SAT. NOV. 30-SUN. DEC. 1, 1996: Several hundred delegates and visitors from throughout Ireland and overseas attended the Republican Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis in Dublin.
A north Belfast family escaped injury after their home at Silverstream Avenue was petrol-bombed.
MON. DECEMBER 2, 1996: St Colman's Catholic church on Station Road, Greenisland, on the outskirts of Belfast was extensively damaged in a loyalist arson attack. A window was broken shortly after midnight and inflammable liquid tossed in and ignited.
Two British army helicopters crossed the Border into the 26 Counties and hovered on houses in Ardee, Co Louth, on what the Dublin department of Foreign Affairs said was "an approved operation".
WED. DECEMBER 4, 1996: Two nationalist homes and a Catholic school were attacked by loyalist petrol-bombers in Ballymena. St Mary's primary school was targeted by a gang who broke into the rear of the building and used a wheelie-bin to start the fire which damaged one corridor containing a crib, a Christmas tree and a post box for children to send letters to Santa Claus.
Shortly before 4am a nationalist couple and two small children, aged six and four, had to flee their home in Orkney Drive in the Ballykeel estate, Ballymena when a petrol bomb was thrown through their living-room window. A short time later another petrol-bomb was thrown through the window of another nationalist family in nearby Staffa Drive. It failed to ignite.
THURS. DECEMBER 5, 1996: St Patrick's College on the Broughshane Road, Ballymena was attacked by arsonists, the third school to be targeted in a week and the thirteenth attack on a Catholic school in recent weeks.
At midnight St Joseph's primary school in nearby Ahoghill was damaged in an arson attack. The fire brigade were able to contain the fire to one classroom.
In the Poleglass area of Belfast the house of Ita Gray was badly damaged in a day-long search.
In the Ballymurphy and Twinbrook areas the RUC began a series of raids from early morning to 7pm. During a raid on a terraced house on the Westrock Road in west Belfast three horizontal Mark 16 mortars, a hand-held grenade launcher, 34 incendiary devices and a quantity of ammunition were found.
A sawn-off shotgun, a revolver and ammunition were found in the Lagmore Road area of Poleglass in Belfast.
A paid informer, Seán Callaghan (42), from County Kerry, who operated within the IRA in the 1970s and 1980s was released from Maghaberry prison in County Antrim after serving eight years of two life sentences for killing two members of the British Crown Forces in 1974.
A survey conducted by the Northern Ireland Police Authority found that 82% of nationalists in the Six Occupied Counties believe that the RUC should be disbanded or replaced.
A mortar tube and mortar plates were found by 26-County police near Hackballscross, Co Louth.
A member of the British royal family, the Duke of Gloucester visited the Occupied Six Counties.
FRI. DECEMBER 6, 1996: The nationalist family of Rosaleen Downey was forced to flee from their home on Staffa Drive in the loyalist Ballykeel estate — the third household to be evicted in two days.
The British paramilitary police (RUC) raided the home of Elizabeth McGinn at Springmadden Court in Ballymurphy in Belfast and damaged every room.
The home of a couple and two children in Orkney Drive, Ballymena, Co Antrim was damaged by a petrol bomb thrown through their living room window.
The Tory government lost its official majority in the British House of Commons at Westminster when the MP for Hendon North, John Gorst, resigned from the party in protest at the downgrading of a hospital in his area.
The resignation left John Major's government with a one-vote minority as another Tory MP, Terry Dicks, launched a savage attack on John Major and warned that he was on the brink of quitting the whip too.
SAT. DECEMBER 7, 1996: Mass-goers at Harryville church in Ballymena were joined by Protestant neighbours, who included councillors and clergymen, in a show of solidarity and had to run a gauntlet of stones, spit and threats from a 50-strong Orange mob.
A 55-year-old woman was charged in connection with the arms find in Westrock Road on December 5 at a Belfast court and was remanded in custody. Mandy Morris (27), a homeless nationalist woman, was forced to leave Sydenham House hostel in Belfast because of repeated abuse from loyalist residents.
MON. DECEMBER 9, 1996: Our Lady's Church in Harryville came under attack from a frenzied Orange mob who broke a window to make way for flammable liquid which was ignited, damaging a door and walls.
At midnight St Joseph's primary school in nearby Ahoghill was damaged in an arson attack. The fire brigade were able to contain the fire to one classroom.
About 100 people took part in a protest at Belfast City Hall against the detention of Róisín McAliskey.
TUES. DECEMBER 10, 1996: Joe Mounsey, a 36-year-old Republican prisoner in Limerick Jail was brought to Limerick Regional Hospital for tests in relation to a serious stomach complaint. After several hours the hospital asked for Joe to remain in their care for a longer period in order to undergo further tests but their request was denied by the Special Branchmen accompanying him and Joe Mounsey was immediately returned to Limerick Prison.
