WED. AUGUST 1, 2001: A 20 kg car bomb found in a silver Volvo estate car at Belfast international airport and consisting of home made explosives was defused after a telephone warning was received.
The bomb warning and follow-up security operation caused chaos at the airport.
The Saville Inquiry into events on Bloody Sunday in Derry on January 30, 1972 ruled that members of the Parachute Regiment must return to Derry to give evidence.
Holy Cross Monastery on the Crumlin Road, Ardoyne attacked and set on fire by loyalists who forced their way in through a back gate from the Loyalist Woodvale Road.
The fire caused damage to a room at the back of the monastery.
Wednesday afternoon. Trouble at Whitewell after loyalist crowd attack nationalist homes. RUC/Brit army move into the area in force.
THURS. AUGUST 2, 2001: A car-bomb which exploded near Ealing train station in west London resulted in 11 people being injured.
A pipe bomb-like device found at a bus shelter outside Carrickmore, Co Tyrone was declared to be an elaborate hoax.
Minor trouble in a number of areas in north Belfast.
FRI. AUGUST 3, 2001: A nationalist family escaped injury when a blast-bomb exploded outside their home in Rosemount Gardens in Belfast.
RUC/Brit Army heavy on the ground in a number of areas in north Belfast.
Stone throwing at nationalist homes in Alliance Ave.
SAT. AUGUST 4, 2001: Nationalist residents of Bombay Street in west Belfast were subjected to a night of petrol-bomb attacks from across the ‘peaceline’ by loyalists from the Cupar Street area.
Two pipe bombs were found behind houses on the Leckagh Estate in Magherafelt, Co Derry.
A firework exploded after being thrown through the front window of a house at Easton Crescent in north Belfast.
In Ballymena, Co Antrim two men and a woman escaped injury following an arson attack on a house. Two tyres were set alight at the front door of the house in Victoria Park. The occupants fled the blaze through an upstairs window.
A number of pipe bombs, a coffee jar bomb and ammunition, along with other bomb parts found in a field close to Holy Cross Primary School in Glenbryn area, a loyalist area close to nationalist Ardoyne which has suffered a number of attacks from loyalist bombers and gunmen from the Glenbryn/Alliance Road area.
Sunday, August 5, 2001. Bombs believed to be pipe bombs found near trees in Durham Street and Barrack Street off the bottom of the Falls Road. Nationalist homes here have been the constant targets of loyalists.
10.30pm. Loyalist attack on Electricity substation in the loyalist Ballysillan blacks out Alliance Road, Alliance Ave, most of Ardoyne, Old Park and Cliftonville areas. This attack is believed to have been an attempt to stop the Ardoyne Fleadh. All areas were blacked out for a few houses. The Fleadh was unaffected by the black out.
MON. AUGUST 6, 2001: In a statement from the British Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) they said that a representative of the military wing of the Provisionals had proposed a method for “putting [Provisional] IRA arms completely and verifiably beyond use”.
Minor stone throwing in a number of area. Youth from Clifton Street and loyalists from lower Shankill stoning each other. RUC/Brit army move into area in force.
TUES. AUGUST 7, 2001: A pipe bomb was planted by loyalists outside a nationalist public house in Garvagh, Co Derry.
A pipe bomb was defused in Newtownstewart, Co Tyrone.
Loyalists and nationalists face each other on Hollidays Road. Some stones thrown. RUC/Brits heavy on the ground. Nationalist homes at Alliance Ave attacked by loyalists.
WED. AUGUST 8, 2001: In a statement the Provisionals’ military wing confirmed that they had agreed a scheme with the Decommission body which would put its weapons “completely and verifiably beyond use”. They said its representative had met the IICD eight times over the past five months and it would continue to hold discussions with the arms body.
Loyalist crowd at Twaddle Ave is faced down by nationalist crowd at Crumlin Road, Ardoyne. Tension very high in the area.
FRI. AUGUST 10, 2001: The supremo in the Occupied Six Counties, Dr John Reid suspended the Stormont assembly for the sixth time since 1972 following the failure of the Ulster Unionist Party accept the proposal by the British and Irish governments to leave the issue of paramilitary weapon decommissioning to General John de Chastelain and his decommissioning body set up under the Stormont Agreement.
Nine cars in the nationalist Lenadoon area of west Belfast were targeted by loyalists who smashed the rear windows.
