The following list of sectarian and other hate-driven incidents and attacks is from 1 through 30 November 2001. The criteria we use for inclusion is based on the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) criteria; if a person/organisation feels that the motivation for an attack against them was sectarian (or racist or homophobic), then it should be counted as such. 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. A full dossier of sectarian and other hate attacks from January 1999 until October 2001 is also available.
November 1, Thursday.
The Irish News reported over 100 families from the north
have been forced to move house because of intimidation that since April 2001,
and have applied to the Northern Ireland Office to have their homes bought from
them while another 64 families have been put on the Housing Executive's waiting
list. (IN)
The SDLP in Derry called on nationalists to be mindful of their security following the October UDA pipe bomb attack on the home of Councillor Gerard Diver in which a new, more lethal type of device was used (see October attacks). The party also called on Unionist politicians to use their influence to bring the attacks to an end. (DN)
A pipe bomb was thrown over the Manor Street peace wall in north Belfast was found by Catholic children who played with it before bringing it home, where their father took it off them. (CW)
Loyalists from Ballysillan attacked cars on the mainly-Catholic Ligoniel Road. (CW)
November 2, Friday.
Holy Cross parents were at Stormont to protest at northern
Irish first minister David Trimble's continued refusal to meet them in spite
of having met with Glenbryn residents and loyalist paramilitaries. (IN)
The British Home Office told the Irish Times that an anti car theft advertisement which uses the words "Sean, car criminal" does not stereotype Irish people in a racist way. (IT)
42-year-old former UVF super grass Clifford George McKeown was charged with the 1996 LVF claimed murder of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick in Lurgan. McKeown, the brother of LVF man Trevor McKeown who was jailed for the 1997 murder of 18-year-old Catholic Bernadette Martin in Aghalee, withdrew his supergrass evidence against 29 suspected loyalist paramilitaries in 1982. (IN)
Parents collecting their children from Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School in north Belfast were attacked by loyalists close to the Ligoniel interface. At the same time, Catholic residents of the Ligoniel enclave were forced to walk a gauntlet of loyalists after the No57 bus driver refused to take them any closer to the estate. A 17-year-old youth was beaten and a man was chased by loyalists with a knife as they tried to make their way to the estate. A 30-strong gang of loyalists from Ballysillan, armed with baseball bats, sticks and bottles marched up the Ligoniel Road past an RUC jeep and attacked houses at two o' clock in the afternoon. Pupils on a bus from the Hightown Boys School were attacked by a gang at the bottom of the Ligoniel Road. The Our Lady of Mercy school bus was attacked at the same time. (CW)
November 3, Saturday.
The North Belfast News reported comments from a senior
loyalist in the area claiming that the organisation was exerting its influence
to bring pipe bomb attacks to an end. The unnamed spokesperson denied that the
move was in response to the arrest of Jim Simpson or an incident where a British
soldier was seriously injured the previous week. The newspaper revealed that
over 170 pipe bombs had been thrown in the north of the city since May of this
year. (NBN)
The Andersonstown News reported that 300 Protestant residents of the Suffolk enclave in Catholic west Belfast would feel forced to flee their homes if the RUC shut the Woodburn Barracks. Nationalist residents deny the claim and stress that the RUC barracks at Dunmurry is only two minutes drive away. (AN, CW)
Loyalists attacked Catholic-owned homes and cars in Newington Street in north Belfast. (CW)
November 4, Sunday.
It emerged that a group of loyalists in a car had tried
to abduct a 17-year-old Catholic youth close to his home in Ligoniel, north
Belfast on October 29. (IN, CW)
Masked loyalists attacked Catholic homes in Clanchatten Street, north Belfast. (CW)
November 7, Wednesday.
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, on a visit to
the north of Ireland, visited Holy Cross children at their school. He then visited
the Glenbryn residents. The Nobel laureate and Human Rights campaigning veteran
described the blockade as one of the most saddening events he had ever witnessed.
