SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2003: For a time on Sunday Brit Occupation Forces patrolled the Old Park Road/Cliftonville area in a mobile patrol of three Brit Land Rovers; and every so often nationalist youths stoned the Land Rovers as they drove by.
MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2003: Loyalists attacked a minibus going to pick up children from Holy Cross Girls School. The bus had just stopped to pick up an Ardoyne woman; the mother of one of the children who was walking to the school on the Ardoyne Road and only started to drive off again when it came under attack from a group of loyalists near Glen Bryn Park. The driver was able to drive on although a number of windows were broken on the bus. At this stage there is no report of the driver or woman being injured.
There has been a number of confrontations from groups of loyalists from the Glen Bryn area, mostly sectarian songs and shouting but, this has been the worst for some time, but once again shows the dangers that still hang over the Holy Cross children and parents.
Later in the day about a mile away in the Waterworks, a group of loyalist youths attacked nationalists who were walking in the Waterworks and men who were fishing.
The loyalist youths came into the Waterworks from the loyalist Westland, the back of the West estate runs into the Waterworks, making it easy for the loyalist youths to carry out stoning attacks and retreat again.
Nationalist youths soon confronted the loyalists and this went on for some time until the RUC/PSNI moved into the area. Back at Ardoyne trouble broke out, no surprise with the build up of tension that took place throughout the day. A confrontation took place on the Ardoyne Road, but subsided after the RUC/PSNI Occupation Forces moved into the area. Later at around 10pm yet another confrontation took place close to the Ardoyne shops.
For most of the day groups of loyalist youths at Twaddell Avenue were shouting across to nationalist youths at the Ardoyne shops who in turn returned shouts of their own when the youths confronted each other. Two men believed to be Protestants were injured at Twaddell Avenue.
Around 10.30pm loyalists started to attack nationalist houses at Alliance Avenue; the loyalists in the Glen Bryn Park area attacked the nationalist homes with bricks, bottles, stones and petrol bombs. This attack subsided after a time. Also on Monday Martin Morgan of the SDLP replaced Alex Maskey as Belfast's Lord Mayor - no difference there!
TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2003, 2003: Tuesday night was witness to three Brit Land Rovers and foot patrols in the Old Park area of north Belfast. Every so-often RUC/PSNI Land Rovers would also go up and down the Old Park Road as well, in what is a clear harassment of the whole nationalist community in the Bone/Old Park area, where these occupation forces clearly aren't wanted.
A window was broken on the loyalist Cambrai Street off the Crumlin Road around 10.30pm, it was claimed a brick had been thrown from a car.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2003: It was reported today that a group calling itself the "Protestant Interface Network" or "PIN" has been set up in Belfast.
The so-called "PIN" have claimed it will monitor interface areas over the summer to settle sectarian tensions. The fact that the "PIN" group is made up of members of the so-called "Ulster Political Research Group" (UPRG) a group made up of members of the UDA and UVF, will go no way to ease the fears of the nationalist community. There is little doubt that those living in interface areas want to be free from sectarian attacks and rightly so, but, loyalist groups such as this "PIN" that pop-up every so often have never helped the situation in any way, in fact have very often added to the already uncertain and bad situation, not likely to calm or in any way lower the tensions they claim that they will settle.
THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2003: It was reported that members of the PSNI/RUC Occupation Forces are searching the hills overlooking north Belfast for the body of missing Shankill loyalist Alan McCullough. McCullough is believed to have been killed by the UDA/UFF. The hills and fields overlooking north Belfast have been the notorious dumping ground of loyalists. The fields along the High Town Road have been witness to the dumping of loyalist victims believed to go back as far as the 20s. It was also reported that a body had been found in the area near Ballyutoag Road.
Two pipe bombs were thrown at the home of prison officer Desmond Waterworth in Princess Gardens, Holywood, Co Down.
Two houses in Dromain Drive in the Stiles Estate in Antrim town were targeted by petrol bombs, causing scorch damage to both.
FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2003: The body found in the hills of north Belfast was confirmed as that of loyalist Alan McCullough. His killing has since been claimed by the UFF. Around 5pm about 60 women from the Lower Shankill blocked off the Shankill Road; many of the women were relations of members of Johnny Adair's C Coy, who were forced out of the Lower Shankill by the UDA/UFF in a feud.
Some of the women claimed that they had paid £500stg to have relations return home. The money they said was paid to the UDA who agreed to let their relations return and who said they would be safe, but, on their return they were beaten up and put out of the country again. The women also said they wanted the UDA off their backs.
Earlier in the day west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who was named in the press as Brit spy Stake Knife, started a legal bid to clear his name.
Trouble broke out around 11pm on the Ardoyne Road, once again there was claim and counterclaim as to how it started. There was a confrontation between nationalist and loyalist youths during which a number of houses were damaged in the fighting that didn't last very long.
