APRIL, 2000

SAT. APRIL 1, 2000: A nationalist mother from Larne, Co Antrim, who was brutally beaten by a loyalist gang six months ago, said that the RUC refused to come to her assistance when another loyalist mob of about 50 hurled sectarian abuse at her and her daughter as they left their home to use a nearby telephone box.

MON. APRIL 3, 2000: Bus Átha Cliath workers, who had been scheduled to begin a four-day strike in Dublin, settled their dispute with the company, ending the stoppages.

WED. APRIL 5, 2000: Relatives of twelve men murdered by British Crown Forces won a key victory in the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg when judges decided that their case could be heard by the court, in other words that the British government have a case to answer. The cases include allegations of excessive use of force in the Loughgall case, the shoot-to-kill killings in Co Armagh in 1982 and collusion by Crown forces with loyalist death squads.

THURS. APRIL 6, 2000: The perimeter wall and an unmanned guardhouse of Ebrington British army barracks in the Waterside area of Derry city were damaged when a bomb exploded early in the morning.

MON. APRIL 10, 2000: Former political prisoner Harry Maguire, who served ten years for the killing of two British army corporals in March 1988 and is now Belfast chairman of the so-called "community restorative justice" group [ie, provo cops] was shot in the leg in a drinking club on the Glen Road, west Belfast. It appears to have been as a result of an earlier incident at the club.

WED. APRIL 12, 2000: The Queen of England visited the Occupied Six Counties in order to confer the George Cross on the RUC. The conferring was attended by the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Seán Brady.

Combat 18, a neo-Nazi group, was linked to a wave of vicious and unprovoked attacks on nationalists in the predominantly loyalist town of Rathfriland, Co Down.

An improvised pipe bomb was left outside the home of the son of an SDLP councillor in Athol Avenue in the Heights estate in Coleraine, Co Derry. No one was injured and there was no damage.

THURS. APRIL 13, 2000: An attempt to fire a mortar at Roslea RUC barracks in Co Fermanagh failed when the mortar exploded in a car used as a launching platform. No one was injured.

FRI. APRIL 14, 2000: The Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for the mortar attack on Roslea RUC barracks on April 13. It also emerged that two devices were fired at the base, not one as originally thought.

The High Court in Dublin ordered the extradition of Nessan Quinlivan (35) from Limerick, who along with Pearse McCauley (35) from Strabane, Co Tyrone shot his way out of Brixton prison in London, back to England to be tried for conspiracy to murder and explosives and firearms charges.

SUN. APRIL 16, 2000: An Orange hall at Rathfriland, Co Down was destroyed in an arson attack.

MON. APRIL 17, 2000: A house in Rathfriland, Co Down suffered scorch damage when a petrol bomb was thrown into the hallway.

TUES. APRIL 18, 2000: British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to Hillsborough Castle in Co Down in an attempt to resurrect the moribund Stormont Agreement.

Residents of the Finn Square-Dover Street peaceline area of Belfast said they were living in fear of loyalist mobs who smashed a hole in the peaceline and threw bottles and bricks at nationalist houses at Sinn Square in the Divis area.

Following a tip-off the RUC discovered a pipe bomb in a field at Clough Road near Seaforde, Co Down. The anonymous caller said the device was for use against Republicans in Castlewellan, Co Down.

THURS. APRIL 20, 2000: Twenty-Six County police shot dead a man who had been barricaded in his home at Abbeylara, Co Longford for nearly 24 hours. The man, John Carthy, who held a shotgun, was shot several times in the back.

SUN. APRIL 23, 2000: Republican commemorations under the auspices of the National Commemoration Committee and Republican Sinn Féin were held in 28 counties in Ireland as well as Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and New York.

TUES. APRIL 25, 2000: Provisional prisoners who had been imprisoned in the low-security prison in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, were transferred back to the high-security prison at Portlaoise after several incidents, including the imprisonment of a prison warder and the finding of money and other items in their house at the prison.
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For the Record