(IN, AN, NBN)
Jane Kennedy, the British Government's Northern Ireland Security Minister told the House of Commons that so far in 2001 loyalists were responsible for 620 "terrorist attacks" out of a total of 840 incidents in the north. She put the number of republican incidents at 233. (IN, H)
UDA/UFF chief Johnny Adair called on Glenbryn residents to halt the Holy Cross blockade, saying the protest had run its course. The former white power skinhead, who is in jail for directing terrorism, said that loyalist people were beginning to look bad in the eyes of the media. The call was welcomed by Holy Cross parents who said it was a voice more likely than others to be heard by those blockading the route. (NBN, CW)
Holy Cross parents criticised Stormont ministers Dermott Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist Party and Denis Haughey of the SDLP for refusing to visit the beleaguered school. The two, who are junior ministers in the office of the First and Deputy First Ministers, are responsible for implementing a Children's Commission for looking at children's rights. (NBN, CW)
Holy Cross parents called for teachers in the north of Ireland to take action in solidarity with the pupils. The call came as news broke that legal action was being taken by one of the parents against the RUC/PSNI and the British Secretary of State for failing to adequately protect their child from protesters. (IN, NBN, CW)
A masked loyalist gunman stood and "coolly pumped up to six bullets" at a Catholic truck driver from Donegal as he sat in his vehicle on Derry's Waterside, said the Derry Journal. The man was refurbishing Housing Executive property. The incident, which security forces are treating as an attempted sectarian murder, happened close to the loyalist Lincoln Court estate. The attack was condemned by representatives from across the political spectrum. (DJ, CW, IN, RUC/PSNI)
Catholic construction workers working for the Housing Executive in the mainly Protestant Fountain Estate in Derry were the subjects of sectarian threats. The threats were condemned by Sinn Féin, who called for work to halt until the matter was resolved, and asked unionist politicians to use their influence to bring an end to the threats. The DUP's Gregory Campbell hit back at Sinn Féin's "duplicitous use of one-sided language which only ever seems to take place when there are attacks on Catholics". (DJ, CW)
November 8, Thursday.
At a Belfast court, an Antrim man was charged with possessing
an assault rifle and ammunition in the Shankill Road area. This follows charges
against two Belfast men. (IN)
The Portadown Orange Lodge formally withdrew from the mediation process aimed at resolving the Drumcree crisis, headed by South African human rights lawyer Brian Currin.(IN)
The Red Hand Defenders (cover name for the UDA and the LVF) claimed responsibility for a suspected car bomb in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. The incident followed a pipe bomb attack on a Catholic home in the village, also blamed on the UDA. (IN)
In Strabane, three men arrested in connection with the October 29 murder of former UDA prisoner Ken Folliard, were released without charge. The RUC/PSNI believe the INLA was responsible for the murder. (RUC/PSNI)
November 9, Friday.
British Labour MP Kevin McNamara met with Holy Cross Parents
as Glenbryn residents scaled down the days blockade to the afternoon on the
day the 11-plus exams began. The parents also petitioned the RUC/PSNI, demanding
that officers in riot gear hold their shields towards those blockading them,
rather than pupils and parents going to school. (IN)
Loyalists from Ballysillan attacked cars on the mainly-Catholic Ligoniel Road. (CW)
November 10, Saturday.
Some 48 supporters of the Long March walked though the
centre of Derry to call for an inquiry into what they called the "IRA campaign
against the pro-union people" of the north. Speakers outside the back of
the Guildhall condemned the amount of money being spent on the Saville Inquiry
into Bloody Sunday. The march organisers had filed for a march of 400 people,
and had privately claimed that they had expected thousands to turn out. There
was no nationalist opposition to the small number of unionists who took part
in the early morning march, which had been advertised on extreme-loyalist website
and first announced at the Grand Protestant Rally in Ballymena (see sectarian
attacks for September/October). (LS, DJ, IN, CW)
November 11, Sunday.
Mark Pilling, co-ordinator of the loyalist UCAN (Ulster
Community Action Network) had his car burned out in an arson attack. "Mr
Pilling believes he was targeted due to his involvement in the Bloody Sunday
rent row and recent media interviews concerning injustices suffered by the Protestant
community" said the Derry News. Gregory Campbell of the DUP called on the
RUC/PSNI to take steps to ensure attacks on members of the Protestant community
are stopped. Mr Campbell told The Sentinel that a young Protestant man had been
intimidated out of his job on the city side of Derry. (DN, CW, LS)
In north Belfast rioting broke out when a large group of loyalists entered the nationalist North Queen Street and began attacking Catholic homes. One resident received surgery to his eye because of injuries sustained while shielding a neighbour from a barrage of bricks and bottles. Petrol bombs and paint bombs were also thrown in what is said to have been a UDA orchestrated attack. The RUC/PSNI fired a number of plastic bullets. An 11-year-old Catholic boy who was hit in the leg with a plastic bullet received hospital treatment and a 14-year-old Catholic girl received abdominal injuries from a plastic bullet fired at her as she tried to get home. The rioting then spread to the Limestone Road. (IN, NBN, CW)
Glen Branagh, a 16-year-old Protestant from Tigers Bay, later claimed as a member of the Ulster Young Militants (UYM), the youth wing of the UDA, died after rioting spread to the Limestone Road area. He died from injuries sustained when a pipe bomb he was throwing at nationalists exploded prematurely in his hand. Loyalist community workers insisted that the pipe bomb had been thrown by nationalists, and that he was throwing it back. The RUC/PSNI insisted that the device had not come from the nationalist side and that the youth had been wearing a mask when he attempted to throw it.(IN, NBN, BBC)
On the Antrim Road, loyalist gunmen fired at Catholic teenagers waiting at a bus shelter. (IN, NBN)
In Limavady, Co Derry, a gang of loyalists attacked and viciously assaulted two Catholic brothers going out to get fish and chips. The older, physically disabled brother was beaten unconscious when he tried to stop the gang assaulting his brother. Some more members of the gang had picked up a bottle and an iron bar but were stopped by the intervention of two off-duty Scottish soldiers.(DJ)
November 12, Monday.
