On August 27th, 1979, the small village of Mullaghmore, Co Sligo was thrust into the headlines when an IRA bomb killed Lord Mountbatten.
On the same day, the Warrenpoint Massacre - an IRA ambush which killed 18 British soldiers in Co Down - also took place.
As fate would have it, Dundalk FC were set to face Belfast side Linfield two days later in the first leg of a European Cup preliminary round tie that would kickstart an adventure that would see the League of Ireland club come within an away goal of overturning Celtic and setting up a glamour tie with Real Madrid.
That European Cup journey is the subject of a new documentary on Setanta Sports, titled Once In A Lifetime and tonight on Off The Ball, the club's then defender and future league-winning manager Dermot Keely and director Shane Tobin joined us to tell us their sides of the fascinating story.
"Woah, you could feel the tension and it was completely different to anything we've ever had before," said Keely of the Linfield tie, which included riots at Oriel Park involving the Belfast club's fans.
"Right from the get-go, there was a whole nasty feeling that something might happen. Like a doomsday thing."
Tobin also detailed the events which kicked off the riots, while Keely picked out some of the "frightening" scenes from the first leg.
Dermot Keely ©INPHO/Matt Browne
While Dundalk advance past Linfield by winning the second leg on neutral turf before overcoming Maltese side Hibernians, that set up a two-legged tie with Celtic in the European Cup second round.
The Lilywhites gave a good account of themselves, losing 3-2 at Celtic Park and Keely says the two weeks leading into the second leg felt like "heaven" and made him feel like a "proper footballer" and admitted that he bunked off his teaching job in the build-up - with the excuse being imaginary piles.
Dundalk were "unlucky" to miss out as he said, drawing the second leg 0-0 and afterwards Celtic came calling for Keely's signature and as he said "that's a story in itself".
And why did he turn them down? Listen to the full interview via the podcast.
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