FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2003: Friday night was once again witness to rioting on the west link, again loyalist and nationalist youths confronted each other at Broadway in west Belfast, brick, bottles and stones were used, a van was also reported hijacked and burned in the loyalist village area before the trouble that went on for some time subsided.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2003: There were reports on Saturday of trouble in the Village area near the West Link in west Belfast. Stones and bricks were thrown in the loyalist Glenmackon Street, and cars were attacked on the West Link near the roundabout. It's not believed that there was any form of confrontation with loyalist and nationalist youths as has been witnessed in recent nights. Saturday was also witness to a number of bomb scares in Belfast city centre.
Ten people were arrested at a forest in the Commeragh Mountains on the Tipperary/Waterford border in what appeared to be a training camp. A number of weapons and a quantity of ammunition was seized.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 2003: Sunday was witness to trouble in a number of parts of west Belfast in the loyalist Village area. Loyalists attacked cars near the roundabout on the Westlink and also attacked the RUC/PSNI in the Glenmackon Street area. This went on for a number of hours before subsiding. There were also reports of trouble in the Falls Park.
It is believed that over 200 nationalist youths attacked the RUC/PSNI in the Park. Some of the youths also tried to break into the landrovers. A number of the RUC/PSNI suffered injuries. The RUC/PSNI later put one of their members on show claiming he had been hit in the face with a bottle.
MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2003: A bomb scare that closed off Royal Avenue on Monday morning for a number of hours, later turned out to be a mistake on the part of Brit Occupation Forces who blew up the car of a student (Gareth McAteer) who had parked the car, a Honda Civic, in Donegall Street to do a few hours studying in the central library in Royal Avenue, Belfast. The car was badly damaged after Brits carried out a number of controlled explosions on the car. A shocked Gareth later said: “I've some explaining to do when I get home the car to my mother's.”
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2003: Reports on Tuesday morning told of an attack by loyalists on the home of Provisionals Lisburn Councillor Paul Butler. Its believed that at around 11pm on Monday night, a device was thrown from a car and hit the front door of Paul Butler's home in the Lenadoon area. Occupation Forces later claimed the attack to be a hoax. Paul Butler, who said the device was very real, rubbished this claim.
Also on Tuesday, work began on a new so-called peace wall in the Lanark Way area of the Springfield Road in west Belfast. Testament yet again to the failure of the Stormont set-up, where it is claimed such structures will be brought down.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2003: Wednesday witnessed claims by Billy Hutchinson of the PUP (Progressive Unionist Party), and front man for the UVF that an attempt was made to kidnap him. He claimed he was “jogging along Cambrai Street at around 6am when a car with four men in it pulled up alongside him”. He went on to say, “one of the men got out off the car that hadn't stopped fully and the man stumbled”. He then said, “another man got out to help the first man, but, the driver of the car began to panic and started to shout go, go, go”.
Hutchinson then said he ran and was let into a building by a security man. With this Billy Hutchinson claimed the car drove off at speed towards the nationalist Ardoyne area. This claim doesn't stand up. Anyone who knows this area would know that Billy Hutchison couldn't tell what area the car went, as it would be impossible for him to see from Cambrai Street.
Republican Sinn Féin in Belfast said later, “if there was indeed an attack on Billy Hutchinson it's clear it didn't come from nationalists or Republicans; and what it also very clear to us and the nationalist/republican community it that Billy Hutchinson would do well to look closer to home”.
There is just no reasoning in Billy Hutchinson's claims that Republicans carried out this attack. We would also question why he was so fast to point the finger of blame towards nationalist Ardoyne? By doing so he only seeks to set-up the whole nationalist community as targets for the sectarian gunmen he is happy to front.
Also on Wednesday two young nationalisty boys were attacked by a number of loyalist youths, who it seems were working on the orders of an older man, believed to be in his 30s. This attack took place in York Street Train Station in north Belfast.