The trial began at Belfast High Court of Special Branch
double agent and UDA/UFF quartermaster Billy Stobie, from Forthriver, north
Belfast. Stobie faced four charges arising out of his involvement in the UDA
murders in 1989 of solicitor Pat Finucane and of Protestant student Adam Lambert
who had been mistaken for a Catholic. He admitted supplying the guns used to
kill Pat Finucane but had always claimed that he had alerted his RUC Special
Branch handlers that there was to be an attempt on a high profile nationalist.
Human rights campaigners and the Finucane family have always maintained that
the prosecution of Stobie was a diversionary tactic designed to forestall an
international and independent inquiry into the controversial killing. Lawyers
for Stobie applied for the trial to be halted because of abuse of due process.
Solicitors for the man said that there was no new evidence against Stobie since
the decision in 1991 by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) not to prosecute
him. The decision was based partly on an internal RUC report on Stobie's level
of involvement and the fact that he had passed-on information to his handlers.
The suspicion is that the decision to arrest and charge Stobie at this late
stage was purely political. The case was adjourned until later in the week.
(IN, PFC)
The Irish News reported that Diane Curran, a Catholic high school teacher in Charleston, South Carolina, had received anti-Catholic hate mail after a letter she wrote sympathising with the Holy Cross children was printed in the Irish News. (IN)
Two suspected loyalists, masked and armed with shotguns forced their way into the home of a man in the Catholic markets area of Belfast. After trying to force their way into the bedroom of a 33 year-old man, they fired a shotgun blast through the door and fled. (IN, RUC/PSNI, CW)
Security forces defused a pipe bomb in the North Queen Street area of north Belfast. It is believed the device had been thrown by loyalists from the Tigers Bay area.(CW, RUC/PSNI)
November 13, Tuesday.
Two loyalist protesters were arrested outside Holy Cross
school after one of them threw a coke can at one of the parents picking up his
child from school. "My daughter caught sight of one woman who had held
up pornography and had thrown a firework at her feet and she began to cry",
said a parent. (IN, NBN, CW)
The Ulster Television (UTV) current affairs programme Insight examined allegations that current DUP Assembly Member and councillor Oliver Gibson was part of a UDR gang thought to have carried out the sectarian killing of Catholic man Patsy Kelly in 1974. Mr Gibson strenuously denies involvement in the murder. A full transcript of the programme will shortly be available on this website.
The DUP's Gregory Campbell criticised the Housing Executive after a leaked report showed that Protestants were underrepresented in the public body's workforce in some areas. "There does not appear to be any recognition that Protestants are facing substantial discrimination when it comes to job opportunities" he told the Newsletter. The claim would be refuted by the Housing Executive.(NL, DJ, LS)
Lawyers for the family of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane began a legal challenge against Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens for refusing to allow the family access to trial papers relating to the murder. "I think that this failure [to grant access to the papers] reinforces our suspicions that the Stevens investigation was established to prevent or obstruct the truth getting out," said Geraldine Finucane, widow of the murdered man. (IN)
November 14, Wednesday
A former republican prisoner who escaped injury in a
loyalist gun attack near Ballycastle revealed that he would not be returning
to work. The father-of-four was driving home with his 81-year-old father when
a masked gunman pulled up alongside his van and fired directly at them with
an assault rifle on the Magheramore Road between Ballycastle and Armoy. The
two occupants escaped injury when the Kilrea man jammed on the brakes of his
vehicle and reversed at speed. (IN, RUC/PSNI)
Leading human rights watchdog, British Irish Rights Watch, (BIRW) called for an investigation following claims that the inquiry into the September murder of journalist Martin O' Hagan is being hampered in order to protect a security forces agent within loyalist paramilitary circles. Jane Winter of BIRW told the Irish News that a report had been submitted to the UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, "to see if there is any truth in the allegation that the police investigation is being hampered by the Police Service of Northern Ireland or M15's'desire to protect an informer." See link on PFC website for information on BIRW. (IN)
Gregory Campbell, DUP MLA, called for an equality review of the religious make-up of the Housing Executive claiming that the body was heavily biased in favour of Catholics. In reply the Housing Executive pointed out that the religious breakdown of staff was 49.9 % Protestant and 49.2 % Catholic. (LS, IN, DN)
It was reported that Protestant residents of the Harmin, Queen's Park and Glenvarna areas in Glengormley, Belfast had organised themselves into an action group, the Glengormley Movement for Equality, to oppose "republican elements" moving into the area. A spokesman for the new group said, "we are not against the ordinary Catholics living in Glengormley; we have lived in relative harmony until a few years ago. But now, certain republican elements have come into the area and it has created tensions." (NL)