WED. DECEMBER 11, 1996: The 200-strong Grand Orange Lodge at a meeting in Belfast's House of Orange unanimously elected 61-year-old Robert Saulters as its new Grand Master.
THURS. DECEMBER 12, 1996: A primed mortar bomb was found close to Girdwood British army barracks in north Belfast.
FRI. DECEMBER 13, 1996: Scorch and smoke damage was caused when a petrol-bomb was thrown at St Mary's Star of the Sea Church at Whitehouse in north Belfast early in the morning.
A doctor's report submitted to Bow Street magistrate's court in London at a bail hearing on December 13 said that Róisín McAliskey was showing signs of "advanced starvation" due to repeated vomiting, dehydration and fresh bleeding from a stomach ulcer. The report also said she had no access to natural light and was in danger of losing her baby unless she was admitted to hospital for emergency treatment. However the magistrate refused her bail.
SAT. DECEMBER 14, 1996: There was considerable anger in Derry over the appearance of uniformed men carrying a UFF banner at an Orange parade marking the closing of Derry's gates during the Siege of Derry (1688-89) by the loyalist Apprentice Boys. There was intimidation of local nationalists during the parade.
A crowd of around 100 loyalists turned up outside Our Lady's Catholic Church in Harryville, Ballymena, Co Antrim to heckle Massgoers for the fourteenth consecutive week.. A group of 60 people from cross-community groups formed a counter-demonstration against the loyalists. The counter-demonstration was taunted by the loyalists with shouts of "traitors", "no surrender" and "don't forget to cross yourselves".
SUN. DECEMBER 15, 1996: A full-scale riot took place between different loyalist parade factions in Derry city centre. Two hundred Apprentice Boys battled in the Diamond area but no arrests were made by the British Crown Forces.
St Colman's primary school in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of Belfast was attacked by pro-British arsonists on December 14/15.
It was reported that all three battalions of the British parachute regiment are to be deployed in the Six Counties in 1997.
A British army search operation in the Monaghan/Fermanagh Border area lasting eight days resulted in the discovery of a "small amount" of home-made explosives in vehicles abandoned in a field at Rellan, County Fermanagh. The lorry and a four-wheel drive vehicle, stolen earlier this year in the Six Counties, also contained "booster" tubes, part of the firing mechanism of a mortar. The vehicles were found between Roslea, County Fermanagh and Scotstown, Co Monaghan.
TUES. DECEMBER 17, 1996: In an unusual move Derry City Council voted unanimously to send a resolution to US President Clinton asking him to stop the deportation of Matt Morrison.
The British government have decided to refuse to refer the convictions of 14 Irish political prisoners in Britain, after an independent inquiry found that forensic material used to convict them was contaminated, to the court of appeal.
WED. DECEMBER 18, 1996: A Belfast lawyer is taking legal action against the RUC's chief constable after she was forcibly removed by a sergeant from an interrogation room in Belfast's Grosvenor Road RUC barracks as she was advising a client not to submit to a DNA test.
Protesters took to the streets in Ballymurphy, West Belfast to demonstrate against widespread raids by the British police (the RUC).
FRI. DECEMBER 20, 1996: Róisín McAliskey's third bail application was turned down in Bow Street Magistrate's Court.
An RUC British policeman was shot and injured in an attack by the Provisionals' military wing in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
SUN. DECEMBER 22, 1996: Members of Republican Sinn Féin held a vigil on the steps of the Irish Free State Embassy in London in solidarity with the Republican prisoners of war in Limerick jail vigil.
Eddie Copeland (25), a Belfast Provisional, was starting his car which was parked outside his parents' home at Ladbrook Drive in the Ardoyne area of Belfast when a car-bomb exploded. He suffered leg injuries. Residents say the RUC arrived on the scene nearly an hour later.
TUES. DECEMBER 24, 1996: Eighteen Catholic graves were desecrated and daubed with sectarian slogans in Redburn Cemetery, Holywood, Co Down.
FRI. DECEMBER 27, 1996: Six people were arrested by British police (the RUC) in west Belfast after a house was searched at Dermot Hill Road, off the Whiterock Road.
SAT. DECEMBER 28, 1996: An explosive device was found under the car of Derryman Liam Duffy outside his mother's house in the Gobnascale area of Derry.
SUN. DECEMBER 29, 1996: The six people arrested in Belfast two days previously were released.
TUES. DECEMBER 31, 1996:
The Provisionals abandoned a 1,000lb land-mine in the grounds of Belfast Castle. It was defused by the British army.
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