The two boys, a 13-year-old pupil from St. Patrick's and a 14-year-old, a pupil of St. Malachy's later told a north Belfast news reporter what had happened to them. The boys said "we went to Maysfield Leisure Centre for a swim and took the train to York Street station, but as we were coming out of the station, older teenagers in Rangers shirts approached us. There was an older man with a mobile phone wearing a Rangers top and a fleece who was with them.
“The teenagers grabbed us and told us to say the alphabet, we told them we were Protestants from Glengormley and they told us they would take us into Tigers Bay (a loyalist area) and phone us a taxi. We said we wanted to go to York Gate Shopping Centre. It was at this stage that one of the loyalist youths stuck a cigarette to one of the boy's eye. The older man stood and watched and was doing something with his mobile phone.”
The youths then took £1 off one of the boys and £5 off the other. “The next thing was the man started to come towards the station ramp where we were standing and he said to us to shout Orange bastards; we just ran off.”
The boy's mother's later said their sons had been left traumatised by the attack. “They told them to shout Orange bastards as if my son was giving them hassle,” said one of the boy's mothers, Brenda Murphy, from north Queen Street.
There is little doubt the boys were lucky to escape. If they hadn't made a run for it when they did, who knows what the outcome may have been. Like many other such attacks, this one too was played down.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2003: Thursday passed off without any reports of trouble, but, many parts of north-Belfast had the usual occupation force presence.
Michael McKevitt (53) of Dundalk, Co Louth was sentenced to 20 years having been found guilty in the Special non-jury Court in Dublin of "directing terrorism" and membership of an illegal organization on the evidence of the informer David Rupert.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2003: Friday morning was witness to a part of Royal Avenue and North Street being closed for a number of hours after a man took to the roof of a shop in North street.
The man claimed he was on the roof in support of the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry prison (though he had no poster or banner to support his claim).
Friday was also witness to a number of confrontations between nationalists and loyalist at Flax Street and Alliance Ave where bricks and bottles were used.
One of four prisoners who took to the roof of Maghaberry prison on Thursday to demand segregation ended his protest.
It is believed that of the four prisoners who took part in the protest only one was Republican - the other three non-political prisoners support the Republican's demands.
There were also reports of bomb scares at the prison which turned out to be a hoax.
Visits to Maghaberry prison in Co Antrim were cancelled because Republican prisoners staged a protest on the roof of the prison as part of their campaign for segregation and political status.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 2003: Alexander Traynor from Forthriver Drive, a loyalist area of west Belfast appeared in court and was charged with 'trespass with intent to steal from a butcher shop'. Traynor was the man who claimed he was protesting about conditions in Maghaberry prison when he took to a roof of a shop in North street.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2003: The protest at Maghaberry prison ended.
MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 2003: Occupation forces heavy on the ground in a number of areas in north Belfast.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2003: Nationalist families living in an area in the Old Park area of north Belfast believe they are being targeted by loyalists and are very concerned. (For reasons of the residents security the exact area is not being mentioned).
The residents have claimed that a car with five men in it, two of whom are known loyalists, have been seen driving around their area.
The home of a nationalist family of five was gutted in a sectarian arson attack on the Tobermore Road in Desertmartin, Co Derry. The home was a new one which had been attacked on six previous occasions since construction began several years ago.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 13, 2003: On Wednesday morning there was a report of a bomb scare at the Central Train Station in Belfast but it turned out to be a hoax.
There was also a reported bomb scare at Glandore Ave in Skegoneill of the Antrim Road. This too turned out to be a hoax.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2003: Brit Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram, said in a statement today that the murderers of Peter McBride, who was only 18 years old when gunned down by Brits James Fisher and Mark Wright in September 1992, would stay in the British Army.
This comes as no surprise to the Nationalist community who know only too well that Fisher and Wright have been rewarded for what they were sent to the occupied counties to do - kill the Irish if that is what it takes to keep them down.
Peter McBride was just another young Irish man, another victim of Brit rule forced on the Six Occupied Counties of Ireland.
Ten Republican prisoners on the dirty protest in Maghaberry prison lost a High Court action in Belfast against being denied access to their lawyers.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2003: A number of bomb scares were reported in and around the city centre of Belfast today. All turned out to be hoaxes.