There was also reports of a confrontation in the Old Park area at Torrens, again nationalists and loyalists confronted each other, using bricks and bottles.
SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2003: Around 12.15am a number of windows were broken in houses belonging to Nationalist families in the Deer Park Road area of north Belfast. The houses were attacked from the Alliance Road area that runs into the bottom end of the Glen Bryn area. As well as the houses, a number of cars were also damaged. Nationalist families living in the Deerpark Road have suffered long-term from such attacks that are clearly sectarian.
Once again the scenes of people viewing their damaged homes because of misguided people driven by hate and sectarianism is sickening.
Nationalists in the Short Strand staged a protest against an Orange parade that was forced passed their area. Hundreds of Occupation Forces took to the streets to make sure that the Orange parade would pass the nationalist area. There were no reports of trouble.
Also on Saturday, a number of pipe bombs were found near a nursery school in the loyalist Sandy Row in south Belfast.
SUNDAY, JUNE 8, 2003: Michael Conway, a father-of-one who has a serious heart complaint, says that he and his family will leave the Six Counties following an attack on himself and his wife by a loyalist gang in the Leckagh Estate in Magherafelt. Up to eight men were involved in the attack, one of whom he knew.
MONDAY JUNE 9, 2003: Monday passed off without any reports of trouble; but the RUC/PSNI kept a presence on the Ardoyne Road with a Land Rover sitting at the interface at the Ardoyne Road.
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2003: Visits to Maghaberry prison were stopped today due to claims by the regime there that a hoax bomb was found in Roe House. The regime carried out a search of the whole prison.
Also on Tuesday a man from the loyalist part of the Ardoyne Road appeared in the Laganside Court House accused of having a notebook full of names of nationalists who are members of a north Belfast club.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2003: Wednesday was again witness to searches still being carried out in Maghaberry prison. Visits were stopped on Tuesday because of claims from the prison regime that a hoax bomb was found in Roe House. The thought does come to mind that these claims are just an excuse by the prison regime to carry out the harassment of prisoners and stop visits by families.
Reports said a loyalist in his 20s from north Belfast who was arrested at the start of the week for the killing of Alan McCullough has now been charged with the McCullough killing and also membership of the UFF. Today was another day of constant Occupation Forces patrols in north Belfast.
In west Belfast staff in the Republican Sinn Féin Belfast office noticed a higher presence of RUC/PSNI mobile patrols today than has been the case for some time. It has also become clear today that the attack carried out against nationalist homes in the Deer Park Road area of north Belfast last Saturday in which a number of windows were broken, was carried out by a group of women.
As one of those who has been a victim of such attacks remarked, if this is the adults and these women are mothers, then what hope is there for the children?
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2003: The loyalist who was charged with the killing of loyalist Alan McCullough and membership of the UFF was named as Ahab Shoukri, a man known for the part he played in the attacks on Holy Cross and well-known in the nationalist community as the face of pure sectarianism and bigotry. Although known as the Egyptian as is his brother Andre (their father is Egyptian), they have for many years been to the front of loyalism at its worst. In 1996 after the so-called Tour of the North Orange parade, Andre Shoukri, along with another loyalist, faced a manslaughter charge after the death of tennis ace Gareth Parker who was beat up and thrown onto the Antrim Road where he was run over by a car at the Shaftesbury Inn. The attack was believed to be sectarian; Shoukri, although he said he punched Gareth Parker to the ground before he was hit by the car, was found not guilty.
In the Westland area of north Belfast along with UFF, Union and other sectarian flags, loyalists have erected the Egyptian flag to no doubt honour those who have given such loyal service to loyalism,
Andre Shoukri himself is out on bail on arms charges. This is a short history on the Shoukris and gives only a small bit of insight into what the nationalist community of north Belfast and indeed of Belfast have to face.
It has been the case for sometime now in north Belfast that the RUC/PSNI put two-man patrols out during the day. These patrols can often be seen making their way along the Old Park Road; sometimes two men or a man and a woman. Even walking to the upper Old Park Road in good weather these patrols walk along in their short-sleeve shirts. Normal looking, or it would be in a normal situation. The RUC/PSNI like to call this patrolling community policing but aren't fooling anyone nor should anyone be fooled. The fact is that in short-sleeve shirts on a sunny day or overcoats on a rainy day these aren't a normal force, nor are they community police. They should be seen for what they are, an occupation force, no more, no less.
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2003: Occupation Forces were heavy on the ground in many parts of north Belfast. British army mobile patrols drove constantly through the nationalist Bone area around teatime and into the night. Further to this harassment the RUC/PSNI set up a roadblock in Ardoyne Avenue near the Old Park Road and stopped cars going into Ardoyne causing tail-backs for a time. Early in the day there were reports of an arms' find in a loyalist area of north Belfast. Three men were said to have been arrested.
