THURS. APRIL 1, 1999: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the leader of the Dublin Administration Bertie Ahern released a document known as the Hillsborough Declaration calling on the parties which signed up to the Stormont Agreement to agree (a) that 'decommissioning' was not a precondition but an 'obligation'; (b) that executive members of the New Stormont would be nominated on a date to be set but would not take up office immediately; (c) an 'act of reconciliation' would take place one month after the nominations during which some arms would be put 'beyond use' on a voluntary basis, to be verified by the British decommissioning body; and (d) powers would then be devolved to the executive.
A device, planted by the British-backed loyalist death squad the Red Hand Defenders, was found by a nationalist man attached to his car in Gortmerron Avenue, Dungannon, Co Tyrone. The man threw the pipe bomb into a nearby hedge.
Another pipe bomb claimed by the same group was discovered at the rear of a garden in Gray's Lane in north Belfast.
SUN. APRIL 4, 1999: Ceremonies commemorating the Easter Rising in 1916 organised by Republican Sinn Féin took place throughout Ireland, in Glasgow, Liverpool and London and in New York.
British direct-ruler in the Six Occupied Counties announced that the British army "intend to return" the land belonging to Crossmaglen Rangers Gaelic Football club in South Armagh which they have occupied for the last 25 years. No date was set for the handing over of the GAA's property.
The home of Colleen Quinn and her partner Brendan Cassidy in Kilrea, Co Derry was attacked in an arson attempt. The couple were forced to jump from the second-floor flat when fire swept through the flat below. Coleen Quinn is an aunt of the three Quinn brothers who died when their home in Ballymoney was burned out by a loyalist death squad.
In the Ardoyne area of Belfast Margaret McClenaghan, the single mother of four children, left her home after her name, along with eleven others, appeared on a hit-list compiled by British-backed loyalist death squad the Red Hand Defenders.
A nationalist man suffered facial injuries and a suspected fractured jaw after being attacked by loyalists in the McGowan buildings car-park at the bottom of Obins Street in Portadown, Co Armagh.
MON. APRIL 5, 1999: Disturbances broke out in Portadown, Co Armagh following an Apprentice Boys march through the town.
TUES. APRIL 6, 1999: Two nationalist men from the Carrick Hill area of Belfast were attacked at Carlisle Circus by a gang of up to 20 loyalists who threw bottles and bricks at them and chased them into an off-licence, whose windows they smashed.
WED. APRIL 7, 1999: Derek McCool and his wife Esther and three children aged between three and eight years narrowly escaped injury when their home at Cloneen Drive in Ballymoney, Co Antrim was attacked by loyalists who threw two petrol bombs into the living-room. The living-room was extensively damaged and the family have left the house.
THURS. APRIL 8, 1999: Loyalists in Portadown, Co Armagh said that they intended to mount a "Harryville-style" picket on the St John the Baptist Catholic Church at the top of the Garvaghy Road.
A nationalist man in his thirties was injured when the British-backed loyalist death squad the Orange Volunteers bombed the Barleycorn pub on the Seven Mile Straight in Muckamore, near Antrim town.
It was announced that the Balcombe Street Four, who have been in prison since 1975 and who were repatriated to Portlaoise prison two years ago were to be released. Also released was Liam Quinn, from San Francisco and John Kinsella from Dublin, both of whom had been repatriated from English prisons. John Kinsella has always stated that he was an innocent man.
SAT. APRIL 10, 1999: Around 100 members of the Orange Order recommenced their picket of Saturday evening Mass at Harryville Catholic Church, Ballymena, Co Antrim.
A 26-year-old from Lurgan, Co Armagh, who did not wish to be named, was attacked by two men in a Transit van whom he asked for a lift as he left the Silverwood Hotel in Lurgan, Co Armagh. He ran off but the van tailed him as he walked along the Lough Road and he saw that the two men had balaclavas on and were holding guns. He managed to evade his assailants who chased him.
Brendan Mac Cionnaith, spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, was told by the RUC colonial police that he had been targeted by loyalists and that his life was in immediate danger.
MON. APRIL 12, 1999: St Mary's Junior High School, a Catholic school in Lurgan, Co Armagh, had 51 windows smashed over the Easter holidays, causing around £2,000 in damage. The damage is believed to have been perpetrated by loyalist gangs.
THURS. APRIL 15, 1999: Two pipe-bombs which had been pushed through the letterboxes of nationalist houses in Tresna Park, Randalstown, Co Antrim were defused by British army bomb disposal experts.
FRI. APRIL 16, 1999: Twenty-five armed 26-County Special Branch raided the home of Susan Carmody in Cappamore, Limerick and arrested her partner Christy Smith, taking him to Limerick's Henry Street barracks. They held Susan, her seven -year-old daughter and two-year-old daughter under house arrest for 10 hours while they turned the house and adjoining land upside down.
In other incidents the home of Ultan Larkin was raided causing damage, as was the home of Martin Foran.
All three were taken to Henry Street station where they were threatened and verbally abused. A doctor had to be called for Ultan Larkin to treat injuries caused by being beaten in Henry Street barracks. The Branch threatened that they and the Provos would "get rid of them". All three were released that night.
SAT. APRIL 17, 1999: A new Cumann of Republican Sinn Féin was established in Birmingham in England. The Cumann was named the Joseph Fitzsimons/James McDade Cumann.
TUES. APRIL 20, 1999: The US House of Representatives called on the British government to open an independent inquiry into the murder of the Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson, voting for a resolution which called on "the government of the United Kingdom to launch an inquiry totally independent of the RUC to gather evidence, conduct the ground investigation and issue a detailed, public report on the murder of defence attorney Rosemary Nelson". The resolution also called on the British government: "to institute an independent judicial inquiry into allegations that defence attorneys are systematically harassed and intimidated by security forces (sic) and to implement the United Nations Special Rapporteur's recommendation for an independent inquiry into the possibility of collusion in the killing of defence attorney Pat Finucane".
SUN. APRIL 25, 1999: Cousins John Brady (30) and John Dickson from the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast were abducted by a loyalist gang while walking home from a Turf Lodge social club, bundled into a car and driven to Roden Street in the loyalist Village area where they were battered with sticks from a bonfire. The men managed to escape and were later treated in hospital for severe head injuries and several broken bones.
In an attack by the British-backed loyalist death squad the Orange Volunteers, a woman and her 14- year-old son escaped death or injury when a grenade was thrown at their home in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast The explosion which occurred at the rear of the building blew slates off the roof.
In south Belfast a woman and her friend escaped when two homes came under petrol bomb attack in Millfort Avenue, Dunmurry. The houses suffered scorch damage.
A petrol bomb was thrown at a house in Ridgeway Drive, Derry and three more primed devices were found under a car in the driveway.
MON. APRIL 26, 1999: Nationalists living in the Parkside area of Limestone Road in north Belfast claimed that they came under attack from a loyalist mob from the nearby Tiger's Bay area.
In Castlederg, Co Tyrone loyalist bandsmen subjected nationalist residents of the Asbourne Park estate in the town to a "litany of abuse".
WED. APRIL 28, 1999: A pipe bomb exploded outside the Ramble Inn in County Antrim. The British-backed loyalist death squad the Orange Volunteers claimed the attack on the pub. No one was injured but damage was caused to cars in the car park. In 1976 six people died in a loyalist attack on the pub.
FRI. APRIL 30, 1999:
Nationalist residents on the Upper Lisburn Road, Ardmore Park and Orchardville Avenues of south
Belfast were terrorised by gangs of loyalist youths firing ball bearings from catapults.
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