TUES. FEBRUARY 2, 2000: British supremo in teh Six Counties, Peter Mandelson, said in the British House of Commons that he would suspend the Stormont assembly at the end of the next week unless there was movement on decommissioning from the Provisionals' military wing.
SUN. FEBRUARY 6, 2000: Mahon's Hotel, Ervinestown, Co Fermanagh was badly damaged in a bomb attack at the rear of the building. A caller, claiming to be from the Continuity IRA, phoned in a warning to a local radio station and the hotel was evacuated and no one was injured.
SUN. FEBRUARY 6, 2000: The home of Philip Murphy, a nationalist who lives in a 200-year-old house at Ballytober Road, Larne, Co Antrim was completely destroyed in an arson attack.
FRI. FEBRUARY 11, 2000: British direct-ruler in the Six Occupied Counties suspended the Stormont Executive following reports from the International Commission on Decommissioning.
MON. FEBRUARY 14, 2000: Three hoax bomb alerts were dealt with in Omagh, Co Tyrone when two devices were discovered in Market Street and part of the Dublin Road was sealed off.
In Lurgan, Co Armagh two vehicles, a van and a lorry, were hijacked, burned out and left across the railway line at Lake Street. This followed RUC searches in the nationalist Kilwilkie Street nearby.
TUES. FEBRUARY 15, 2000: The M1 motorway between Lurgan, Co Armagh and Moira was closed for five hours during rush hour after two suspect devices were found. Earlier in the day three masked men hijacked a taxi at Lurgan Golf Club, placed an object in the boot and ordered the driver to take it to the nearby RUC barracks. The town was sealed off for three hours before British army experts carried out two controlled explosions and declared it a hoax.
WED. FEBRUARY 16, 2000: Edward Cosgrove, a 71-year-old pensioner from St James's Road, west Belfast was rushed to hospital after the RUC searched his home and that of his neighbour for weapons for almost two hours. Nothing was found at either house.
The centre of Strabane, Co Tyrone was sealed off for three hours after a hoax bomb warning was received claiming that several devices had been left in Abercorn Square . Nothing was found.
Two high-velocity AK-47 rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found following searches of houses in St James's Road in west Belfast and Coneywarren Lane in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast. Four people were arrested.
SAT. FEBRUARY 19, 2000: The mutilated bodies of David McIlwaine (18) and Andrew Robb (19) were found on the Druminure Road, outside Tandragee, Co Armagh. Their deaths are believed to be part of a loyalist feud in Portadown, Co Armagh.
TUES. FEBRUARY 22, 2000: A man was arrested when RUC seized two AKM assault rifles, two revolvers and two semi-automatic pistols as well as ammunition and semtex during house raids in the Woodbourne Crescent area of Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
Martine Teresa Sharkey (34), Coneywarren Lane, Ligoniel, north Belfast was charged at Belfast Crown Court with possessing an AK47 assault rifle and 160 rounds of ammunition.
FRI. FEBRUARY 25, 2000: A small explosion took place at Ballykelly British army base in Co Derry. No one was injured and later a search of the base uncovered three gas cylinders packed with home-made explosive within the perimeter of the camp.
In Portadown, Co Armagh a man was injured in a shooting incident in the loyalist Brownstown Estate.
SAT. FEBRUARY 26, 2000: The President of Republican Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, performed the opening ceremony at the organisation's new office at 229 Falls Road, Belfast.
SUN. FEBRUARY 27, 2000: Alan Lundy from north Belfast, whose father Alan was shot dead by loyalists in 1994, was walking along Fitzroy Avenue in the south of the city when he was attacked and injured by the RUC. As he was being dragged into the police jeep, an RUC woman bit him on the hand. He was held in Donegall Road RUC barracks for several hours before being released. He went to hospital to have his wounds seen to and received a tetanus injection for the bite. He suffered severe lacerations to his face and bruising to his back and arms.
TUES. FEBRUARY 29, 2000: A fully-armed rocket launcher was found in a garden during house searches in the Kilymeal Road area of Dungannon, Co Tyrone close to a British army barracks.
A nationalist man in his 30s was cycling near the Stiles estate in Antrim town when loyalist gunmen, driving a red Vauxhall Astra, rammed him, knocked him off his bike and chased him before firing at him with a shotgun. The man suffered a broken shoulder and broken arm as a result of being rammed by the car, but he was not hit by gunfire.
Christopher Smith (39), Shanabooley Road, Ballynanty Beg, Limerick, was refused bail at the Special Court in Dublin. He is charged with possession of two anti-armour drogue bombs containing semtex, 17 improvised hand grenades, 11 improvised projected grenades and other bomb-making equipment at Townpark, Cahir, Co Tipperary on January 23 last.
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