# 1979 in Northern Ireland

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Events during the year 1979 in Northern Ireland.

## Incumbents

* Secretary of State – Roy Mason (until 5 May), Humphrey Atkins (from 5 May)

## Events
### 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.
* 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.

## Sport
### Football

* Irish League
       Winners: Linfield
* Irish Cup
       Winners: Cliftonville 3 – 2 Portadown

### Motorcycling

* Robert Dunlop makes his road race debut at the Temple 100.

## Births
### January to June

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

### July to December

* 30 July – Graeme McDowell, golfer.
* 3 August – Paul McCloskey, boxer.
* 5 August – Richard Graham, footballer.
* 5 August – David Healy, footballer.
* 8 November – Aaron Hughes, international footballer.
* 24 November – Aidan O'Kane, footballer.
* 5 December – Gareth McAuley, footballer.
* 31 December – Emma Little-Pengelly, Democratic Unionist Party MP.

## 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).