1987 in Northern Ireland

← 1986 1985 1984 1987 in Northern Ireland → 1988 1989 1990
Centuries:	20th 21st
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	1987 in the United Kingdom 1987 in Ireland Other events of 1987 List of years in Northern Ireland

Incumbents

• Monarch - Elizabeth II

Events

• 8 May - The British Army Special Air Service (SAS) kills 8 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members and a civilian in an ambush at Loughgall.
• 3 July - Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand become the first people to complete a transatlantic flight in a hot air balloon^[1] aboard the balloon Virgin Atlantic Flyer, first touching down in Northern Ireland.^[2]
• 8 November - Remembrance Day bombing: 11 civilians are killed in an IRA explosion during a Remembrance Day service in Enniskillen.
• 5 December - Downpatrick & Ardglass Railway begins public operation, the first Irish gauge heritage railway in Ireland.^[3]

Arts and literature

• Ciarán Carson's The Irish for No poetry collection is published and wins the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award.

Sport

Football

• Irish League

Winners: Linfield

• Irish Cup

Winners: Glentoran 1 - 0 Larne

• Warrenpoint Town F.C. formed.

Motorcycling

• Robert Dunlop wins the 125cc, 350cc and 1000cc races at the Cookstown 100 to be named “Man of the Meeting”.

Births

• 2 January - Daryl Fordyce, soccer player.
• 2 March - Jonathan Rea, motorcycle racer.
• 4 July - Jason Smyth, paralympian sprinter.
• 29 August - Tony Kane, soccer player.
• 16 September - Kyle Lafferty, international soccer player.
• 17 September - Greg Thompson, cricketer.
• 6 October - Michael O'Connor, soccer player.
• 25 October - Darron Gibson, soccer player.

Deaths

• 27 April - Maurice Gibson, judge (born 1913).
• 7 May - Colin Blakely, actor (born 1930).
• 8 May - Patrick Joseph Kelly, Commander of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade, killed by Special Air Service at Loughgall (born 1957).
• 22 June - John Hewitt, poet (born 1907).
• 3 December - George Seawright, Loyalist politician.
• 22 December - John McMichael, leading Ulster Defence Association member, killed in car bomb attack.

Full date unknown

• Alan Barnes, architect.
• Jimmy Warnock, boxer (born 1912).

References

1. "Today in History". Express. Washington, D.C. 2012-07-03. p. 32.
2. "Balloon crosses Atlantic". Pittsburgh Press. 1987-07-05. p. A4. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
3. Cochrane, Gerry (2009). Back in Steam: the Downpatrick and County Down Railway from 1982. Newtownards: Colourpoint. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-906578-29-9.