From the redevelopment of the waterfront area to the closure of some major employers, the decade was a time of great social and economic change in Carrickfergus.
Join us in our time machine as we leave 2025 and take a look back at Carrick in the 1980s – let us know which photos surprised you the most.
5. Bygone Carrick
This throwback image shows some much-missed former tenants of High Street, from Zico and the Old Tech Griddle to the Post Office. Photo: Carrickfergus Museum
6. Bygone Carrick
While this photo is of a much older vintage, the shamrock pond remained a popular feature of Shaftesbury Park through the later decades of the 20th century. In 2024, an archaeological dig at the park sparked fond memories for some of paddling in the pond, which is thought to have been filled in some time in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Photo: Carrickfergus Museum
7. Bygone Carrick
Courtaulds was the first of the man-made fibre industries to arrive in Northern Ireland, opening a factory for the production of Rayon in Carrickfergus in 1951. By 1965, over 1,300 people were employed. Its closure, in 1981, was a devastating blow to the town. Photo: Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
8. Bygone Carrick
The Fergus Inn hosted all sorts of functions and was a weekend 'must' for revellers. The Belfast Road venue was then redeveloped as a hotel, and is now earmarked for a nursing home. This pic from the archive features members of Whitehead Primary School PTA who organised a country and western evening in the Fergus Inn to raise money for school funds in 1987. Photo: National World