Lawyers acting on behalf of Geraldine Finucane, widow of the murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, launched a legal challenge against Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens following his refusal to provide documents to the family regarding the ongoing investigation. Geraldine Finucane voiced concerns that the Stevens investigation was established "to prevent or obstruct the truth getting out." Referring to the ongoing trial of RUC Special Branch agent William Stobie Geraldine Finucane said, " It is nothing short of astonishing that while Mr Stobie, the prosecution, the RUC, the trial judge and others have access to the information the victim's family do not." (PFC,NBN, IN, NL)
A meeting took place between loyalist protesters from the Glenbryn area and the board of governors of Holy Cross Primary School school in north Belfast. (IN)
November 15, Thursday
A spokesperson for Justice for the Forgotten, the group
representing the survivors and bereaved of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings,
welcomed news that the British Secretary of State John Reid has agreed to meet
with Justice Barron who has been tasked by the Irish Government with investigating
the atrocity. The British Government has come in for severe criticism for its
failure to co-operate with the investigation into the multiple loyalist bomb
attacks, which killed 33 people and an unborn child. There is compelling evidence
that the loyalist gang which carried out the attacks was working with the security
services in the North. See PFC website for further details. (IN)
It was reported that a doctors surgery used by all communities in north Belfast had become a 'no-go' area for Catholics following the death of Glen Branagh, the teenager killed the previous weekend. Branagh,16 years old, died yards from the surgery when he blew himself up while carrying a pipe bomb. Since his death the area around the surgery had been turned into a 'shrine' with floral tributes and loyalist paramilitary regalia draped on the railings. The teenager was a member of the UDA's youth wing. (IN)
November 16, Friday.
A Catholic building worker narrowly escaped death when
loyalist gunmen opened fire on him as he waited for a lift to work in Clady
village near Portglenone, Co Antrim. The 7am attack occurred as the 49-year-old
waited for a lift outside Mc Erlean's pub when gunmen in a red Nova car drove
up and opened fire. The father of five was hit once in the hand and a suspect
car was found burning close to the scene. The UDA have been blamed for the assassination
attempt and other attacks in the area in recent weeks. (IN, BT, BBC, RUC/PSNI)
A Catholic man escaped injury when the petrol bomb thrown through the front window of his Serpentine Road home in north Belfast landed on his lap. His wife claimed they were targeted simply because they are Catholic. At the same time a number of houses in the nearby Whitewell area were petrol bombed and windows were smashed with bricks and baseball bats. RUC/PSNI sources said 13 different houses were attacked on Whitewell Road alone, where a blast bomb and 30 petrol bombs were thrown. Meanwhile, Catholic residents of Duncairn Gardens demanded the permanent closure of a security gate in the area. (IN)
Loyalist protesters rejected a compromise plan to transport Catholic children several hundred yards by bus to Holy Cross primary school in north Belfast. Despite hopes that the plan would bring about an end to the protests a loyalist spokesperson said he did not believe the suggestion was sign of goodwill. (IN)
West Tyrone Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty called for the removal of loyalist flags and regalia from the environs of Castlederg, Co Tyrone that he claimed represented a " blatant attempt to intimidate and instil fear in the majority nationalist community in the area." (DJ)
November 17, Saturday.
Loyalists were blamed for a pipe bomb found in the letterbox
of an apartment in Portrush, Co Antrim. (IN, RUC/PSNI)
Night time bus services to Ligoniel, North Belfast, were cancelled following repeated attacks on buses in the North and West of the city. The withdrawal followed the armed robbery of a driver on the previous Tuesday night. A West Belfast Citybus driver however claimed that there had been a campaign of violent attacks by loyalists on buses serving the largely nationalist Ligoniel area. (AN)
The Andersonstown News reported comments by John White, spokesperson for the loyalist Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), warning that the "war is not over, loyalists are united against the enemies of unionism." White denied rumours of a split within the UDA, the loyalist paramilitary group aligned with the UDP. Soon after the comments were made the UDP was in fact dissolved as a political party by the UDA and there is currently a split between different factions of the UDA in Belfast. (AN)
The Irish News reported that the UDA were now actively targeting nationalist politicians. According to the paper a leading SDLP member was visited at his home earlier in the week by the RUC/PSNI to warn him that the UDA were preparing an attempt on is life. (IN)
Loyalists from Tiger's Bay threw pipe bombs at Catholic residents close to the Limestone Road interface. Two nationalist youths were injured by the RUC/PSNI during the subsequent rioting. (CW)
November 18, Sunday.
Twelve members of the RUC/PSNI were injured during sectarian
clashes in north Belfast. The trouble was said to have started after petrol
bombs were thrown at Catholic homes in the Limestone Road/Newington Avenue area
from the loyalist Tiger's Bay area. At the height of the violence a 78-year-old
Protestant woman was believed to have been hit with a petrol bomb at Duncairn
Gardens. (IN)
Security forces recovered 50 primed petrol bombs and 300 bottles in a search of a house on Clanchattan Street in north Belfast. (IN)
A man was slashed with a Stanley-type knife when he was assaulted by a number of men at the junction of the Falls and Broadway Roads in west Belfast. Security sources have not ruled out a sectarian motive for the attack. (RUC/PSNI)
A pipe bomb exploded at the back of a house in Rosapenna Street, in north Belfast. No one was injured. (RUC/PSNI)
November 19, Monday.
