In our document on Rosemary Nelson, we included an appendix that listed all known loyalist attacks from 1 January 1999 through 30 April 1999. Given the nature of the document the list focused on loyalist attacks. Since that time, we have continued to document attacks across the North, expanding our remit to include all incidents that might be considered sectarian and/or racist. (Sometimes, however, the motives are not always clear.)
The following list of sectarian/race attacks and related issues is from 01 through 30 August 2000. We rely on a number of sources for our information, but this is by no means comprehensive. If you find incidents that have been left off the list please contact us.
Because of the extent of the ongoing loyalist feud, the PFC has kept a log of incidents relating to it and compiled a digest for readers (see update Feuding within loyalism).
1 August
Drumcree Orangemen were criticised for selling medals celebrating the siege of Drumcree.
The Orange Standard, published the same day, blamed nationalists and republicans for provoking the violence in July. In the same article the Orange Order washed its hands of any blame for the violence, caused, it claimed, by "unwanted" supporters, and attacked the Catholic Church for its criticism of the violence. The article made no mention of the role of Portadown Orangeman David Jones who had called for roadblocks, or of Harold Gracey who had refused to condemn the violence (IN).
Two houses were firebombed, one in Sion Mills and the other in Eglinton, both near Derry, in what are thought to have been loyalist sectarian attacks. A car was burned and tyres were also slashed. (IN)
A 31-year-old loyalist was remanded at Newtownabbey magistrates’ court where he faced a charge of possession of a nail bomb on July 8.
2 August
Apprentice Boys and representatives of the Bogside Residents Group in Derry reached agreement whereby Derry Apprentice Boys would hold their 12 August annual Relief of Derry parades unopposed. The Agreement was made subject to certain conditions, including restrictions on the playing of tunes at certain points, that only the local ‘Boys’ would march around the walls in the morning and that there would be no paramilitary paraphernalia displayed or sectarian tunes played. (IN/DJ/BBC)
3 August
Nationalists, protesting outside Newtownabbey Borough council about its discriminatory employment practise, were confronted by baseball bat and cudgel wielding loyalists. (IN)
4 August
A Belfast man was hospitalised after an aggravated racial assault outside the Chinese takeaway he was opening. The attack has chilling echoes of the murder of Simon Tang, who was assaulted two years ago by racists wearing balaclavas and wielding baseball bats, as he closed up his fast food takeaway in Carrickfergus. (CWA)
Two South Belfast men, who had previously been warned that their files were in the hands of loyalists,
received bullets in the post accompanied by identical hand written death threats. (A N, IN)
A Catholic School in west Belfast suffered several hundred thousand pounds worth of damage in an arson attack that has been blamed on loyalists. Education Minister Martin McGuinness condemned the attack. (IN)
5 August
Sarafield GAA Hall on the Coolnasillagh Road, Garvagh and Donaghmore Orange Hall, Dungannon, were damaged in fires (RUC,IN)
A Catholic home in Larne was attacked by stone and paint bomb throwing loyalists, injuring one of the inhabitants. The attackers verbally threatened the inhabitants. (CW)
7 August
A Catholic home was petrol bombed in Antrim. (RUC, IN)
10 August
Sinn Féin renewed its calls for the RUC to investigate an incident where the personal details of 23 republicans were found in a wallet belonging to an RIR soldier that was found in a taxi in Dungannon. Sinn Féin passed the wallet on to the Irish authorities. The British army declined to comment on what it called "unsubstantiated allegations". The RUC stated that there would be no investigation. (IN)
A number of Protestant homes in the Shankill were attacked. The attacks were blamed on republicans by the UDA/UFF. Other sources, including some within loyalism, strongly refuted these allegations blaming instead the UDA/UFF. (IN BBC) (See "Feuding Within Loyalism")
Groups of armed UDA/ UFF members staged roadblocks in the lower Shankill, stopping to pose for press photographs. When the RUC arrived to intervene the UDA men fled, firing a shot at the RUC officers. (IN)
At the same time in Ardoyne, in the north of the city, six Catholic owned houses had their windows smashed and were paint bombed with orange paint. One of the victims, 85-year-old pensioner Agnes Clarke, suffered cuts to her legs and stomach. (IN)
A loyalist pipe bomb discovered in Magherafelt, Co Derry, was diffused by the British army. (IN)
Nationalist politicians welcomed the Police Authority’s criticism of the RUC’s handling of the Drumcree crisis. (IN)
