This week Pop Goes Northern Ireland focusses on 1980. The government holds a constitutional conference in the hope of making progress on a political solution to Northern Ireland. The project is fatally undermined by the refusal of the Ulster Unionist Party to take part. The conference is wound up by March without any significant agreement on a way forward. Meanwhile the violence continues. There is heightened tension in the Maze prison over the demand for ‘Special Category Status’. The issue comes to the boil when Republican prisoners end their ‘Dirty Protest’ and commence a hunger strike. The strike is called off in confusing circumstance after a last minute ‘deal’ between Republicans and the government. However the government and Republican versions of what has been agreed significantly differ. It is soon apparent that this dispute has not been settled...