A Catholic mother slammed the Housing Executive for failing
to tell her of a history of sectarian attacks on her newly occupied house, after
her son escaped injury in a loyalist pipe bomb attack. The previous occupants
of the house were subject to a loyalist murder bid in 1996, and there have been
a string of attacks on the house since. (NBN)
As the loyalist blockade of Holy Cross Primary School entered its twelfth week, parents and children walked along the pavement to the school for the first time. They were accompanied by two English Liberal Democrat MPs. The Conservative Party's Quentin Davies had earlier walked with the children, as had Kevin McNamara of the labour party. A parent of one of the schoolgirls urged politicians from outside the north to support their campaign for the right of their children to travel peacefully to school. Another parent, who had embarked on a hunger strike in protest at the blockade, was urged to end his protest. (IN)
The home of a Catholic pensioner living on the Oldpark Road was pipe bombed for the second consecutive night. A seven-year-old boy from north Belfast was hit by a nail-packed pipe bomb, which failed to explode. It was also revealed that loyalists had begun leaving unprimed explosive devices around Catholic homes, in an attempt to force fleeing families closer to devices which were primed and ready to explode. (NBN)
The RUC/PSNI visited over 40 building sites in Derry to inform Catholic workers that threats against them had been issued by loyalist paramilitaries. Building contractors said that nationalist builders were being forced out of the Waterside because of the threats. A building worker from Donegal narrowly escaped a loyalist murder bid in the Waterside last week. Sources close to the UDA denied any involvement in the threats. Other loyalist sources suggested that the UVF may be behind the threats. Security patrols around sites were increased, while it was reported that thousands of existing and potential jobs could be lost because of the threats. (DN, DJ, IN)
Former Unionist MP Ken Maginnis claimed that loyalist paramilitaries were now a bigger threat to the Protestant community than republicans. He made no reference to the threat posed to nationalists by the same loyalist paramilitary groups, or to the ongoing attacks they were carrying out on nationalists. (IN)
A petrol bomb was thrown into the rear garden of a house in the mainly Catholic Serpentine Gardens in north Belfast. (RUC/PSNI)
Loyalists threw four pipe bombs at Catholic residents of Rosapenna Street in north Belfast. Shots were also reported in the Cliftonpark Avenue area, also in north Belfast. (CW)
November 20, Tuesday.
It was reported that the key witness in the trial of
UDA quartermaster and RUC Special Branch agent William Stobie could become suicidal
if forced to give evidence. Former journalist and NIO press officer Neil Mulholland
was said to have a history of mental illness. The trial judge, Lord Chief Justice
Carswell, ruled that Mulholland was fit to give evidence, but said that it was
up to the DPP to decide whether or not he was called. Stobie was being tried
in connection with the murder of Pat Finucane and Adam Lambert, a Protestant
student killed because he was thought to be a Catholic. Stobie had claimed in
the past that he admitted his role in the murder of Adam Lambert to the RUC,
but that it was decided to use him as an informer rather than charge him. He
was an active Special Branch informer at the time he was involved in the murder
of Pat Finucane. (IN)
The unnamed Catholic mother taking legal action over the loyalist blockade of the Holy Cross School was said to be living in fear for her life after death threats were made, allegedly in the presence of members of the RUC/PSNI. The woman was granted judicial leave to continue with her case, and it was agreed that her name could be given in confidence to the respondents in her case, the Chief Constable and the Secretary of State. The woman is seeking to judicially review policing of the blockade, which, in her affidavit, she said included "threats to kill, sectarian abuse, bricks and bottles being thrown along with paedophile pornography and physical assaults." Her lawyer said she invited the court to compare the RUC/PSNI handling of this to their policy of erecting protective screens around contentious loyal order parades. (IN)
A DUP plan to segregate the Antrim Road Waterworks Park in north Belfast as a "security measure" was branded as "unadulterated sectarianism" by Sinn Fein. (IN)
A Catholic resident of Longlands Road was attacked by a gang of baseball bat wielding loyalists and beaten outside of a hardware store in north Belfast. He suffered a fractured skull and bruising in the attack. (CW)
November 21, Wednesday.