Loyalists attacked 12 Catholic homes in Carrickhill and Ardoyne. (AN)
11 August
The LVF and UDA/UFF in Belfast renewed their joint pledge to shoot anyone involved in "attacks on Protestant homes". The attacks in question are in fact widely thought to have been the result of the ongoing loyalist feud. (IN)
Nationalist politicians called for the UDA’s cease-fire to be reviewed. (IN)
An Orange Hall was gutted in an arson attack in Bailieboro, Co Cavan. (IN)
Loyalists smashed the windows of a Catholic home in Artillery Street in Derry. (CW,PFC)
It was claimed by political and community leaders that a dissident republican bomb destined for Derry was not intended for the Apprentice Boy’s march. Spokespersons from across the political spectrum condemned those responsible. (IN,DJ)
Ballymena council announced it would be writing to the town’s parish priest, Canon Sean Connolly, expressing regret at recent arson attacks on Harryville chapel and on a number of Catholic schools in the area. (IN)
Three Catholic families fled their homes on the Springfield Road after loyalists attacked at least five homes, smashing windows with bricks, stones, ball bearings and paint bombs. The attackers, some of whom were recognised by local residents as having taken part in the UDA colour party during the Orange march in June, did a ‘lap of honour’ in their car up and down the Springfield Road before going back to the Shankill through the Workman’s Avenue gate. It is believed the ongoing attacks across the Springfield Road interface are co-ordinated by the UDA/UFF. (See 19 August) (IN, AN, BBC)
12 August
Loyalist youths in Ballynahinch, Co Down, smashed windows and damaged cars in the nationalist Windmill Street at around 9pm. Earlier in the month a Catholic man was attacked with a machete in the same area. (IN)
As expected there was little trouble, apart from some relatively minor vandalism, during the Apprentice Boys of Derry parade. 15,000 ‘Boys’ converged on Derry along with 180 bands for the Relief of Derry celebrations. Although a number of the marchers were drunk and there were a number of defiant displays of paramilitary paraphernalia, the number of overt sectarian incidents were comparatively low. This is thought to have been thanks to an agreement between march organisers and the Bogside Residents, whereby the organisers agreed to curtail bad behaviour and paramilitary and other sectarian displays. Nationalists, for the most part, stayed away from the town centre, which was closed for the day. (PFC, BBC, DJ,LS)
Loyalists in Belfast beat a Co Tyrone mother to the ground to the ground as she waited with her son and a friend for a taxi home. She had been visiting her son in Belfast during the Ardoyne Fleadh. The group of about 15 men, some of whom were wielding baseball bats and iron bars, gave chase to the three before catching the woman by the hair and beating her to the ground. The woman was saved by a passing driver. The 55-year-old woman has vowed never to return to Belfast. She is said to be reluctant to leave her Cookstown home (IN)
Loyalists assaulted three members of the same family in Larne. (CW)
A woman travelling on a bus was injured with a pellet from a shotgun fired by the alleged second in command of the local UDA.(CW)
13 August
An Orange hall in Carnlough, Co Antrim, was badly damaged in an arson attack. (IT, RUC)
The RUC made safe a pipe bomb in Ballymoney, Co Antrim. The device had been pushed through the letterbox of a Catholic home. (RUC, IN)
At least 18 Catholic homes, in and around Newington Street, Parkend Street and in Clanchatton Street in North Belfast, had their windows smashed and paint bombs thrown in. The attacks, carried out by men wearing balaclavas who co-ordinated their actions through a series of whistles, are widely believed to have been orchestrated by the UDA/UFF. The attackers, armed with guns, baseball bats, bricks and paintbombs, tried to break down the front doors of several houses. Residents said attacks like these are a regular occurrence in that part of Belfast, the difference being that whereas it is usually youths who carry out the attacks, this time it was adults, some of whom were armed and had arrived in minibuses. The attackers, who were seen driving off to the nearby Tiger’s Bay estate, vowed to return to burn out the residents. It is believed the attack involved around 50 loyalists. There were also attacks on Catholic homes in Bawnmore and Carrickfergus. The RUC reported ‘disturbances’ in Ballynahinch (RUC, IT, BBC)
Petrol bombers attacked a Catholic home in Newtownabbey. (RUC)
14 August
Arsonists set fire to three homes in or near Ballymena, Co Antrim. Petrol was poured through the letterboxes of two Catholic and one mixed religion home. In all three cases the inhabitants escaped without serious injury. (LT, BBC, RUC)
Loyalists attempted to set fire to a Catholic home in Greencastle, Co Antrim.
