloody Friday and Claudy. Through Operation Motorman, the army brings to an end the infamous "no-go" areas.

This week Pop Goes Northern Ireland focusses on 1977: A year which sees the government confront and defeat a Loyalist strike led by Ian Paisley and Ernest Baird, and backed by the UDA. Amidst tight security the Queen visits Northern Ireland as part of the silver jubilee celebrations.It's also the year in which the Peace People's Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams receive the Noble Peace Prize.

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.