Four men were arrested and guns and ammunition recovered
when the RUC/PSNI stopped a car on the Ballycastle Road in Coleraine. The four
men were charged with possession of firearms with intent to endanger life and
possession of items for use in a terrorist act. Coleraine Mayor, John Dallat
of the SDLP, described the arrests as "a welcome blow against loyalist
paramilitaries in the area." The arrests follow an increase in loyalist
paramilitary activity in the area, including the attempted murder of a former
republican prisoner and a Catholic workmen in separate incidents within the
previous week (see above). (IN, RUC/PSNI)
A former British soldier facing firearms and explosives charges was said in court to be a senior member of the UDA. Michael Alexander Bradley (31) from Ballymena was charged with possessing a shotgun, ammunition and a pipe bomb with intent to endanger life. (IN)
British Secretary of State John Reid said that politicians and the churches need to do more to tackle sectarianism in the north. He also said that unionist and loyalist worries about the future need to be addressed. SDLP spokesperson Alban Maginness said that more must be done to end "the madness on the streets of north Belfast", including the loyalist blockade of the Holy Cross Primary school. It was also reported that intensive discussions were continuing to end the blockade. (IN)
Plans to segregate a park on the Antrim Road in north Belfast (see above) were shelved following public opposition and a petition signed by over 650 residents, who said that the plan would simply "sectarianise" the park, one of the only green areas in that part north Belfast. (IN)
November 22, Thursday.
Two pipe bombs were discovered in the Donegall Pass
area of south Belfast. (IN, RUC/PSNI)
It was reported that hopes were high of an imminent resolution to the loyalist blockade of Holy Cross Primary School in north Belfast. (AN, NBN, IN)
The RUC/PSNI in Derry reiterated warnings about the dangers of pipe bombs, following a sharp increase in their use in the north west and across the north. The devices have so far killed four people. (DN)
November 23, Friday.
It was announced that the Assembly was to honour two Stormont
Senators killed during the troubles. Senator Jack Barnhill was killed by the
Official IRA at his home near Strabane in 1971. Senator Paddy Wilson was stabbed
32 times by former UDP spokesperson John White. His Protestant secretary, Irene
Andrews, was stabbed 19 times. At his trial, White said: "I did not know
at the time that the victim was Senator Wilson but any Roman Catholic would
have done." At the time of the brutal double murder Ian Paisley attempted
to shift the blame for the murders to republicans. (IN)
A pregnant Catholic woman and her two children escaped uninjured after loyalists threw a pipe bomb at the back of their north Belfast home. The device caused extensive damage to the rear of the house. (IN)
Glenbryn residents voted to suspend their 12-week picket in return for the introduction of a number of measures. The measures include road ramps, CCTV and more police patrols, but nothing directly connected to the Catholic schoolchildren's route to school, which was the focus and supposed cause of their violent protest since the beginning of the school term in September. (IN)
A Belfast man was sentenced to a jail term for an attack on a gay bar in Belfast in October 1999. The court heard how the man, Gordon Davidson from Mountcollier Avenue, smashed up the bar along with a number of accomplices, including UDP spokesperson Tommy English, after English was thrown out of the bar for attacking other customers. Tommy English was shot dead during the loyalist feud last year. (IN)
Four Coleraine men appeared in court charged in connection with the arms find in the town on Wednesday (see above). Allan Raymond Boyce, John Gamble, John Thompson and Ian Hanson were charged with possession of a loaded pistol, a sawn-off shotgun and ammunition. (IN)
The mayor of Coleraine, Councillor John Dallat of the SDLP, warned that anti-agreement unionists were creating an environment in which loyalist paramilitaries were flourishing. (IN)
A Derry Sinn Fein councillor called on trade union, business and community leaders to unite against threats being issued by loyalist paramilitaries against Catholic workers. (DJ)
November 24, Saturday.
It was revealed that the Police Ombudsman had been asked
to investigate cases of police brutality arising out of the RUC/PSNIs handling
of sectarian disturbances in north Belfast. (NBN)
Two Catholic pensioners from Whitewell in north Belfast said they would have to leave their home of 14 years following a series of loyalist sectarian attacks stretching back over six years. They said that it has been more than six months since their grandchildren were able to play in their back garden because of the danger of attacks from the adjoining loyalist White City area. (NBN)
A photograph in the Andersonstown News showed a loyalist rioter wearing a Celtic football shirt, leading to speculation that it may have been Glen Branagh, the Ulster Young Militant (youth wing of the UDA) member who was killed by his own pipe bomb earlier in the month. It was claimed that Branagh was buried in a Glasgow Celtic shirt. Celtic are more normally associated with nationalist support in the north, while loyalists traditionally support their main rivals, Glasgow Rangers. However, it was revealed that at least two loyalist rioters captured on video were wearing Celtic shirts, and a Limestone Road community worker speculated that this could be the loyalists' way of causing confusion among their targets and the media. He said that three weeks previously, a young Catholic girl was attacked by a car load of men in the same area. She had thought it was safe, he said, because some of the occupants of the car were wearing Celtic tops. He also said that some of the shirts had overt loyalist references printed on the back. (AN, CW)
November 25, Sunday.
