How Belfast Got The Blues: A Cultural History of Popular Music in the 1960s

In their new book, How Belfast Got the Blues, Noel McLaughlin and Joanna Braniff unearth Belfast’s largely overlooked but significant role in the broader relationship between popular music and politics in the 1960s.
In a forensic cultural history explored through popular music, the authors have uncovered events that have been hidden from history, with Belfast emerging as far more than another ‘provincial’ city looking on at the momentous events of the decade from the margins.

Northern Ireland’s capital comes into focus as a globally connected city, with a greater influence on the broader 60s narrative of pop and politics than has been previously countenanced.