1987 in Northern Ireland
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Events during the year 1987 in Northern Ireland.
Incumbents
Events
- 8 May - Loughgall ambush: 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{{cite news|title=Today in History|newspaper=Express|location=Washington, D.C.|date=2012-07-03|page=32}} aboard the balloon Virgin Atlantic Flyer, first touching down in Northern Ireland.{{cite news|title=Balloon crosses Atlantic|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19870705&id=n5McAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Q2MEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5123,1394075|newspaper=Pittsburgh Press|date=1987-07-05|page=A4|accessdate=2014-05-29}}
- 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.{{cite book|first=Gerry|last=Cochrane|title=Back in Steam: the Downpatrick and County Down Railway from 1982|location=Newtownards|publisher=Colourpoint|year=2009|isbn=978-1-906578-29-9|page=95}}
Arts and literature
- Ciarán Carson's The Irish for No poetry collection is published and wins the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award.
Sport
=Football=
=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, footballer.
- 21 February - Carl Frampton, boxer.
- 2 March - Jonathan Rea, motorcycle racer.
- 4 July - Jason Smyth, paralympian sprinter.
- 29 August - Tony Kane, footballer.
- 16 September - Kyle Lafferty, international soccer player.
- 17 September - Greg Thompson, cricketer.
- 6 October - Michael O'Connor, footballer.
- 25 October - Darron Gibson, footballer.
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).