15 August
UDA/UFF commander Johnny Adair claimed that republicans were responsible for the pipe bomb explosion that injured his hand. The claim was dismissed by security forces who said the pipe bomb fragments recovered were from a type of device frequently used by loyalists. It was alleged that Adair and some colleagues were carrying the device in the car in which they were travelling when it exploded prematurely.
Shots were fired into two homes newly occupied by Catholics in Clifton Park Avenue, an interface area of north Belfast. One of the bullets struck a wall, just inches from where a two-year-old boy lay sleeping. Republicans have called for the gates in the peace line to be closed (IN).
In the latest development in the ongoing sectarian fighting in the Seacourt estate in Larne, local nationalists attacked four Protestant homes with stones. (IN)
A Catholic church parade in Kilkeel, Co Down, which had already changed its route to avoid confrontation, was forced to march past loyalist protesters carrying UVF flags after loyalists erected a new plaque in the town. The white supremacist British National Party (BNP) was said by Unionist sources to have been recruiting among anti-agreement loyalists and unionists in the area. The BNP boasted that it had sold over 200 copies of its newspaper True Brit in Kilkeel. The spokesperson for Mourne Nationalists for Equality, Martin Connolly, said it was believed that the BNP were behind a protest called by an unknown group calling itself the Kilkeel Silent Majority. (IN)
Three men, believed to be loyalists, were charged in Magherafelt Magistrates court with making death threats against two Catholic brothers. A pipe bomb was found by the RUC in the town (IN)
16 August
Eight houses, five in Larne and three in Carrickfergus, were attacked with bricks and paint bombs. One of them, the house of a brother of an SDLP councillor, had a crossbow bolt fired through its window. The attacks are believed to have been carried out by loyalists on households they believed to be occupied by families of Catholic or mixed religion. The attackers claimed to be acting in retaliation for the attacks on Protestant houses the previous night in the Seacourt Estate (IN)
Dozens of Catholic children, many as young as eight, were forced to run a gauntlet of sectarian abuse as they fled the Seven Towers leisure centre in Ballymena. The group, from a Co Antrim youth club that wishes to remain anonymous, then had its bus pelted with stones as it left the town centre. (IN)
A pipe bomb was found near the Glenshane Pass on the Belfast-Derry road. Pipe bombs are usually associated with loyalist attacks. (IN)
Two Belfast loyalists, one of them a pastor, pleaded not guilty at Cookstown magistrates court to charges of possessing two hand grenades and a pipe bomb. Prominent loyalist pastor Clifford Peeples, believed to have strong LVF connections, and associate James McGookin Fischer, are to stand trial at Belfast Crown Court. (IN)
Three Catholic homes in the Divis area of Belfast, including that of an SDLP councillor, were paint bombed by loyalists. (IN)
17 August
Loyalists petrol bombed a Catholic primary school, and paint bombed a Church building outside Ballymena. (IN)
A Catholic priest’s house in South Belfast was saved from fire when double-glazing stopped would-be petrol bombers from putting a concrete flowerpot through his window. (IN)
Two Catholic school girls from the New Lodge area of Belfast, an 11 and 12 year old, were set upon by loyalist youths who forced one of them to take off her ‘Celtic’ football shirt and set it on fire. The youths threatened to paint the girls red white and blue before running off. Adults who saw the incident did not intervene. (IN)
It was claimed that three well-known loyalists were scouting the area around the home of Sinn Féin Councillor Seán Hayes in the Markets area of Belfast. Cllr Hayes had already been told by the RUC that security files containing his details were in the hands of loyalists. He has applied to be put under the Key Person’s Protection Scheme. (IN)
18 August
The RUC defused a pipe bomb in Cullybackey near Ballymena, Co Antrim. (RUC)
19 August
Springfield Road residents called for the "peace wall" which separates the mainly nationalist side from the loyalist Shankill to be built 10 feet higher following increased attacks on Catholics by loyalists. They also called for the gate at Workman’s Avenue to be shut permanently. (IN, AN)
20 August
Loyalists targeted the opening of a memorial garden in Clonard, West Belfast, hurling bottles, bricks and stones at relatives of victims from the Clonard who had come to the opening. A one-year-old child was struck in the head with a brick and escaped with her life after her mother shielded her from the hail of missiles that rained down on the crowd. She was shielded from the full impact of the brick because her mother had thrown a coat over her pram.
