20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Sons Of Anarchy

17. That IRA Stuff Was Dead On (Sadly)

Despite being set mainly in the fictional town of Charming, located somewhere in California's Central Valley (which apparently made for some sweaty shooting days whilst the show was still running), Sons Of Anarchy did managed to explore further than its usual base of operations on a number of occasions. A prominent storyline through the early seasons involved SAMCRO dealing with former IRA member from Northern Ireland. In the third season they even buggered off to Belfast for a bit, on the run from the law who'd finally decided to crack down on the uneasy alliance between police and bikers that existed in Charming. The interiors for this whole plot line were filmed at the usual Californian sound stages, but they actually did do some location filming for the exteriors. Which included the hotel the gang stayed at. Eventually the Europa Hotel wound up being the location for a fairly explosive turns of events for the SAMCRO summer holidays. Which is tragically true to life, since the site of that major disaster was once one of the most bombed sites in Northern Ireland by the IRA during The Troubles.