AUGUST, 1999

SUN. AUGUST 1, 1999: A couple and their four children escaped without injury when a petrol bomb was thrown at the rear of their house in Newtownabbey on the outskirts of Belfast.

Two houses were damaged at Newbuildings, outside Derry when three petrol bomb were thrown at them.

MON. AUGUST 2, 1999: The Patton Commission set up under the Stormont Agreement to report into the RUC was leaked to the Financial Times.

It was reported that 93 plastic bullets have been fired by the RUC so far this year. Revised guidelines were issued for the discharge of plastic bullets but they have not been banned.

THURS. AUGUST 5, 1999: Four people -- Siobhán Browne, from Co Cork but living in Florida, Anthony Smyth, Conor Anthony Claxton and Martin Mullan, all from the Six Counties -- were charged in Florida, USA with violating the Arms Control Act, the US law regulating the export of firearms and other dangerous materials. The arms bought by the four are believed to have been for the Provisionals' military wing in Ireland.

A hurling summer scheme in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, was cancelled because of repeated threats from loyalists. The scheme -- intended for area children -- was to take place at Dungannon's O'Neill Park. O'Neill Park was the target of a loyalist bomb attack in July.

FRI. AUGUST 6, 1999: Two pipe-bombs were found by the RUC in a hedge near Glengormley outside Belfast.

SAT./SUN. AUGUST 7/8, 1999: A Presbyterian church hall and an Orange hall in Ballyroney, Co. Down, came under an arson attack. A Free Presbyterian church in Moneyslane, Co Down,was also attacked.

SUN. AUGUST 8, 1999: An Orange hall and a church hall at Ballyroney, near Rathfriland, Co Down were damaged when windows were smashed.

MON. AUGUST 9, 1999: In an article in the Journal of Trauma Injury, Infectious and Critical Care five doctors claimed that 39% of injuries caused by 8,165 plastic bullets fired between July 8 and 14, 1996 were life-threatening injuries. The doctors carried out a survey of injury notes from hospitals which treated plastic bullet victims over the six-day period.

A man was recovering in hospital after two men burst into his home and shot him in the arm at Rathfern in Newtownabbey, outside Belfast. He and his wife were in bed and he held the bedroom door shut following which one of the men fired through the door with a sawn-off shotgun.

Two pipe bombs were found and two men were arrested after a car was stopped by the RUC in the Rathenraw estate in Antrim town.

In Larne, Co Antrim two petrol bombs were thrown at the home of a nationalist man in Hampton Crescent. One of the petrol bombs exploded in the bathroom but no one was injured.

Thomas Alsopp (45) of Ludlow Square in the New Lodge area of Belfast was charged at Belfast Crown Court with the murder of Charles Bennett from Upper Meadow Street in the New Lodge on July 30.

Ryan's Presbyterian Church hall outside Rathfriland, Co Down was extensively damaged in an arson attack.

FRI. AUGUST 13, 1999: A petrol bomb was thrown through the window of a nationalist home in Ligoniel, north Belfast. The bomb landed in the bedroom of a six-year old boy but failed to ignite.

SAT. AUGUST 14, 1999: Around 200 people, mainly residents of the lower Ormeau Road, who blocked the road from 5.30am in protest at the British Parades Commission allowing an Apprentice Boys parade down the lower Ormeau Road were removed by RUC men in riot gear who moved in shortly before 6am using batons to remove them. The RUC struck protesters with their riot shields and batons and a number of people were injured as police kicked people and beat them. Éamonn Ó Dochartaigh, an independent observer from the human rights group Action from Ireland (AfrI) sustained injuries to his hands and nose when the police charged the demonstrators. Twenty-seven civilians were seriously injured.

In Derry city rioting erupted as the British parades Commission allowed 10,000 Apprentice Boys to march through the city. Heavily armed police with water cannons moved in on several hundred protesters who threw bottles, stones and other missiles at the RUC. Three banks and a restaurant were burned out. Journalists and camera crews witnessed a policeman in full riot gear head-butting a man who left Peadar O'Donnell's bar in the centre of the town and who was unable to re-enter the pub. The RUC refused to allow customers in Peadar O'Donnell's and Tracey's bars to leave. Four million pounds damage was done to property in Derry.

A 21-year-old nationalist mother of a three-year-old daughter was kicked and beaten by a loyalist gang after leaving a nationalist bar in Kilkeel, Co Down.

A Limavady teenager was attacked by two masked men. The young man's mother claimed that his attackers whom she said come from another housing estate in Limavady mistakenly identified her son as having joined local youths in erecting Irish flags in the area.

SUN. AUGUST 15, 1999: The home of an elderly Protestant couple in the Curryneirin estate on Derry's Waterside came under attack. The front window of the home was broken and a paint bomb was thrown into the living room. A Church of Ireland hall in Strabane is badly damaged in an arson attack.