21 August
Sinn Féin Assembly member Mitchell McLaughlin cautioned against moves to have the PUP expelled from the Assembly. He warned that anti-agreement Unionists would try to use the loyalist feud as an excuse to have the PUP's Billy Hutchinson and David Ervine removed and said that their record of working with Sinn Féin clearly demonstrated their commitment to making politics work.
22 August
Loyalists attacked three homes in the nationalist Glendore area of Belfast. (IN)
A Catholic mother from the Markets area in Belfast became the third person from the area to be told by the RUC in recent weeks that security force files containing their personal details were in the hands of loyalists. The RUC themselves are suspected locally of having passed the information on. (IN)
23 August
Republican prisoner Martin Corden was reported to be opposing a transfer by the prison service from the Maze to Maghaberry, where there is no segregation between loyalist and republican prisoners. He is one of only two PIRA prisoners in Maghaberry, the other being due for release in September, leaving Corden as the only PIRA prisoner. There are a number of republican prisoners from other organisations still held in Maghaberry. He argued that his life would be in danger if he was transferred. There are a number of loyalists held there who belong to organisations not on cease-fire(IN)
24 August
An arson attack in Newtownards, Co Down was alleged to be the work of loyalists. (RUC)
There was outrage after the Apprentice Boys of Derry mounted a guard of honour for murdered UVF man Bobby Mahood’s coffin in Belfast. Boys’ Governor Alistair Simpson was prominent at the funeral. The coffin was followed by an informal UFF/UDA contingent. Mahood, a UVF man with strong UDA links was killed by the same UVF assassin who killed UDA commander Jackie Coulter. The UVF stayed away from the funeral. (IN/ST)
26 August
Nationalist community leaders united with a cross section of Belfast City Councillors in calling for the Deputy Lord Mayor, Cllr Frank McCoubrey of the UDP, political allies of the UFF/UDA, to resign. McCoubrey had been present on the platform adorned with "IRISH OUT" posters at the UDA "festival", when masked UDA men and women fired off rounds from automatic weapons into the air. (AN)
A loyalist bomb was found at an AOH hall in Bellaghy, south Derry. (IN)
28/29 August
A car windscreen was damaged and the windows of several houses smashed when loyalists threw stones over the wall separating the loyalist Fountain from the mainly nationalist Bishop Street area of Derry. RUC and Fountain residents claim that nationalists then threw three petrol bombs over the wall into the Fountain. Later, in what was described by residents as a four hour sustained attack by up to 20 masked adults, stones and paint bombs were thrown at the windows of houses on Bennett Street on the nationalist side. Apprentice Boys Governor and Fountain Area Partnership spokesperson Alistair Simpson appealed to nationalist residents in the Long Tower/Bishop Street area of Derry to help curb sectarian attacks across the Fountain/Bishop Street interface and to root out trouble makers. He asked whether Derry nationalists wanted a Protestant presence on the west bank of the city. This was a reference to the ongoing migration of Protestants from the west bank of the city and recent cross community initiatives to encourage a ‘shared city’. Local Sinn Féin representative Marion Hutcheon accused Simpson of distorting the facts when he apportioned blame to one side only in the dispute. A blue UDA flag with the words "C. Company - Simply The Best" flys over the wall, hung from the turret of the old city jail on the Fountain side. "C. Company" is the UDA/UFF section headed by Johnny Adair. New graffiti on the Nationalist side reads: "HUNS OUT - C.IRA" (IN, LS, DJ, CW, PFC) ‘Huns’ is a pejorative word for Protestants. The PFC intends removing the above slogan. Our information is that the sectarian incidents in the area are instigated by young people from both sides of the peaceline.
