1987 in Northern Ireland

Centuries:	; ; 20th; 21st; ;
Decades:	1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s;
See also:	1987 in the United Kingdom; 1987 in Ireland; Other events of 1987; List of years in Northern Ireland;

Events during the year 1987 in Northern Ireland.

Incumbents

8 May - Loughgall ambush: The British Army Special Air Service (SAS) kills 8 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members and a civilian in an ambush at Loughgall.
3 July - Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand become the first people to complete a transatlantic flight in a hot air balloon^[1] aboard the balloon Virgin Atlantic Flyer, first touching down in Northern Ireland.^[2]
8 November - Remembrance Day bombing: 11 civilians are killed in an IRA explosion during a Remembrance Day service in Enniskillen.
5 December - Downpatrick & Ardglass Railway begins public operation, the first Irish gauge heritage railway in Ireland.^[3]

Ciarán Carson's The Irish for No poetry collection is published and wins the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award.

Winners: Linfield

Winners: Glentoran 1 - 0 Larne

Robert Dunlop wins the 125cc, 350cc and 1000cc races at the Cookstown 100 to be named “Man of the Meeting”.

27 April - Maurice Gibson, judge (born 1913).
7 May - Colin Blakely, actor (born 1930).
8 May - Patrick Joseph Kelly, Commander of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade, killed by Special Air Service at Loughgall (born 1957).
22 June - John Hewitt, poet (born 1907).
3 December - George Seawright, Loyalist politician.
22 December - John McMichael, leading Ulster Defence Association member, killed in car bomb attack.

^ "Today in History". Express. Washington, D.C. 2012-07-03. p. 32.
^ "Balloon crosses Atlantic". Pittsburgh Press. 1987-07-05. p. A4. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
^ Cochrane, Gerry (2009). Back in Steam: the Downpatrick and County Down Railway from 1982. Newtownards: Colourpoint. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-906578-29-9.