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Pop Goes Northern Ireland blends news footage, archive material and the musical hits of the time to provide an enthralling and entertaining potted history of Northern Ireland dealing with our difficult recent past in a way that is entertaining, informative, fresh and accessible to all.

This episode focuses on 1978. The NI Assembly continues to sit but remains without any powers due to a nationalist boycott. The year sees the beginning of the controversial 'supergrass trials.' Serious questions are raised when it turns out that many of these 'supergrasses' have been granted immunity from prosecution and given money to testify.

Republican paramilitaries respond by kidnapping the close relatives of certain supergrasses with the aim of getting them to withdraw their evidence. The Republic of Ireland sets up the New Ireland Forum to make recommendations on new all-Ireland constitutional arrangements.

In the general election, Gerry Adams wins the seat of Belfast West, underlining the political advance of Sinn Fein. September sees a mass escape of republican prisoners from the top-security Maze Prison. The violence continues throughout the year. In November three protestant church-goers are killed in what becomes known as the 'Darkley Massacre'.

The year ends on a grim note when an IRA bomb explodes outside Harrods in London, killing seven people.