Sinn Féin representatives Alex Maskey MLA, Mick Murphy MLA and Cllr Frank McDowell called on the RUC to fully release any information they had on security files relating to Catholics that are in the hands of loyalists. Loyalists are alleged to have files, which had been compiled by British Intelligence, on about 80 Catholics in the south Down area, yet RUC officers had only informed 15 of the people concerned. Information given to those concerned was described as scant. (IN)
A Catholic Nursery school off the Donegall Road in Belfast was damaged in an arson attack. (IN)
In Larne a Protestant woman was burned out of her house and a Protestant man was hit in the back of the head with shotgun pellets after a dispute about flags with nationalists in an enclave in the mainly Protestant Seacourt estate. Nationalists locally blamed a 'hood element' for the attacks. A nationalist was injured when loyalists threw a stone at him. (CW,IN)
30 August
The magnet used to clamp the bomb to Rosemary Nelson’s car came from Harland and Wolff shipyards, according to the team investigating her murder. This was ‘revealed’ in a televised appeal about her murder, although the source of the magnet has been public knowledge for some months now. Norfolk Deputy Chief Constable Colin Port, who is leading a team of RUC and English police officers investigating her murder, appealed for witnesses to come forward. This is unlikely however as the dozens of witnesses who contacted the PFC have stated that they would not co-operate with any investigation that involved RUC personnel. RUC officers are known to have made several threats to Rosemary Nelson’s life and there are strong allegations of RUC collusion in her murder. The PFC is backing calls by her family for a fully independent enquiry into all the circumstances surrounding her death. During the televised appeal Colin Port appealed for information from workers going on night shift between 11.30pm and midnight. This confirms our view that those involved in the murder entered a nationalist area of North Lurgan while a British Army helicopter, containing RIR personnel, was carrying out surveillance overhead. Why did the attackers feel confident enough to enter an area under helicopter surveillance. See our website: www.serve.com/pfc. (IN, BBC, PFC)
A Catholic Church hall in Aghadowey, Co Derry, used by cross-community groups, was completely destroyed in an overnight attack blamed on loyalists. Local Protestants rallied with messages of support. (IN)
A University of Ulster study showed that racism in the North of Ireland is rife in the workplace as well as in schools. (IN)
A pub in Hannahstown, Belfast was destroyed in a fire believed to have been started by the UDA. The republican 32 County Sovereignty Committee recently used the pub for a fund raising night. Graffiti on the outside read "UFF release JAD [Johnny Adair]" and "C. Comm[C. Company]". (AN)
A woman, believed to be Catholic, had paint thrown at her for the second time as she went to her place of work in the loyalist Sandy Row area of Belfast. (IN)
Sources:
AN: Andersonstown News.
BBC: BBC radio and television news, BBC online, Radio Foyle.
BTel: Belfast Telegraph .
CW: Local community workers.
CWA: Chinese Welfare Association.
DJ: Derry Journal.
G: Guardian.
IN: Irish News.
IOS: Ireland on Sunday.
IT: Irish Times.
LS: Londonderry Sentinel.
NBelfN: North Belfast News.
PFC: Pat Finucane Centre.
RUC: RUC website.
SBP: Sunday Business Post.
STi: Sunday Times.
S Tr: Sunday Tribune.