FRI. FEBRUARY 2, 1996: Fifty-seven shots from a Kalashnokov (AK47) automatic or rifles were fired at the home of an RUC member at Curran's Brae, Moy in County Tyrone at around 4.15am.
The funeral of Gino Gallagher took place when the RUC in riot gear agreed to move away from the area.
The Dublin "Forum for Peace and Reconciliation" failed to agree on its key report because of dissent from the Provisionals and the Green Party.
British Nuclear Fuels LTD (BNFL) confirmed that 53 workers were moved from one section of the plant at Sellafield after an instrument revealed a higher than normal reading of radioactivity.
Figures released by the 26-County adminstration for the month of January 1996 show that the number of people unemployed in the state had increased by 6,119 on the same period last year. According to official figures, which only count those 'signing on' and ignores those on temporary schemes or receiving other unemployment payments, there were 281,300 people people unemployed at the end of January 1996. The figures showed that there was an increase among the under-25 age-group of 1,764 for the month. The number of people unemployed according to the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed is 304,902.
SAT. FEBRUARY 3, 1996
Between 1978 and 1982 some 22,000 people were arrested and questioned at Castlereagh Interrogation Centre, outside Belfast in the Six Counties, and hundreds were brutally beaten, a conference on reconciliation was told in Bandon, County Cork.
THURS. FEBRUARY 8, 1996: The European Court on Human rights ruled against Britain in its finding that John Murray's, from west Blfast, denial of access to his lawyer for the first 48 hours of his interrogation by British police in the Six Counties was a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
A new witness, Gerald O'Hanlon, speaking on BBC's Spotlight programme said that Colin Duffy, who is appealing a 1995 murder conviction, whom he knew well, was not one of the two men he saw leaving the scene where a former UDR British soldier was shot dead.
FRI. FEBRUARY 9, 1996: A massive vehicle bomb in the Canary Wharf area of London's Docklands which killed two people and injured dozens of others, marked the end of the Provisionals' 17-month-old unilateral ceasefire.
New York City Council passed unanimously two resolutions, 1452
&
1120, which called on President Clinton and the Washington adminstration to halt deportation and extradition proceedings against Irish citizens in the uS and to grant an amnesty to Irish people in custody who have "been persecuted because of their political convictions".
MON. FEBRUARY 12, 1996:
One of the Republican prisoners in Limerick jail, John Carmody, was moved to the same landing in 'A' Wing as the other political prisoners in the jail.
TUES. FEBRUARY 13, 1996:
Two British soldiers who shot dead an unarmed teenager while on duty in Belfast asked for leave to appeal to the British House of Lords. The soldiers, members of the Scots Guards regiment, James Fisher (27), and Mark Wright (22), were sentenced to life imprisonment a year ago for murdering 18-year-old Peter McBride in the New Lodge area of Belfast in September 1992.
THURS. FEBRUARY 15, 1996: Three Republicans in Cork jail -- Michael Hegarty, George Buckley and Joe Mounsey -- were transferred to Limerick prison, joining the other six prisoners there. They were moved without warning to Limerick jail's 'A' Wing.
A device containing 11lb of Semtex was found in a London telephone kiosk and made safe.
It was announced that a battalion of 500 Royal Irish Regiment soldiers were to be flown into nationalist areas within 48 hours in the Six Counties in the aftermath of the ending of the Provisionals' ceasefire.
The number of people out of work in the Six Counties is 103,000, according to the Irish National organisation for the Unemployed.
SUN. FEBRUARY 18, 1996: A bomb exploded on board a bus in central London claiming the life of one man, Edward O'Brien, from Gorey, County Wexford, who was carrying it and injured several others.
Over 100 people from Mayo and surrounding counties attended the 20th anniversary commemoration at the grave of Frank Stagg in Leigue Cemetery, Ballina, County Mayo.
WED. FEBRUARY 21, 1996:
A Special Branch raid on the hime of two Limerick brothers, in which the political police broke down one of the bedroom doors resulted in one of the men being assaulted in 26-County police custody.
FRI. FEBRUARY 23, 1996:
British soldiers wearing helmets and carrying rifles were redeployed on the streets of Belfast for the first time in a year.
SUN. FEBRUARY 25, 1996: It was announced that another 400 soldiers from the Royal Dragoon Guards were being sent to areas around Belfast.
A nationalist man Michael Gormley (26) was savagely beaten by a gang of loyalists in Park End Street in Belfast.
TUES. FEBRUARY 27, 1996: An elderly man was given a three-year jail sentence by the Special Court in Dublin for possession of arms and ammunition on his farm in County Laois last year.
The former Ulster Unionist leader, James Molyneaux, received a knighthood from British Queen Elizabeth.
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