Northern Ireland retro: 26 nostalgic photos taking you back to 1981, from family fun to famous car

The new romantics ruled the charts, with the Human League and Adam & The Ants scoring some of the year’s biggest hits.

Indiana Jones thrilled moviegoers in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Only Fools and Horses made its TV debut.

These photos take you back to the early 80s - 1981, to be specific - capturing life around Northern Ireland as it looked then.

It was the year Northern Ireland produced one of its greatest exports, the iconic DeLorean car.

While it may have been a commercial failure, the design classic, with its gull-winged doors, went on to secure legendary status a few years later as the time-travelling car in the Back to the Future films.

The first DeLoreans can be seen rolling off the production line in this retro photo gallery, which also features days out at the horses, family fun at the motorcycle trials, shoppers queuing for the sales, and much more.

The nostalgic pictures take us inside the former home of Belfast’s oldest barber shop, which counted George Best among its customers; they show a proud mum with her New Year’s Day baby; and they capture the end of an era on the railway tracks.

Do these photos bring back any memories for you of the 80s? What do you miss most about life back then?

If you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, you might like this pictorial look back at life in 1989.

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