SUN. APRIL 1, 2001: A 14-year-old boy in the same street was chased and beaten by men armed with pickaxe handles. Afterwards, the gang drove a short distance along Spamount Street where they alighted and attacked a man and woman.
Mary Campbell (51) sustained a head injury after being set upon at Spamount Street by a group of men wielding pickaxe handles. The woman was walking alone when the gang got out of a silver car and assaulted her. She was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital where she underwent an operation. Her condition was afterwards said to be stable. The loyalist death squad the Ulster Defence Association was blamed for the assaults in the mainly nationalist New Lodge area of the city. A number of windows were broken at houses in Spamount Street during the incidents.
MON. APRIL 2, 2001: The home of a nationalist man at Birchill Park in the mainly loyalist Parkhall estate in Antrim was petrol-bombed, causing damage to a bedroom. The house was unoccupied at the time as the family, who had lived in Antrim for 20 years had left their home after several masked men had burst in and assaulted them a number of weeks ago.
The British government announced that because of the foot and mouth crisis local elections due to be held on May 3 in the Six Counties and in parts of Britain would be postponed until June 7.
Anthony McIntyre, who served 17 years in Long Kesh prison said he will leave his Ballymurphy home because of threats from the Provisionals. He was visited by the RUC and told to step up security at his home. The move follows a number of incidents in recent months in which Anthony McIntyre, a member of the Irish Republican Writers Group, was targeted because of his outspoken criticism of the Provisional leadership and its endorsement of the Stormont Agreement. He has lived in the area since he was released eight years ago.
TUES. APRIL 3, 2001: Trevor Thomas Lowry, a 49-year-old electrician, married with two children from Newtownabbey, County Antrim died in hospital from head and facial injuries sustained in an attack at Harmin Parade on Saturday night. Trevor Lowry was a Protestant, but it is believed that his attackers thought he was a Catholic as he had lived in a mainly nationalist area of Glengormley.
Another incident which occurred about the same time involved the attempted abduction of another man by three men in a white Ford Escort car. The men attempted to pull the man into the car at the Hightown Road near St Enda’s Gaelic Athletic Association. A similar car was later abandoned at Harmin Drive, about 150 yards from where Trevor Lowry was found.
A woman escaped injury in a pipe bomb attack in Ballymena, County Antrim. The device was thrown through the living room window of her home. It failed to explode.
British army bomb disposal experts defused a 60lb bomb in a car in the Waterside area of Derry. The red Vauxhall Nova was abandoned on Sunday, on the busy main Derry to Strabane Road, near the junction with Prehen Road in the Waterside area. The RUC said the device left in the boot of the car was "sophisticated" and contained about 60lbs of homemade explosives packed into a barrel. Four telephone bomb warning messages were passed to the RUC after the car was abandoned.
British army bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled ex;plosion on a suspect device explosion after a local shop received reports that a bomb had been left at Newell Road, Dungannon, Co Tyrone. About 30 homes were evacuated in the area around Newell Road on Tuesday night while the car was examined.
WED. APRIL 4, 2001: The British supremo in the Six Occupied Counties, John Reid, announced that a new type of plastic bullet will be used by Crown Forces in the future. The Patten report, which stopped short of recommending a ban on baton rounds, nevertheless called for their use to be discontinued as soon as possible and an alternative "sought urgently." The fact that a variation on this potentially lethal weapon has been introduced will not inspire confidence that the justifiable concerns raised by Patten will be addressed in full. The British government points out that this new baton is more accurate.
THURS. APRIL 5, 2001: The home of nationalist William Christie and his family in Alliance Avenue was attacked by a three-man loyalist death squad gang who drew up in a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier outside. William’s daughter Lisa saw the car pull up from an upstairs window. A man in the back pulled up a gun and started shooting out of the back door window of the car. William Christie’s two daughters were standing in the front garden when incident happened. The car sped off towards the Deerpark area. Thirty minutes later the car returned and the shooting began again. Two bullets smashed through an upstairs window, piercing the glass. Other bullets struck the wall at either side of the window. There are two large bullet holes in the top window. No one was in the room during the attack.
William, his wife and a second daughter were downstairs. William’s grandchildren were sleeping in another bedroom. William’s daughter, her husband Harry Hayles and their four children moved into the house after their own home was bombed by loyalists. In the hallway and dining area, the couple’s furniture and belongings are stacked against the walls. The family lived close to the loyalist Westland estate and both families have been repeatedly targeted by loyalist death squads. The car was found later burning at Ballysillan playing fields.
A number of component parts of a pipe bomb were found at the rear yard of a house in Ebor Street in the Donegall Road area of south Belfast.
About 100 people were evacuated from their homes when a pipe-bomb was left on a pavement in the Abercorn Square area of Derry city.
SAT. APRIL 7, 2001: A report commissioned by the British government revealed that the new plastic bullets to be introduced for use in the Six Counties had the potential to be even more lethal than the rubber and plastic bullets used heretofore. The report said that they are “lighter, faster, aerodynamically shaped and manufactured from a stiffer material”. The report concluded that the severity of brain injuries was likely to be greater with the new bullet.
SUN. APRIL 8, 2001: Paddy Dunlop (35), a nationalist from Ballymena, Co Antrim was badly beaten by the RUC in William Street in the town after he intervened when an RUC woman assaulted a pregnant woman. He was attacked from behind and savagely beaten as he lay handcuffed on the ground and unable to protect or defend himself.
