Shots were fired at the front of a nationalist house in Graymount Crescent in the Greencastle area of north Belfast in the early hours. The family escaped injury in the pro-British death squad attack.
FRI. JANUARY 2, 1998: Róisín McAliskey was formally committed for extradition to Germany at Bow Street Magistrates Court in London. The British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, can now decide whether to proceed with the extradition.
SAT. JANUARY 3, 1998: The British army were back on daylight foot patrols on the streets of the Occupied Six Counties. They had been withdrawn six weeks previously.
The gates of Harryville Catholic Church in Ballymena, County Antrim were rammed by a stolen car after the loyalist picket at the Saturday evening Mass. Thirty-five loyalists took part in the 'gauntlet' which parishioners are forced to run every Saturday evening.
Fires in two buildings in the grounds of a Catholic church in Limavady, County Derry on the weekend of January 3-4 were started deliberately by loyalists. A building used by a community playgroup and as changing rooms by the local GAA football club at the Church of Christ the King was completely destroyed in the blaze.
MON. JANUARY 4, 1998: A senior Provisional member and H-Block escaper from Ardoyne in Belfast was arrested by 26-County police outside Dundalk, Co Louth and is being questioned about the kidnapping of supermarket executive Don Tidey in November-December 1983.
The UDA/UFF prisoners in the H-Blocks voted to withdraw their support from the Stormont talks.
MON. JANUARY 5, 1998:: Brendan 'Bic' McFarlane, a senior Provisional member and H-Block escaper from Ardoyne in Belfast was arrested by 26-County police outside Dundalk, Co Louth for questioning about the kidnapping of supermarket executive Don Tidey in November-December 1983. He was released finally from the H-Blocks only two weeks previously.
Three men were arrested following the seizure by 26-County police of 1.5 tonnes of explosives in a disused fish shop in Howth.
TUES. JANUARY 6, 1998: The British army defused a device estimated as containing between 300-500lbs of explosives in a car parked in the centre of Banbridge, County Down. The explosive device was discovered following a call to a radio station in the 26 Counties.
Brendan Campbell (33) was shot in the chest when armed men entered the Meadows Tavern bar on Boucher Road in Belfast. The shooting was claimed by Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD), a name believed to be a cover for the Provisionals military organisation. He was described as "ill, but stable" in the Royal Victoria Hospital.
FRI. JANUARY 9, 1998: British supremo in the Occupied Six Counties Mo Mowlam visited loyalist death squad prisoners in Long Kesh prison in an attempt to get them to allow their political representatives in the UDP to remain in the talks process at Stormont. Amongst the prisoners she met was Michael Stone, who was responsible for the murder of three nationalists at a funeral in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast in 1988.
Three people were charged with possession of explosives at the Dublin Special Court. Éamon Flanagan and Séamus McLoughlin were charged with having an explosive substance under their control at West Pier, Howth, Co Dublin on January 5 last with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property. Joseph Dillon was charged that on January 5 at Golflinks Road, Bettystown, Co Meath, he had in his possession or under his control an explosive substance, also with intent to endanger life or property. The three were remanded until January 20. Media reports said that some of those charged were part of the newly-formed pressure group, the 32-County Sovereignty Committee.
SAT. JANUARY 10, 1998: Terence Enright (28), a nationalist youth-worker and GAA member was shot dead outside the Space night club in Talbot Street close to Belfast city centre. The shooting was claimed by the pro-British death-squad, the LVF.
Nationalist-run businesses in the Greymount area of north Belfast were given two weeks to leave the area by loyalists. A number of nationalist families in the area received anonymous phone-calls telling them to leave.
MON. JANUARY 12, 1998: The British government and the Dublin administration presented the 'Propositions on the Heads of Agreement' document to the parties engaged in the Stormont talks.
British soldier Lee Clegg's third appeal against his conviction for the killing of a Belfast nationalist, Karen Reilly, opened in Belfast.
TUES. JANUARY 13, 1998: The RUC were accused of carrying out a vicious assault on nationalists in Belfast following incidents which occurred in the Whitewell Road area during disturbances between nationalists and the RUC.
The District Master of the Orange Order in Portadown, Co Armagh, Harold Gracey, said that he would not seek permission from nationalist residents before walking along the Garvaghy Road in July 1998.
Leading Provisional Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane from Ardoyne, north Belfast was freed on £100,000 bail by the Special Court. WED. JANUARY 14, 1998: Large forces of 26-County political police descended on the home of Seosamh Ó Maoileoin, Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath at 9am and on the home and business premises of Emmett Walsh near Tullamore, Co Offaly at the same time. More than a dozen Branch including a policewoman raided Walsh's for six hours. Seosamh Ó Maoileoin, who is treasurer of Westmeath Co Board, GAA was arrested immediately and taken to Mullingar barracks where he was held until 6pm the following evening.
An undercover British soldier shot and seriously wounded a British colonial police (RUC) member. The shooting happened at about 1.20am when the soldier's unmarked car crashed at Carlisle Circus in Belfast after being pursued by an unmarked RUC car. As the RUC member, who was in uniform, approached the car, the female soldier fired a number of shots. The RUC member was hit in the chest and was described as critical in hospital.
THURS. JANUARY 15, 1998: An Ard Chomhairle member of Republican Sinn Féin, Declan Curneen of north Leitrim, was raided at his home for several hours. Among the political material seized was the minute book of Comhairle Chonnacht, the Connacht provincial executive of Republican Sinn Féin.