SAT. AUGUST 11, 2001: John Reid signed an order restoring the Stormont assembly from midnight. Members of Na Fianna Éireann and Republican Sinn Féin staged a 24-hour hunger strike at the GPO, Dublin in support of the Continuity hunger strikers in Portlaoise prison.
RUC personnel came under attack from nationalists in the Fisherwick Gardens area of Ballymena, Co Antrim. Stones and paint bombs were thrown at them and five people were arrested.
Sunday, August 12, 2001. Fifteen year old nationalist youth, James Doran, is shot in the back by a pellet from an airgun by loyalists from a passing car as he walked along Limestone Road, north Belfast.
MON. AUGUST 13, 2001: Three Irishmen were arrested in Colombia in South America. They are believed to be members of the military wing of the Provisionals.
Fireworks and a hoax nail bomb were thrown at two houses on the Mossvale Road, Glengormley, north Belfast.
UDA men throw blast bomb into a group of nationalist teenagers on the Limestone Road. Three teenagers – two girls, one boy – were taken to hospital.
TUES. AUGUST 14, 2001: Following the suspension of the Stormont assembly the military wing of the Provisional withdrew their proposal re putting their weapons “completely and verifiably beyond use”.
It was reported that off-duty British soldiers are to be banned from Portrush, Co Derry after a crowd of around 100 people, including off-duty soldiers attacked the RUC, injuring three of them.
Loyalist pipe bombers attack nationalist home in Ingledale Park off Crumlin Road. Front of the house damaged.
WED. AUGUST 15, 2001: A series of bomb hoaxes caused widespread disruptions in four Co Derry towns following an anonymous telephone warning. Suspect devices were found at the Tobermore Road in Desertmartin, in Market Street in Moneymore, and other devices were found in Maghera and Magherafelt.
Two teenage girls -- 16 year old Mary Jo Harvey and 13 year old Ursula Lawlor from the New Lodge -- had to take shelter in a chemists shop in North Queen Street where they had gone to collect a prescription after they were attacked by a group of loyalists who were wielding clubs and sticks.
On hearing of the attack on the girls nationalists from the New Lodge area went to North Queen Street. One of them James Harvey, Mary Jo’s father, was also attacked by loyalists when he tried to go to the girl’s assistance and beaten again by the RUC. He later had to get six stitches for a serious head wound and treatment for other wounds.
Wednesday night. The nationalist Duncairn Gardens came under loyalist gunfire.
It was reported that a 12-year-old boy was set upon by a group of loyalists at Rosette Road and Wynchurch Road after the men questioned the boy about his religion and after they found out he was a Catholic the boy was attacked. This took place on Monday, August 13.
3.30pm. Nationalist homes at Alliance Ave attacked by loyalists using an airgun. In the house at the time were two members of RSF who witnessed the attack.
Thursday, August 16, 2001. Nationalist homes attacked on Limestone Road. Stones once again thrown at nationalist homes at Alliance Ave. Children stone RUC/Brits at Unity Flats.
FRI. AUGUST 17, 2001: It was reported that a cross-border incursion had occurred by members of the British Army and the RUC who mounted a checkpoint on the southern side of the border. The incident took place in the Hackballscross area of County Louth, 100 yards south of the Armagh border.
Tension high as groups of nationalists and loyalists face each other across RUC/Brit Army lines at Crumlin Road, Twaddle Ave.
SAT. AUGUST 18, 2001: Christopher Smyth, Limerick and Edward Heeney, Drogheda, Co Louth who had been on hunger strike for political status in Portlaoise prison ended their protest on the 20th day of their fast following an agreement that the Continuity prisoners in Portlaoise prison would have their own landing and be autonomous.
SUN. AUGUST 19, 2001: The Catholic bishops came out in favour of the new British police force in the Six Occupied Counties.
MON. AUGUST 20, 2001: The nationalist SDLP endorsed the British government’s revised implementation plan for policing reform in Northern Ireland. The SDLP was the first party to endorse the plan.
TUES. AUGUST 21, 2001: Two people, a nationalist and a Protestant, escaped injuries when their homes on Inchcolm Avenue on the Ballykeel estate in Ballymena, Co Antrim were targeted in pipe bomb attacks.
