WED. AUGUST 6, 1997: The home of Peig King (Acting General Secretary of Republican Sinn Féin) was searched by 26-County Special Branch and all the account books of CABHAIR, the Prisoners' Dependants Fund, papers relating to the Josephine Hayden Release Campaign and several cheque books were taken.
The LVF loyalist death squad admitted that it tried to kill a nationalist taxi driver in Craigavon, Co Armagh on August 5.
FRI. AUGUST 8, 1997: The President of Republican Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was not allowed board a charter flight at Shannon Airport to Toronto, Canada on the instructions of the Canadian High Commissioner in London. He had been invited to attend the 150th anniversary of "Black '47" in an AOH Pilgrimage to the mass-graves of coffin-ship victims at Grosse Ile on the St Lawrence River on August 16.
SAT. AUGUST 9, 1997: The Apprentice Boys march through the city of Derry took place and conflict broke out at a number of points as nationalists clashed with loyalist bandsmen.
Shortly after 10am, a van was commandeered by two masked men, one with a handgun, in the Galliagh area of Derry and abandoned on the lower deck of Craigavon Bridge, below the route of the main Apprentice Boys parade. British Crown Forces carried out a controlled explosion on the van which was later established to have not contained explosives.
After the march, RUC in riot gear used batons to force loyalists away from Derry's city centre and into the predominately loyalist Fountain area.
MON. AUGUST 11, 1997: Three Irishmen — Kevin Barry Artt, Paul Brennan and Terry Kirby — who took part in the 1983 Long Kesh escape have lost the latest round in their court battle in the US against deportation to British Occupied Ireland. The three, were told by US district judge Charles Legge to surrender to the court.
TUES. AUGUST 12, 1997: The Belfast newspaper, the Irish News, carried a statement from the Continuity IRA claiming responsibilty for the bomb hoax on the Craigavon Bridge in Derry on August 9 which delayed the Apprentice Boys march in the city for more than an hour.
In the Belfast High Court Provisional MP for Mid-Ulster Martin McGuinness began a legal challenge against the ruling that himself and Gerry Adams must take the oath of allegiance before taking their seats in the British parliament at Westminster. They are also seeking access to the six departments of the British House of Commons.
The British administration in the Six Counties said that early releases of political prisoners there are not being considered at the moment.
A diary was seized when the home of John O'Connor, National Treasurer, Republican Sinn Féin was raided by 26-County Special police.
A 12-year-old boy was among five people remanded in custody at a special sitting of Derry magistrate's court charged with riotous assembly in the city on July 13. The 12-year-old appeared along with three 16-year-olds and a fifth, Damian McGuinness (30). The five were remanded in custody until September 5.
WED. AUGUST 13, 1997: Prisoners belonging to the pro-British LVF death squad staged a roof-top protest and burned furniture and bedding. About ten of the 27 LVF prisoners began the rooftop protest about prison conditions in the morning on the roof of H-Block 6. The prisoners eventually left the roof and went back into the block where they started burning furniture and bedding and erecting barricades. Seventeen INLA prisoners, who are housed in the same block as the loyalists, were removed after one was attacked and injured by the LVF prisoners. The protest ended during the night.
TUES/WED. AUGUST 12/13, 1997: Sectarian graffiti was daubed on derelict houses on Black's Road in west Belfast. One of the houses had been abandoned by the nationalist Lismore family in 1995 following more than 50 sectarian attacks on them and their house. The Lismore house and a neighbouring unoccupied house were daubed with slogans.
THURS. AUGUST 14, 1997: Two members of Republican Sinn Féin from Fermanagh were arrested and taken to Gough Barracks, Armagh under Section 14 of the Emergency Provisions Act. Father-of-three John Lewsley (31) and his family, from Lurgan, County Armagh were subjected to a terrifying ordeal when an RUC terror squad burst into their home in Beechcourt at 8.30pm and threatened his family with guns. They ransacked his home, upturning furniture, mattresses and clothing in the children's rooms. No search warrant was shown and another squad of RUC, this time with English accents entered the house and repeated the search and terror tactics. Nothing was found.
FRI. AUGUST 15, 1997: The two Republicans arrested in Fermanagh were released without charge. Belfast Crown Court ordered that private documents — two notebooks, a Collins 1995 diary and a provisional licence application form — belonging to Róisín McAliskey be handed over to the German authorities who are seeking her extradition.
There were a number of gun and petrol bomb attacks on prison warders' houses coinciding with the LVF prison protest. Gunmen opened fire with an automatic weapon on the Portadown, County Armagh home of a former warder. Petrol bomb attacks were also made on the homes of warders in Craigavon, County Armagh and Dungannon, County Tyrone. There were no reported injuries in these attacks.