MON. AUGUST 16, 1999: Nine people appeared in court in connection with the disturbances in Derry city following the Apprentice Boys march on August 14.

Two pipe bombs were made safe by a British army bomb disposal squad after they were found during a planned search of derelict buildings at Lisalbanagh Road, Magherafelt, Co Derry.

The nationalist Craigwell Avenue in Portadown was evacuated after a hoax bomb alert.

TUES. AUGUST 17, 1999: More sectarian attacks were reported on the nationalist Craigwell Avenue in Portadown. Loyalists hurled breeze-blocks at some houses on the street, damaging walls.

THURS. AUGUST 19, 1999: A report in the Irish News said that a total of 20 nationalist houses in Craigwell Avenue, Portadown, Co Armagh had been abandoned after a campaign of violence by local loyalists.

An elderly woman was alone in her home in the mixed Seacourt estate in Larne, Co Antrim when the RUC arrived at the house looking for a male occupant. They proceeded to search the premises when advised that he was not at home. When two of the woman's sons returned, neighbours and friends had already gathered around the premises. The RUC would not allow either of the two men inside, even though one of them was the person named on the warrant. The RUC threatened, verbally abused and violently beat and kicked members of this family and other Seacourt residents during the ‘operation'. They manhandled the woman and beat up her two sons. They arrested one of the sons and his mother attempted to go to the aid of her son. In trying to break free an RUC man's hat fell off and she was charged with assaulting the RUC. Following the removal of the arrested persons from the estate, some RUC officers continued to taunt the locals and eventually the anger of the enraged crowd erupted into a full-scale riot during which the RUC was stoned and pelted for nearly two hours and a car set alight.

FRI. AUGUST 20, 1999: Gerard Rice, spokesperson for the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community and eight other nationalists were charged with public order offences arising out of the protest during the Apprentice Boys march forced down the lower Ormeau Road on August 14.

Bilingual signs just outside Newtown-hamilton, Co Armagh which had been put up by Newry and Mourne Districty Council were vandalised, the Irish words on three signs were painted out.

SUN. AUGUST 22, 1999: The BT Target Sports Club near Loughbrickland, Co. Down, was vandalised by loyalists. A bulldozer was used to destroy an 8ft earthen wall at the club and the club buildings were daubed with loyalist graffiti.

MON. AUGUST 23, 1999: A young nationalist mother and her nine-year-old daughter fled their home at Gough Avenue in Armagh after a petrol bomb extensively damaged their home.

THURS. AUGUST 26, 1999: The British direct-ruler in the Six Counties Mo Mowlam announced that she did not believe that there was sufficient evidence to conclude that the Provisionals' ceasefire had broken down.

Sixteen-year-old Colon Birtles, a nationalist youth from the lower Ormeau area of Belfast was assaulted by two loyalists while sitting with friends in McClure Street. The boy received serious bruising to an eye after being punched by one of his attackers.

FRI. AUGUST 27, 1999: The Provisionals' military wing ordered three teenagers and a 22-year-old man from Dungannon, Co Tyrone to leave the Six Counties or face execution.

SAT. AUGUST 28, 1999: The annual Hunger Strike Commemoration took place in Bundoran, Co Donegal. Another 15-year-old youth from the Short Strand area of Belfast was ordered to leave the Six Counties or be killed by the Provos.

The home of SDLP Councillor Danny O'Connor in east Antrim was attacked in the early hours of the morning when a petrol bomb was thrown at it.

St Mary's GAA club in Ahoghill, Co Antrim was severely damaged by fire when loyalist youths started a fire under the oil tank which spread to a gas tank, which exploded and sent flames to the roof.

A pregnant woman was assaulted during a Royal Black Institution parade in Belfast city centre. A loyalist marcher in Donegall Square targeted the woman as she tried to cross the street to work in Chichester Street. The man grabbed her by the shoulder and verbally abused her, saying that she could only cross the road when he allowed her to do so.

A British army bomb disposal unit defused a pipe bomb found near a Catholic church in Co. Antrim. The bomb had been left in the graveyard of St. Peter the Rock on the Rock Road in Lisburn.

MON. AUGUST 30, 1999: A nationalist couple and their four children escaped injury when a pipe-bomb hit the front wall of their house at Sallagh Park South, in Larne, Co Antrim.

A pipe bomb was pushed through the letterbox of the home in Larne, Co. Antrim of Kevin O'Connor, brother of Larne SDLP councillor Danny O'Connor. Considerable damage was done to the home; Mr. O'Connor was treated for severe shock.

British army experts defused a pipe-bomb found near a Catholic church in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
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