1975 in Northern Ireland explained

Events during the year 1975 in Northern Ireland.

Incumbents

Secretary of State - Merlyn Rees

Events

31 July – Miami Showband killings: Three members of The Miami Showband, together with two paramilitaries, are killed in an Ulster Volunteer Force ambush in County Down as they return home to Dublin from playing at a dance in Banbridge.

Arts and literature

14 May – Patrick Galvin's We Do It For Love, a satire on The Troubles, opens at the Lyric Theatre (Belfast).
October – Stewart Parker's Spokesong opens at the Lyric (Belfast); his play I’m a Dreamer, Montreal is also written this year.
The punk rock/new wave band which will become The Undertones is formed in Derry.
William Peskett's poems The Nightowl's Dissection are published.

Sport

Football

Irish League

Winners: Linfield

Ballinamallard United F.C. established

Irish Cup

Winners: Coleraine 1 – 1, 0 – 0, 1 – 0 Linfield

Births

18 February – Keith Gillespie, international soccer player.
9 June – Brian Magee, boxer.
21 July - Cara Dillon, folk singer
24 July – Gordon Cooke, cricketer.
27 August – Kyle McCallan, cricketer.
4 September – Andrew Patterson, cricketer.
13 October – Oisín McConville, Armagh Gaelic footballer.
4 November – Warren Christie, actor.

Full date unknown

Nick Laird, novelist and poet.

Deaths

23 February – Ernest Blythe, writer, journalist and theatre manager, member of 1st Dáil and Cabinet Minister (born 1889).
28 April – Billy McMillen, Official Irish Republican Army officer, killed in feud with Irish National Liberation Army (born 1927).
25 October – Padraig Marrinan, artist (born 1906).
25 November – Moyna Macgill, stage and film actress, mother of Angela Lansbury (born 1895).

See also