It was reported that the Continuity IRA had claimed responsibility for a series of bomb hoaxes in Belfast, Lisburn, and Carrickfergus, all in Co Antrim. In a statement to the Belfast Irish News the CIRA said that the alerts were linked to the continuing harassment of Republican prisoners in Maghaberry jail.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2003: The Orange Hall at Green-castle Street, Kilkeel, Co Down was damaged in an arson attack.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2003: Reports today of a gun attack in the lower Falls area of west Belfast. One man was killed. The shooting took place in a house in the Ross Road area of the lower Falls. The victim has been named as Danny McGurk believed to be in his early 30s.
In north Belfast Occupation Forces have kept their usual high presence in a number of areas.
The home of a nationalist family in the Queen's Park area of Newtown-abbey, outside Belfast, suffered damage to the front door when a pipe bomb, which had been left on the windowsill, exploded.
MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2003: Today a number of bomb scares have been reported. Again were hoaxes.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2003: A number of raids were carried out by the occupation forces in west and south Belfast. A number of arrests were made amid claims that a number of weapons were found.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2003: Sectarian loyalist slogans have appeared on walls and on shop fronts in the Old Park Road Clifton-Dene; upper Westland Alliance Ave; Deer Park and Cavehill areas. The slogans read ‘K/Coy UDA/UVF land’, ‘Taigs Out’, ‘Kill all Taigs’. In the Deer Park area slogans also attacked Bobby Sands. It is clear that the slogans are designed to raise tension and are a threat to the whole nationalist community of north Belfast.
Three of the four people who were arrested by the RUC on Tuesday morning were released.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2003: A confrontation took place between loyalist and nationalist youths near the Westland end of the Waterworks in north Belfast.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 2003: Two Nationalist youths were attacked by loyalists at Alliance Ave/ Deer Park area of north Belfast.
The two youths were walking home in the afternoon when loyalists pulled up in a car alongside them. The loyalists jumped out and attacked the two youths. The youths were taken to hospital for treatment. One of them sustained a broken arm.
The noted historian and author of several books on the IRA and international conflicts, J Bowyer Bell, died from kidney failure in a New York hospital.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 2003: Brit occupation forces heavy on the ground all over the city.
MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2003: A family in Ross Street, lower Falls, was forced to leave their home this morning. This family claim they are being blamed in the wrong over the McGurk shooting, they deny having anything to do with it. They claim that they were away on the Saturday and they returned home on Sunday to find their home ransacked.
Two Republican prisoners in Maghaberry were attacked by seven loyalists this morning. A gun was put to the head of one of the Republicans POWs. His life was saved only by the fact that the gun jammed. This is by far the worse attack by loyalists in the prison in what is now a long list of attacks.
The Dublin-based catering firm, Campbell's Catering, was reported to have won a contract to supply in-house restaurant service to the RUC/PSNI. Campbell's Catering is a member of the Campbell Bewley Group and will provide catering at up to 70 police barracks and offices in the Six Occupied Counties.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2003: Once again Nationalist and loyalist youths clashed as more stoning took place near the Westland end of the Waterworks.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2003: Visits were stopped in Maghaberry prison with claims by the regime that they were carrying out searches for a gun.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2003: Reports that two people were arrested and weapons found in south Belfast.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2003: A number of nationalist houses in the Deer Park Road area of north Belfast were attacked by loyalists at around 10pm. Sectarian slogans were painted on nationalist homes before windows were broken.
These attack are the latest in a long line of attacks on nationalist homes and youths in the area.
An explosive device was discovered at the side of the Trassey Road, near Hilltown, outside Newcastle, Co Down. The device was made safe by British army bomb disposal experts.
It was reported that the Continuity IRA was responsible for a bomb attack on an Ulsterbus depot in Newry, Co Down. A called to a Dublin journalist claimed responsibility on behalf of the CIRA. No one was injured in the explosion which damaged three buses.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2003: The annual hunger Republican Sinn Féin hunger strike commemoration took place in Bundoran, Co Donegal.