TUES. AUGUST 19, 1997: The home of Republican Sinn Féin General Secretary Cathleen Knowles was raided at 7.30am by 26-County Special Branch and documents relating to the Dáithí Ó Conaill Memorial Fund and to the acquiring of our present Ard-Oifig were seized. The home of Seán Ó Sé, Ard-Chomhairle member, in Co Dublin was also raided by 26-County Special Branch and the script of an address he gave last Easter was taken.
A meeting took place between members of Provisional Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Socialist party (IRSP) in Belfast which was described by senior members of both parties as "positive" and "constructive". They agreed to meet again.
INLA sources told the Irish News that it was to maintain its "defence and retaliation" policy, also called a "no first strike" policy. British prison authorities announced that 13 Irish political prisoners in Britain are to be moved out of the notorious Special Secure Units (SSUs), often described as "concrete coffins". Their security ratings have been downgraded from "exceptional risk Category A" to "high risk Category A" and they will be moved from the SSUs to "high security" wings, either at the jails where they are being held or at Frankland prison near Durham, Long Lartin in Worcestershire or Wakefield, west Yorkshire.
WED. AUGUST 20, 1997: Another two Fermanagh Republicans were arrested at their homes by the British Crown Forces and were taken to Gough Barracks in Armagh for questioning.
THURS. AUGUST 21, 1997: The Fermanagh Republicans were released from Gough Barracks without charge. The Loyalist Volunteers Force (LVF) death squad blamed the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) death squad for an attack by a gang of 30 men wielding sticks, cudgels, slegehammers and a gun on the Golden Hind bar in Portadown, Co Armagh in which the bar was smashed up and at least two customers injured.
FRI. AUGUST 22, 1997: The British Nuclear Installation Inspectorate (NII) granted British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) "consent to operate the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant.
FRI./SAT. AUGUST 22/23, 1997: In a loyalist feud two petrol bombs were thrown at a house at Kinsale Park in the Waterside area of Derry. Three people were in the house at the time and a teenager was taken to hospital suffering from burns to her face and hair. At the same time shots were also fired into a house at Sperrin Park.
In another incident, shots were fired and petrol bombs thrown at a house in Lincoln Courts. There was also an arson attack in Portadown on August 22. Muriel Richardson was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation after petrol was poured through her living-room window and set alight.
SUN. AUGUST 24, 1997: An elaborate hoax letter bomb was sent to the home of DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson while he was holidaying in the US.
Irish language signs at Queen's University, Belfast were hurriedly dismantled following pressure from a British colonial agency, the Fair Employment Commission.
TUES. AUGUST 25, 1997: The home of Líta Ní Chathmhaoil, General Secretary of Republican Sinn Féin, was raided by 26-County Special Branch and a personal diary and a copy of her academic dissertation were seized. The home of Peter Cunningham, Vice-Chairperson, Comhairle Ceantair Átha Cliath (Dublin Executive) of Republican Sinn Féin, was also searched by the same group of Special Branch and an address book seized.
TUES. AUGUST 26, 1997: Three Provisional councillors on Strabane District Council in County Tyrone attended a "presentation" by the RUC to the council monthly meeting.
The London and Dublin governments established an "independent" commission on the surrender of arms. The commission will operate alongside the political talks in Stormont Castle which recommence on September 15.
WED. AUGUST 27, 1997: The home of a former UVF prisoner, Kenny McClinton, who has acted as a mediator between the LVF and prison authorities in Long Kesh recently, was fired on. The attack is believed to be connected with the ongoing tension between loyalist death squad factions. In the past number of weeks there have been incidents taking place involving UDA and UVF members and UVF and LVF members.
THURS. AUGUST 28, 1997: Copies of the guidelines used by the British police in Ireland (RUC) governing the use of plastic bullets were declassified and it emerged that the RUC guidelines were revealed to be less stringent than those applied by the Home Office in England and Wales, where the weapon has never been used. It also revealed that British forces operate three different sets of guidelines on the use of plastic bullets: RUC, British army and British Home Office.
An AK47 assault rifle was seized and a couple arrested during a British police (RUC) raid on a house in west Belfast. Ammunition was also discovered in the raid on the house in Ballymurphy.
FRI. AUGUST 29, 1997: British army bomb disposal experts defused an incendiary device at Castle Buildings, Stormont. The device had been posted to an official in the building.
SAT. AUGUST 30, 1997: The annual commemoration of the ten H-Block hunger strikers of 1981 took place in Bundoran, Co Donegal with a parade and a rally in the town centre attended by a crowd of more than 1,000 people in brilliant sunshine.
A crowd of around 100 people attacked the British police (RUC) New Barnsley barracks in west Belfast. The crowd threw petrol bombs and other missiles at the barracks at 2.30am and attempted to open the main gate. The crowd managed to set fire to a lookout post, in what the RUC described as a "sustained attack" which lasted almost three hours. The Springfield Road was blocked for some time. The RUC fired a number of plastic bullets at the crowd during the attack.
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