WED. AUGUST 22, 2001: A pipe bomb was discovered in a letter box at a constituency office of Mid-Ulster MP and British Crown Minister Martin McGuinness in Burn Road, Cookstown, Co Tyrone. Around 40 buildings, including 30 homes, offices, shops and a library were evacuated as a British army bomb disposal team examined the device. The attack was claimed by the Red Hand Defenders loyalist death squad who said that \they will step up their terror campaign.
The Red Hand Defenders also admitted planting a booby trap device under a former republican prisoner’s van at Ashley Avenue in Armagh city. It was defused by the British army and RUC detectives believe it was the first time one of these type of booby trap bombs has been used in the Six Counties for some time. Earlier, another loyalist death squad calling itself the Loyalist Action Force had said it was responsible for the Cookstown device.
A caller to a Belfast newspaper purporting to represent the “South Londonderry Protestant Volunteers” and using a recognised codeword said explosive devices had been left at GAA grounds between Coleraine and Cookstown.
A pipe bomb was discovered at Lavey GAA club, near Maghera, Co Derry where up to 20 children were being coached in hurling. Pipe bombs were also found in Ballerin GAA club, in Garvagh and two at Desertmartin GAA clubs, also in Co Derry.
A 140lb bomb which had been placed on Craigavon Bridge in Derry city was defused by British army bomb disposal experts. A second device on Foyle Bridge was also defused.
Three men arrested in Colombia on August 13 – Martin McCauley, James Monaghan and Niall Connolly — were charged with carrying false passports and training members of the FARC movement. They were remanded in custody.
Catholic man, John Paul Thompson, is viciously beaten by a gang of loyalists who tried to get him into a car at Deer Park Road close to Alliance Ave. Mr Thompson was able to struggle free but suffered injuries all over his body. Doctors have told him it will be some weeks before they’ll know if he will lose the sight in his right eye permanently. The man got 22 stitches in his face and head and a number of stitches for stab wounds in his arms.
THURS. AUGUST 23, 2001: John Mallaghan, a nationalist from Westland Gardens in north Belfast, sustained cuts to his head, face and hands when he was hit by flying glass from a paint bomb which was thrown at him by loyalists.
Loyalist bombers attack two houses in Deer Park Parade. Mr and Mrs Troy who have lived in the street for over 30 years said they have had enough. Their home has been attacked countless times since the start of the year and for no other reason than they are Catholics.
The house of a Protestant woman was also attacked. The woman said she was out the back of her house putting washing out when the bomb fell close to her. “I’m very lucky to be alive,” she said. She also said that her heart went out to Mr and Mrs Troy who were wonderful people. The attack on both houses was claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, a cover name for the UDA/UFF. The same cover name has been used by a number of loyalist groups.
FRI. AUGUST 24, 2001: It was reported that the RUC had paid an £100,000 out-of-court settlement to Bernard Griffin, a Belfast teenager who had been beaten by the RUC and charged with having a coffee-jar bomb. The charges were later dropped.
SAT. AUGUST 25, 2001: The 20th Anniversary H-Block Hunger Strike commemoration took place in Bundoran, Co Donegal.
SUN. AUGUST 26, 2001: More than a dozen families were evacuated twice from their homes after pipe bombs were found outside nationalist homes in the mixed Shearwater Way in the Waterside area of Derry city.
TUES. AUGUST 28, 2001: British Army bomb disposal experts were called in to defuse a device found in a car at Ballycastle, Co Antrim on the second day of the annual Auld Lammas Fair attended by thousands of people. A warning was given by a loyalist death squad and the device which consisted of two gas cylinders, a detonator and a timer (which had been set) was made safe.
WED. AUGUST 29, 2001: The Red Hand Defenders (RHD) claimed responsibility for a pipe bomb attack on a nationalist home in Ballinahinch, Co Down. The RHD is a cover name used in the past by both the Ulster Defence Association and the Loyalist Volunteer Force. The couple and their four children escaped injury in the attack.
Two pipe bombs were found in Ballycastle, Co Antrim close to where a car bomb was found on August 28. One was discovered at an hotel in Ballycastle and the second in a nearby pub. They were both defused.
RUC arrest 12 people in Ardoyne this morning. Men, women and a number of youths taken. By 11.00am arrests numbered 15.
FRI. AUGUST 31, 2001: Pipe bomb found at the gates of Belfast Castle, Antrim Road, north Belfast.
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