Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland

When tensions between Protestants and Catholics explode, the British Army is deployed.

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.

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.

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.

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.