Parents of Holy Cross schoolchildren met Glenbryn residents
to clarify the suspension of the group's protest outside the north Belfast primary
school. A spokesperson for the parents said that any measures agreed to to end
the protest must benefit both communities and that the loyalists not be seen
to be "rewarded for intimidation" of schoolchildren. The RUC/PSNI
confirmed that security measures would remain in place for the time being. (IN,
ST)
St Anne's Primary School in Dunmurry was extensively damaged in an arson attack. The RUC/PSNI have not ruled out the possibility that the attack was sectarian. (IN)
One man was shot in the chest and another suffered blast injuries to his head and face during sectarian disturbances in north Belfast. The trouble erupted after a loyalist crowd from the Tiger's Bay area tried to attack Catholic homes in North Queen Street and Spamount Street. Three loyalist youths were taken to hospital after the incident. (NBN, RUC/PSNI)
November 26, Monday.
A new project to tackle sectarianism in the north was
announced by the Secretary of State, John Reid. The campaign is to be funded
jointly by the Assembly and the British government. (IN)
Catholic schoolgirls in north Belfast were able to make their way to Holy Cross school without loyalist opposition for the first time since the beginning of the new school term in September. (IN)
A 74-year-old Catholic woman found an unexploded pipe bomb in the garden of her house at Alliance Avenue in north Belfast. Sinn Fein condemned the RUC/PSNIs response to the incident, after they were given a telephone warning by loyalists of an unexploded device in the area but allegedly did nothing to try to find it. (NBN)
The Governor of the Holy Cross School, Fr Aidan Troy, dismissed suggestions that the absence of two crossing patrol ladies was linked to the dispute, or had been at the demand of the parents. Parents were, however, said to be angry that one of them had been involved in the loyalist protest, and had given television interviews on behalf of the protesters. A spokesperson for the Belfast Education and Library Board said that the women's services "were not needed at the moment." (IN)
Research released by the University of Ulster revealed that mixed religion marriages were becoming more acceptable in the north. Catholic families were still more tolerant of mixed marriages according to the study, but the gap was narrowing. (IN)
The case against William Stobie, the Special Branch agent and UDA Quartermaster accused of the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, collapsed after the DPP decided not to call key witness, former journalist and NIO press officer Neil Mulholland, because of fears for his health. After the case collapsed, Stobie voiced his support for an independent inquiry into the murder. There was growing speculation that an inquiry of the type announced after the Weston Park talks would be set up, but this falls far short of the full and public judicial inquiry demanded by the Finucane family. Pat Finucane's mother said that the Stevens Inquiry was now "dead in the water." She continued: "For nearly 13 years we have always said an independent public inquiry is the only way to ever establish the truth about my son's murder. That has not changed. Even though we were expecting this trial to collapse, it was still a shock. I have cried a lot this week. The Stevens Inquiry has failed, the trial has failed and it is time for the truth." (IN, NBN, AN)
Dissident Ulster Unionist MLA Peter Weir was at the centre of an anthrax scare, when a suspicious package sent from the Republic was addressed to his office at Stormont. Fellow dissident Pauline Armitage received a similar package a few days earlier. Both turned out to be hoaxes. (IN)
A pipe bomb found outside a GAA club in Garvagh, Co Derry, was made safe. A woman escaped unhurt in a petrol bomb attack on her home in Stradowen Drive, in the Waterside in Derry. (DN, RUC/PSNI)
November 27, Tuesday.
It was reported that the UDA was set to disband its political
wing, the UDP. The split was believed to be imminent because of divisions over
support for the Good Friday Agreement, with the UDA/UFF opposing it and the
UDP allegedly in support of it. The move was made on Wednesday, when the UDP
ceased to exist in its current format. (IN)
Two men who were originally jailed for life for the LVF murder of two friends in Poyntzpass were cleared of attempting to murder a man after their release from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. The two had been accused of attacking a man who had objected to them removing UVF flags in Banbridge. The two men, Stephen McClean and Noel McCready, may now be released again within the next few weeks. (IN)
Loyalists were blamed for a pipe bomb attack on a business centre in north Belfast. The device exploded at the rear of the North City Business Centre shortly after 8.30am. A Catholic resident of North Queen Street said she was living in fear after her home was attacked by a loyalist gang. (IN, NBN RUC/PSNI)
A spokesperson for the Holy Cross parents called for an intermediary to organise talks with Glenbryn residents in a bid to get the area back to normal following the recent loyalist blockade of the school. (IN)
The UDA denied any involvement in threats issued against Catholic building workers in Derry. Last week the RUC/PSNI warned workers on almost 40 building sites that they were under threats from loyalist paramilitaries. Earlier, a Co Donegal man working on one of the sites in a loyalist area in the Waterside escaped injury in a gun attack. (IN)
Members of the Garvaghy Road residents' Association branded a proposed review of the Parades Commission as "a sop to Unionists." Spokesperson Breandan MacCionnaith said: "Clearly the first minister and the Orange Order are now convinced that they can achieve their common demands on the marching issue through possible changes in the rules and the moving of the goalposts." George Quigley, who is to head the review, later denied that it would be a political review. (IN)
Nationalists in north Belfast branded a multi-million pound housing package for the area as a "calculated insult." Sinn Fein and SDLP representatives expressed concern that the funding was being unfairly targeted at unionist areas. Of £16.5m allocated, only £1m was given to a perceived nationalist area. An editorial in the Andersonstown News said: "It's hard to escape the conclusion that the best thing anybody can do to squeeze a few quid out of the government is to blockade a school for three months. Relieved as we all are to see the end of the obscene Holy Cross blockade, the indecent haste with which DUP Social Development Minister Nigel Dodds moved to allocate a huge chunk of cash to loyalist north Belfast has left a nasty aftertaste, as if the memory of the disgusting behaviour of the protestors isn't bitter enough." (IN, NBN, AN)
There were disturbances outside Lisburn Council offices as councillors voted inside not to fly the British flag every day of the year. The DUP denied that they had orchestrated the protests, during which Sinn Fein councillor Paul Butler was attacked. (IN, AN)
November 28, Wednesday.
