THURS. MARCH 1, 2001: Bobby McGuigan (36) was shot dead in his parked car at Liscorrin Court, Ulster Street, Lurgan, Co Armagh.
A pipe-bomb was thrown at the Call-a-Cab deport at the junction of the Upper Crumlin Road and Ligoniel Road. The premises belongs to former PUP member Jackie Mahood who blamed the UVF loyalist death squad for the attack.
A petrol bomb was hurled at the front window of a house in the Duncleg area of Ballymena, Co Antrim. A couple and their 19-year-old daughter escaped injury.
SUN. MARCH 4, 2001: A car bomb exploded outside the BBC Television Centre in London, smashing windows in the glass-fronted centre and shaking houses up to a mile away.
MON. MARCH 5, 2001: It was reported that the RUC has set up a team to inform almost 500 people that their names are on a loyalist death-list, following the discovery of a number of documents which were found along with pipe-bombs in two separate locations in the Belfast area.
TUES. MARCH 6, 2001: Ten guns and up to 1,500 rounds of ammunition were found in a house in east Belfast believed to have belonged to the Loyalist Volunteer Force and elements of the Red Hand Commando. One man was questioned by police about the arms consignment, which was one of the biggest of its kind in recent times.
THURS. MARCH 8, 2001: The Provisionals’ military organisation issued a statement that they had decided to enter into further discussions with the International Decommissioning Body.
The British government and the 26-County Administration effectively "parked" the Stormont Agreement until after the British general election, issuing a joint statement saying that they hoped to get agreement on policing and other issues by June.
A steel drum containing 46lbs of home-made explosive was found on the railway line near Lurgan, Co Armagh. It was defused by the British army.
Thomas Walker (41), of Templemore Close, Belfast, was charged at Belfast Crown Court with possession of eight handguns, a rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and 1,500 rounds of ammunition as well as items of clothing likely to be used for terrorist purposes. The items were believed to be the property of the loyalist death squad the LVF.
Clifford Peeples, 31, from Woodvale Road was jailed for ten years having pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to having two hand grenades and a pipe bomb in his car. Peeples’ friend James McGookin Fisher, 35, from Deerpark Road in Belfast pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting him and was jailed for eight years.
A suspect device found under the RTÉ transmission tower in Dublin was believed to have been planted by a loyalist death squad. After examination no explosives were found and it was destroyed.
FRI. MARCH 9, 2001: It was reported that dozens of nationalists in the Carryduff area of south Belfast had received threatening letters from the loyalist death squad the UVF. Nationalist residents in the Killymore Estate, Muskett and Lough Moss areas found these warnings struck on the windscreens of their cars.
SUN. MARCH 11, 2001: A British Army issue grenade-type device, which sprays pellets, was thrown over the ‘peace-line’ from the Shankill area into the Clonard Memorial Garden at Bombay Street as local people, mostly elderly men and women, gathered to await an annual commemoration march.
A pipe-bomb exploded in an entry at the rear of Channing Street in the Castlereagh area of Belfast. No one was injured.
A nationalist family escaped injury when an explosive device was thrown into the front living room of their home in Kintyre Park in the mainly loyalist Ballykeel area of Ballymena, Co Antrim.
TUES. MARCH 13, 2001: Two pipe-bombs which were found in the garden of a house on the Whitehill estate in Bangor, Co Down, were defused by the British army.
The centre of Portadown was sealed off and the area evacuated after a telephone warning said that a bomb had been placed at Mandeville Street.
WED. MARCH 14, 2001: Francisco Norantonio (17), a cousin of Joseph O’Connor who was shot dead by the Provisionals’ military wing, was badly beaten by masked men who identified themselves as "Provisional IRA" when they fired two shots at his home in Ballymurphy before kicking in the door.
Adrian Porter (34) was killed after two men opened fire on a house in Breezemount Park, Conlig, Co Down. A second man, aged 21, who was said to have been threatened by a loyalist gang was injured though not seriously.
SAT. MARCH 17, 2001: A petrol bomb was thrown at a house at Balmoral Drive in the mainly loyalist Mourneview Estate in Lurgan, Co Armagh. No one was injured.
Three other houses were later targeted in the same estate. In one attack three children escaped unhurt when a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of a house in Greenhill Park and two other houses in the estate were targeted at the same time.
A house in the lower Shankill area of Belfast was also targeted in a petrol bomb attack
MON. MARCH 19, 2001: Three children – Una Reid (14) and her brothers aged 11 and 18 – had a narrow escape when a loyalist gunman opened fire on her home in Cloughmills, Co Antrim.
WED. MARCH 28, 2001: The British government announced that eight former Provisional prisoners who had been on the run following their escapes from prisons in the Six Counties would be granted an amnesty.
SAT. MARCH 31, 2001:
Stones were thrown at a house in North Queen Street in the New Lodge area of Belfast and a number of loyalists threw petrol bombs at young nationalists.
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