This event has now finished.
  • Date and time: Sunday 20 June 2021, 1pm to 2pm
  • Location: Online only
  • Admission: Free admission, booking required

Event details

On the morning of Saturday 22 April 1978, members of an Active Service Unit of the IRA hijacked a car and crossed the countryside to the town of Lisburn. Within an hour, they had killed an off-duty policeman in front of his young son.

Award-winning journalist Ian Cobain, author of Anatomy of a Killing, will examine the hours leading up to the killing, and the months and years of violence, attrition and rebellion surrounding it. Drawing on interviews with those most closely involved, as well as court files, police notes, military intelligence reports, IRA strategy papers, memoirs and government records, he will provide a unique perspective on the Troubles, and a revelatory work of investigative journalism.

 

This event is hosted live on Zoom Webinar. You’ll receive a link to join a couple of days before the event takes place and a reminder an hour before. During the event, you can ask questions via a Q&A function but audience cameras and microphones will remain muted throughout.

 

Book sales

You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner.  In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.  

About the speaker

Ian Cobain is an award-winning investigative reporter whose work has appeared in the Guardian, The Times, the Irish Times and Middle East Eye. For his journalism he has won he Martha Gellhorn Prize and the Paul Foot Award, along with two Amnesty International media awards. His first book, Cruel Britannia (Portobello 2012) won the Paddy Power Total Politics Award for Debut Political Book of the Year. His second book was The History Thieves (Portobello 2016).

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