One of the men arrested on Tuesday morning in connection
with the sectarian murder of Antrim teenager Ciaran Cummings was still being
questioned by the RUC/PSNI. The other was released without charge. (IN)
An interim report on the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in the north of Ireland said that they are being let down by the system here, although most people here display a generally welcoming attitude towards them. The report's author, Dr Robbie McVeigh, said: "This report makes it clear that there is no refugee crisis in Northern Ireland. There is, however, a crisis for many of the small number of refugees and asylum seekers here – some 2000 people…There is a specific need for the new devolved administration to rigorously examine its delivery of services to this group of vulnerable people and to take a lead in integrating them fully into the community here." (IN)
Belfast Crown Court heard how a man was injured during a "shoot-out" between a nationalist crowd and a Protestant home-owner in Larne in August last year. The injured man was the brother of the owner of the house. The claim was made during the trial of Robert Shaw, a Catholic, who is charged with wounding with intent, unlawful wounding and possession of a firearm. He denies all the charges. Shaw was later cleared of all charges. (IN)
November 29, Thursday.
UUP leader David Trimble challenged hard-liners within
his own party who claim to be opposed to sharing power with Sinn Fein before
total IRA decommissioning to outline how they planned to deal with the issue
of loyalist decommissioning. (IN)
Four pipe bombs, 50 rounds of ammunition and 2 air rifles were discovered in a vacant flat In Greenisland, a few miles north of Belfast. An RUC/PSNI officer described the weapons as "ready for immediate use." (RUC/PSNI)
It was reported that loyalist groups in Derry were on the brink of a renewed feud following an incident at a Remembrance Day service on Sunday when members of the UDA attacked UVF members. The reports follow a shotgun attack on a former UDA prisoner in Derry two weeks ago, thought to have been carried out by other loyalists. (DN)
An Independent Labour councillor, Mark Langhammer, accused unionist councillors on Newtownabbey Council of trying to create a sectarian power bloc by excluding non-unionists from council chairmanships. The current row began when Tommy Kirkham, elected as an Independent because his party, the UDP, failed to register in time for the elections, was actually nominated by the council as a non-unionist for a key council group. Non-unionist councillors were also angered when a list of 20 sportsmen and women was drawn up by the council for nomination for an award. The list only contained one Catholic. (NBN)
November 30, Friday.
Holy Cross parents expressed their relief at the end of
the first full week this term without a loyalist protest outside the school.
(NBN)
Nationalist residents in north Belfast expressed serious concern over a Parades Commission decision allowing an Apprentice Boys march to go through nationalist areas close to the Ardoyne shops. The area experienced serious rioting when an Orange Order march was forced through in July. (NBN)
A cross-community worker from the Protestant Suffolk estate in Belfast slammed a gang of nationalists who attacked her thirteen-year-old daughter. Liz Ballmer's daughter was attacked by a crowd while visiting a Catholic friend in the nearby Lenadoon Estate. Liz Ballmer said that her daughter suffered emotional damage, which has left her withdrawn and afraid, as well as cuts and bruises in the attack. (AN)
Sources:
| AN: | Andersonstown News | |
| BT: | Belfast Telegraph | |
| BBC: | BBC radio and television news, BBC online, Radio Foyle | |
| CW: | Local community workers | |
| DJ: | Derry Journal | |
| DN: | Derry News | |
| H: | Hansard (parliamentary record) | |
| IN: | Irish News | |
| IT: | Irish Times | |
| ITN: | Independent Television News | |
| LS: | Londonderry Sentinel | |
| NBelfN: | North Belfast News | |
| NL: | Newsletter | |
| OB: | Observer | |
| PFC: | Pat Finucane Centre | |
| RM: | RM Distribution | |
| RUC: | Royal Ulster Constabulary press office | |
| SBP: | Sunday Business Post | |
| SI: | Sunday Independent | |
| UTV: | Ulster Television |