William Street is the nationalist part of the mainly loyalist town of Ballymena and people had gone to pubs there to watch the Celtic match. Trouble erupted when he and two friends left the Inn pub and one of his friends then tried to tape a Tricolour to a traffic bollard. Five RUC members laid into him with batons and he was thrown into an RUC van and brought to Ballymena RUC barracks, where he was left lying on the floor for four hours before he received any medical attention. The doctor who saw Dunlop ordered that the RUC release him to hospital. The injured man had four staples put in a head wound and was treated for severe bruising to his face, arms, upper body and legs. He has to wait until the swelling in his arm goes down to be X-rayed.
A young Ballynahinch, Co Down man, Stevie Clarke was slashed in the face by a loyalist using a broken bottle, and as he fell to the ground others in the mob kicked him about the head. He and friends, who had been out celebrating Celtic winning the Scottish league championship, were on their way home when they were attacked.. He spent three days in hospital under observation because of severe swelling to his head.
Meanwhile, two nationalist taxi-drivers escaped injury when loyalists attacked them in the Langley Road area of the town. Although both taxis were damaged, neither man was hurt.
FRI. APRIL 13, 2001: The postal service in the Six Counties said that some of its postal deliveries to Britain were delayed following a bomb warning at the Royal Mail sorting depot at Mallusk, near Belfast. The depot was evacuated for three hours on Friday while it was searched following a bomb warning. Nothing was found.
SAT. APRIL 14, 2001: The home on the Glassdrummond Road in Annalong, Co Down of a member of the British colonial police the RUC was targeted in a loyalist pipe bomb. The area was cordoned off for several hours before the device was made safe. The main Newcastle to Kilkeel road was closed again on Saturday as forensic experts carried out a follow-up search of the area.
Shaun Alexander Leighton, a kennel keeper of Mosside Gardens, Ballymoney, County Antrim (33) in County Antrim appeared at Ballymena magistrate’s court charged with having documentation likely to be of use to terrorists. He was alleged to have had a computerised record containing personal details of a number of people on March 5this year.
SUN. APRIL 15, 2001: Easter commemoration ceremonies were held by Republican Sinn Féin throughout Ireland as well as in Scotland, England and the USA in memory of the 1916 Easter Rising.
An explosive device exploded outside a post office depot in Edgeware Road, north London.
A mortar packed with 90kg of home-made explosives was made safe by British army bomb experts at Altmore Forest, between Carrickmore and Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
TUES. APRIL 17, 2001: Loyalists tore down Tricolours in Larne’s Seacourt estate as part of an ongoing campaign of intimidation against nationalists. Just hours afterwards, the loyalist Apprentice Boys paraded through the County Antrim town.
Gerald Anthony McFadden (31) of Rathlin Gardens, Creggan, Derry city was charged at the Special Court in Dublin with having in his possession at Glebe, Donegal information about Peter Sheridan, an RUC superintendent, his family and his movements, which was likely to be used in the commission by members of an illegal organisation of a serious offence. He was remanded in custody to Portlaoise prison and is believed to have applied to be housed with the Provisional prisoners at Castlerea, Co Roscommon.
SAT. APRIL 21, 2001: A grenade was thrown at Strand Road RUC barracks in Derry. The device fell short of its target and damaged two parked cars in Asylum Road. Several nearby houses were evacuated while army bomb experts examined the scene, and a number of items were taken for examination.
SUN. APRIL 22, 2001: A couple have escaped injury after a pipe-bomb exploded in their living room in County Down last night. Shots were fired through the window before device was hurled into the living room of the house in Breezemount Rise in the village of Conlig. No-one was injured but the woman was treated in hospital for shock after the attack at 10.20pm last night. The family targeted in the gun and pipe bomb attack had received a loyalist death threat several weeks ago. The police have said the couple were lucky to escape with their lives.
A single shot was fired into the living room of a nationalist family in Woodford Place, Armagh, the third attack on a home in the mixed area in a week.
MON. APRIL 23, 2001: British army bomb experts were called in to defuse a suspect object found on the track at Finaghy in south Belfast.
TUES. APRIL 24, 2001: British army bomb disposal experts and the RUC who were dealing with a suspect device on the Belfast to Dublin railway line have been attacked by a crowd throwing stones and petrol bombs at the line near the mainly nationalist Kilwilkie estate in Lurgan Co Armagh. Three officers were injured, one seriously. Rioting started as army bomb experts continued to examine two other suspicious objects found on the railway line on Monday and Tuesday.
A device was found at Boyd’s bridge in Dunloy in Co Derry after a search of the area following the warnings.
The Belfast to Lisburn line was closed, as is the line between Ballymoney and Ballymena, where passengers are being transferred by bus.
WED. APRIL 25, 2001: A mother and four children narrowly escaped death when their home at Dunluce Avenue in south Belfast was targeted in a pipe-bomb attack. The device was thrown through the living room window.
A couple and three children escaped injury after a petrol bomb was thrown at their house in Antrim town.
THURS. APRIL 27, 2001: A suspect device was found in Chapel Street, in the Waterside area of Derry city. The British army carried out a controlled explosion.
MON. APRIL 30, 2001:
In a landmark decision the UN Human Rights Committee found that the 26-County State must in the future supply reasons for bringing people before the Special non-jury Court instead of an ordinary court. The committee said that in the future the State should not try people before the Special Court unless it can show reasonable and objective criteria for the decision.
Continue