Twenty-Six police discovered a large explosive device in the process of being manufactured at a farmhouse in Co Louth. Three men were arrested.
An 80-year-old woman suffered a broken arm and shock after being blown over by a British army helicopter in Bessbrook, Co Armagh.
SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2003: It was reported that there was trouble in the loyalist Westland but it was not known if this was sectarian.
The second loyalist lifted for the killings of loyalist Alan McCullough was named as William Courtney, better known in Belfast by loyalist and nationalists alike as Mo Courtney. A former friend of Johnny Adair and McCullough himself, he is believed to have taken over from Adair when the upper Shankill UDA/UFF ran the lower Shankill
Adair C Company out of town. Courtney was charged with the murder of Alan McCullough.
There were reports of a confrontation between loyalist and nationalist youths in the Hightown Road area of Glengormley at the Antrim Road end. It didn't last long.
One person was said to have been injured by a brick thrown at him.
SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 2003: The Tomb Street area of Belfast was closed for hours by British Occupation Forces. The RUC/PSNI claimed that a car found in the area was being checked and was the centre of a bomb scare.
The annual Republican Sinn Féin commemoration to Theobald Wolfe Tone, the Father of Irish Republicanism, took place to Bodenstown Churchyard in Co Kildare.
Three men - Joseph Fee, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan (39), Séamus McKenna, Dundalk, Co Louth (48) and Gregory Trainor, Armagh city (37) - were charged at the Special Non-jury Court in Dublin with possession of explosives at Thornfield, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan on June 13. A fourth man, Éamon Matthews (24), Newry, Co Down, was charged with membership of an illegal organisation.
A 1,200 lb bomb was defused by British army bomb experts, having been found abandoned in the Waterside area on the outskirts of Derry city.
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2003: There was a bomb scare on the railway line at Lambeg in Lisburn which closed the line for hours. It later turned out to be a hoax.
Children from St Malachy's College were lucky to escape injury when their bus was attacked in the York Road area of north Belfast around 3.45pm. The attack was clearly sectarian and was believed to have broken a number of windows in St Malachy's College on the Antrim Road.
The nationalist people living on the interface area of Alliance Avenue in north Belfast went through a day of constant attack as loyalists from the Glen Bryn area threw fireworks, bricks and bottles over the so-called peace line. The attacks started in the afternoon and went on until 9pm.
On the Cavehill Road, also in north Belfast, two nationalist children were terrorised around 8.30pm by a number of loyalist women. The two girls, aged 15 and 13 years of age, were left very upset. The loyalist women, around 18 years old, seem to have taken exception to the girls wearing Glasgow Celtic tops and subjected them to sectarian abuse. The two girls made a run for it and were chased under threats which only stopped when a number of people came to their aid.
David Trimble survived another attempt by Jeffrey Donaldson and anti-Agreement members of the Ulster Unionist Party to dislodge him from the leadership of the party by 54% to 46%.
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2003: The usual Occupation Forces presence was as high as ever; British army foot patrols moved around the Old Park area throughout the afternoon.
In further evidence of the collusion between the 26-County State and the British regime in the Six Counties, members of the RUC/PSNI played a Gaelic football game with members of the Leinster House assembly in Dublin.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2003: Youngsters at Brompton Park in the nationalist Ardoyne area stoned an RUC/PSNI mobile patrol at around 3.30pm.
In the Old Park/Bone area children there also stoned British Occupation Forces' mobile patrols.
Loyalists had erected flags, Union Jacks, UDA/UFF, RUC/RHC etc. These were placed along parts of the Crumlin Road, lower Old Park Road and along Cliftonville Avenue on the route of the so-called Tour of the North, a sectarian Orange parade that is forced through and close to a number of nationalist areas in north Belfast which is to take place on June 27.
Work has been ongoing for a number of weeks in west Belfast on the Springfield Road where the so-called peace-line is being added to and the height increased.
Such work, which is also being undertaken in other areas of north Belfast and the Short Strand, shows clearly that the lie of the Stormont Agreement - it cannot bring loyalist and nationalists together. In fact a number of these so-called peace-lines have gone up since that Agreement was signed. Rather than bring people together it has pushed them further apart. The old British policy of divide not unite is very much in evidence. To divide is to conquer; the British mind at work.
There were reports of a pipe bomb in the Donegall Road area around 11pm.
THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2003: The pipe bomb attack last night in the Village area of Donegall Road was race-related. Two women from South Africa were targeted because of the colour of their skin. The area is loyalist and in the past the UDA/UFF have been known to attack people because of their race.
FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2003: Nationalist areas of north Belfast were full of tension as the build-up to the so-called Tour of the North Orange march..
