Hello, and thank you for downloading the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service.

With me, Ailes Hart.

It's 1988 and Northern Ireland is experiencing one of the bloodiest years in the history

of the 30-year conflict.

Not late part of the 1980s was a very difficult time in Derry and in Northern Ireland in general.

There was an intensification of violence of the sectarian violence that had plagued the

north for many, many years that seemed to get a lot worse.

That's Paul McLean.

He grew up during what became known as the Troubles.

A bitter conflict between those who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom

and those who wanted a United Ireland.

Today, he's lead singer of punk rock band The Undertones, but back then he was in his

early 20s, eating out a living, playing music and taking shifts at the local radio station.

At that time, people had to bear in mind that Northern Ireland was a heavily militarized

zone, possibly one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world.

We didn't have ordinary police.

We had heavily armed police who drove around in very visibly heavily armed militaristic

vehicles.

We also had the British Army themselves who were still conducting very visible, very active

tours of Judy, on the streets of major urban places like Derry, the bogside where I grew.

I was in a band, we were quite popular in Derry at the time, we were called the Carolines.

We would play the Guidower bar in Waterloo Street, which was almost like our version of

...