Seven Irish political prisoners — John Crawley, Eoin Morrow, Francis Rafferty, Gerard Hanratty, Donal Gannon, Liam Ó Duibhir and Peter Sherry were transferred from prisons in Britain to Portlaoise prison in the 26-Counties.
Three men, Eamonn Flanagan (42), Seamus McLoughlin (66) and Joseph Dillon (52), charged in connection with the seizure of 1.5 tonnes of explosives in Howth were freed on bail by the Special non-jury Court in Dublin. They were remanded until February 18 and told to surrender their passports and report to their local 26-County police barracks once a week.
FRI. JANUARY 16, 1998: Plans were announced for a new "peace-line" to be built as a barrier, it is believed, between Whitewell Road and Serpentine Road, separating houses in Gunnell Hill and Serpentine Gardens.
SUN. JANUARY 18, 1998: Fergal McCusker, a 28-year-old building worker who returned from the US the previous week was shot dead by the LVF pro-British death squad at about 1.20am in the town of Maghera in County Derry.
MON. JANUARY 19, 1998: Larry Brennan (52), a nationalist taxi-driver from Friendly Street in the Markets area of Belfast was shot dead by a loyalist death squad gunman outside the Enterprise taxi depot on the Ormeau Road.
The INLA claimed responsibility for the shooting dead of a loyalist man, Jim Guiney (36), in his carpet shop at Kingsway, Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast. Later that day the British Crown Forces commenced a major search operation in Dunmurry village with a large area cordoned off.
A former commanding officer in the British Parachute Regiment in Derry on Bloody Sunday, Derek Wilford, said on Channel 4 News the British army had nothing to apologise for in regard to its behaviour on that day in 1972. He said the Parachute Regiment behaved "according to the very best standards of keeping the peace" when they killed 14 nationalists at an anti-internment march, and placed the blame for the massacre on those who ordered the soldiers into Derry.
TUES. JANUARY 20, 1998: It was reported that Catholic priests in the Occupied Six Counties have been issued with death threats by the loyalist death squad, the LVF.
WED. JANUARY 21, 1998: Benedict Hughes, a father-of-three from the Suffolk area of west Belfast, was shot dead by a loyalist death squad member in the loyalist Donegall Road as he left work shortly after 5pm.
Later that evening a nationalist taxi-driver from the Whitewell Road area of Belfast was shot in the head after being lured to pick up a fare in the Downview Avenue area of north Belfast. His injuries were described as 'not life-threatening'.
In a statement, the Provisionals' military organisation rejected the Blair/Ahern 'Heads of Agreement' document.
THURS. JANUARY 22, 1998: A nationalist man, Chris McMahon (30), a father of two young children, was shot and wounded by loyalist death squad members as he closed the bakery shop he worked in at Carnmoney Road in north Belfast.
Ronnie Flanagan, Chief Constable of the RUC, said that the UDA/UFF loyalist death squad was responsible for three of the recent killings of nationalists in the Occupied Six Counties.
FRI. JANUARY 23, 1998: Liam Conway (39), of Roseleigh Street was shot dead by loyalist gunmen as he sat at the wheel of a mechanical digger at Hesketh Road in north Belfast, a few hours after the UDA/UFF loyalist death squad announced that it had 'renewed' its ceasefire.
The British-backed loyalist death squad said that its murders of innocent nationalists had been "a measured military response" to INLA actions and that that response "had now concluded".
SAT. JANUARY 24, 1998: Another taxi-driver, John McColgan (33), a nationalist father-of-three, was lured to his death by loyalist death squad killers who hailed his cab on the Andersonstown Road in west Belfast. His body was found dumped at the side of the road at Hannahstown Hill.
In Lurgan, Co Armagh a nationalist man was shot and wounded by members of the loyalist death squad, the LVF, as he sat in his lorry outside his home in the Taghnevan area at 7.45am.
A leisure centre in Factory Street, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh was destroyed when a massive car-bomb, said to contain 300lb of explosives, went off as British army bomb disposal experts were examining the red Ford Sierra car. Although over 500 revellers were enjoying a function at the centre, all were evacuated to safety prior to the attack as several telephone warnings including one to a local Catholic priest had been given two hours prior to the explosion. To date no organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack which coincided with the resumption of the Stormont talks.
British Crown Forces were called in to examine suspect devices in Belfast's Botanic Avenue for the second time in two weeks. Further bomb alerts brought the British army to the Stormont Hotel in East Belfast and the Culloden Hotel in Cultra on the same date.
MON. JANUARY 26, 1998: The UDP, which represents the UDA/UFF loyalist death squad in the talks process at Stormont, left the talks before it was ejected for breaching the Mitchell Principles of non-violence, following the murders of innocent nationalists.
TUES. JANUARY 27, 1998: A nationalist narrowly escaped death when a lone gunman burst into the offices of Metro Cabs and attempted to fire a gun at him. The gun jammed despite efforts by the British-backed loyalist death squad member to free the mechanism. When he failed he left the building.
The LVF loyalist death squad warned in a statement, using a recognised codeword, that its attacks would continue. It was also reported that the LVF had threatened the lives of nationalist workers in the Lurgan, Co Armagh area.
THURS. JANUARY 29, 1998: The British government announced that a public inquiry into the killings of 14 Derry men on Bloody Sunday -- January 30, 1972 -- would be set up, chaired by a British Law Lord, Lord Saville along with two others from the British Commonwealth.
SAT. JANUARY 31, 1998:
Republican Sinn Féin held a Bloody Sunday commemoration at the GPO in Dublin attended by 500 people. Fourteen black flags were carried in memory of the 14 dead in Derry.
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