Through the day there was a high level presence of Occupation Forces around north Belfast. Two British helicopters flew overhead, making it impossible to talk without having to shout. This continued until well into the early hours of the morning.
As the Orange march made its way through areas of north Belfast where it was clearly not welcome, nationalists set about staging peaceful protest, but as always they were faced with British Occupation Forces who were there to force the sectarian Orange march through.
At the Ardoyne shops there was a confrontation and trouble broke out. It didn't last as Occupation Forces and Provo police moved to end it. A stand-off then took place which went on into Saturday morning. Tension was high as people made their way home, as is always the case with these forced sectarian Orange parades.
At around 1.50am on Saturday morning a number of shots were fired in the general Ardoyne area.
The inquest into the deaths of 26 people in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 was formally reopened in Dublin. Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell set a September 18 hearing for the interim hearing of submissions on points of law but the full inquest will not take place until the publication of a report by high court judge Henry Barron, who was instructed by the Dublin Administration to carry out an independent investigation into the bombings.
Timothy King (27), Limerick was charged with membership of the IRA in the Special Non-jury Court in Dublin.
There are now over 3.9 million people in the 26-County State according to the 2002 Census.
SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2003: A car belonging to a nationalist father-of-five, from Torrens Drive in north Belfast, who did not wish to be named, was attacked by hammer-weilding loyalists a few yards from a RUC/PSNI barracks.
A 15-year-old nationalist youth wearing a Celtic top was attacked by a gang of loyalist youths who smashed a bottle over his head and stabbed him in the back. They also hot another youth with a brick before fleeing.
Betty O'Loughlin (63) fled her home in Leckagh Drive, magherafelt, Co Derry after a note was pushed through her letter-box warning all Catholics in the estate to get out.
MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2003: UUP Westminster MPs Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and David Burnside resigned the Ulster Unionist Party whip in the British House of Commons.
TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2003: A car carrying leading Derry Provo Martin McGuinness was attacked by loyalists in Ballymoney, Co Antrim.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2003: Patrick McCann (59) and his wife Philomena (58), Church View, Randalstown, Co Derry, were lucky to escape with their lives when a car in their driveway was targeted in a petrol bomb attack.
FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2003: The Ulster Unionist Party suspended its president the Rev Martin Smyth and two other MPs, David Burnside and Jeffrey Donaldson, it emerged tonight.
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2003:The nationalist community of the Springfield Road were forced to endure a sectarian, Orange march forced through their area on Saturday afternoon. From early on in the day hundreds of Occupation Forces flooded into the Springfield area, backed up by armoured land rovers and armoured cars, foot patrols and mobile patrols moved round the area constantly.
Nationalists gathered just before the Orange march was due to come out of Workman's Avenue onto the Springfield Road itself. Provisional policemen were also out in force; as will be the case at flashpoints throughout the marching season; making sure any nationalist protest against sectarian parades or marches are to the level of protest they will allow; any more than that the Provisionals will deal with; of that there will be no mistake. Two water cannons weee also seen in the Shankill, sitting out of the way, but, close enough if called upon to deal with any protest, but, there was an arrangement made beforehand that the RUC/PSNI would let a number of people carrying a banner which read "Orange: its good to talk". Around this stage many of those gathered started to drift away, many with the view they had lost their own right to protest.
Later on in the day at Clifton Street, in the Carrickhill area of north Belfast, Matt Doyle was walking with his two-year-old son when he was attacked and stabbed by a loyalist in a bandsman's uniform. The loyalist, who was without a doubt marching in the Springfield Road parade earlier in the day, then ran off towards the Orange Hall in Clifton Street and got on a bus carrying other band members.
The RUC/PSNI who went all out to highlight the stoning of a bus carrying bandsmen by nationalist children weren't as forthcoming about the stabbing of a nationalist man who was walking in his own area with his two-year-old son to the local sweet shop. Will this be a surprise to nationalists? We think not. Apart from minor stone throwing in a number of areas there were no further reports of trouble.
SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2003: Although the Occupation Force presence was heavy on the ground it was a trouble free day, well that's if you don't count the odd water-balloon that children in the Old Park/Bone area used to target Occupation Forces with; how dare those Irish children soak the uniform of the Crown!!
A 20-year-old nationalist man, believed to be from Dunmore, near Ballynahinch, Co Down, waas in a critical condition in hospital after an attack by a group of men in Lisburn Street as he and a group of friends walked into the town in the early hours of the morning.
MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2003: Reports of yet another race attack in south Belfast.
The attack, another of many such attacks took place in the loyalist Donegall Avenue area. Once again loyalists driven by their hatred for the colour of one's skin, used a pipe bomb to attack the South African family of four. Two small children were also in the house at the time of the attack.
On Monday night there were reports of a bomb scare in south Belfast.
It's believed that the scare was centred on the area that saw an attack
on a South African family earlier.
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