Aside from his GAA background, the shadow of The Troubles was also something Gerry Armstrong chatted to Off The Ball about in his in-depth interview.

The Northern Ireland legend scored the winning goal against hosts Spain at the 1982 World Cup.

That period and the preceding decade, of course, took place at a time of open conflict in the North.

"It was surreal. It was as if we were living in a movie set every day. And it was every day," he recalled.

"From 1969/70, it just escalated and it went from one level to the next. It used to be the barricades went up and the buses burned. Then the petrol bombs came in and then there were guns.

"And it just escalated and got bigger and bigger. It was crazy. I don't know how the people got through it."

The violence of the Troubles also came close to Armstrong on a couple of occasions in the early '70s.

Bomb Scares

"I had two A-Levels and I wanted to be an architect. I went into an architect's office on the Malone Road," he said.

"And after a year I wasn't so keen on it because I was bored. Then I joined the Northern Ireland housing executive commercial property section and worked there until I actually moved to Tottenham.

"But life was not normal. You didn't know what was going to happen each day. Bombs going off. I remember coming out of the office one day and they said it was another bomb scare.

"And we had that many scares that they became regular. Nothing had happened in the previous six or seven and I was not too quick getting down the stairs to get out.

"I remember walking away and we were maybe 50-100 yards away from the housing executive entrance when the bomb went off in a pillar box. They'd put it through a pillar box.

"It wasn't even so much the devastation. It was the noise and it scares the life out of you. We hit the floor. But the next time, we were the first down the stairs, I promise you."

You can watch the full interview with Gerry Armstrong on the video player above.

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