Ian Lyons (31) from Arthur Street, in Lurgan, Co Armagh was shot dead by the group known as Direct Action Against Drugs as he sat with his girlfriend in a car at Conor Park in the town.
TUES. JANUARY 2, 1996:
An undercover surveillance camera was removed from Malvern Way in Belfast.
WED. JANUARY 4, 1996:
It was announced that 26-County President Mary Robinson is to make an official visit to Britain in June, at the invitation of British Prime Minister John Major.
FRI. JANUARY 5, 1996:
The number of people out of work in the 26 Counties is 307,657.
SUN. JANUARY 7, 1996:
The annual Seán Sabhat commemoration took place in Limerick.
MON. JANUARY 8, 1996:
The British Home Office asked the Dublin administration for assurances that any political prisoners transferred from Britain to prisons in the 26 Counties should not be given early release. The 26-County Department of Justice confirmed that it had received the request. The British are adamant that prisoners should serve out their full sentences.
TUES. JANUARY 9, 1996:
The home of the Lismore family at Black’s Road in Belfast was petrol-bombed for the 60th time.
It was announced that the British government is to renew the Emergency Provisions Act for another two years.
WED. JANUARY 10, 1996: The Provisionals’ political wing announced that in its submission to the International Commission on the surrender of arms it had suggested that groups with arms could ‘decommission’ them themselves.
The legal bill for the trial and appeals of Lee Clegg, the British soldier who was released in July 1995 after serving four years of a life sentence, is likely to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. The full costs are to be paid by the British ministry of defence. This emerged in a written reply by British armed forces minister Nicholas Soames to a question by a Labour MP at Westminster.
Kevin Barry Artt, one of the 38 escapees from Long Kesh in the mass breakout of 1983 was released on bail of $250,000 by a court in San Francisco. He is fighting extradition to the UK. Artt is due back in court in May.
In their submission to the Mitchell Commission on the surrender of arms the Provisionals said that their military wing “could dispose” of its arms with the help of a third party as part of a peace settlement in the “north”.
THURS. JANUARY 11, 1996:
A Belfast newspaper, the
Irish News,
published a statement from the Continuity Army Council of the Irish Republican Army which warned that “action would be taken in the future” to achieve Irish independence from Britain.
TUES. JANUARY 16, 1996:
Two members of the RUC Special Branch opened fire on what is believed to have been a stolen car in Belfast city centre.
THURS. JANUARY 18, 1996:
Relatives of Paddy Kelly, who is recovering from a third major operation for cancer have called for him to be transferred from Maghaberry jail in the Six Counties to Portlaoise prison in the 26 Counties.
FRI. JANUARY 19, 1996:
The no-jury special court in Dublin sentenced five men and a woman — Martin McGrath (45), Bundoran, Co Donegal; Sean Moore (25), Monaghan; Richard Wallace (30), Limerick; Josephine Hayden (49), Dublin; Joe Mounsey (36), Ennis, Co Clare and George Buckley (21) Dublin — to a total of 35 years for possession of a shotgun and a revolver “in suspicious circumstances” in Tallaght, Co Dublin on May 4, 1995.
SAT. JANUARY 20, 1996:
Maria Magee, wife of an Irish political prisoner who is being held in the punishment block of Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire in England because he is refusing to take closed visits with his family and wear prison clothing has told the
Andersonstown News
(Belfast) that her husband is being subjected to a campaign of harassment by the authorities. He has embarked on a ‘dirty’ or no-wash protest.
WED. JANUARY 24, 1996: The Mitchell report on the surrender of arms was published and recommended (as was forecast) a commitment to acceptance of the outcome of talks in the Six Counties in which the unionists will have majority representation. It also recommended an “elective process” confined to the Six Counties which would only lead to a New Stormont forced through by the same local majority, ie the unionists.
John Major moved the goalposts once again only hours after the Mitchell report on the surrender of arms was published by presenting a new delaying tactic: that elections in the Six Counties could replace an arms surrender as the precondition for admitting the Provisionals to ‘all-party’ talks.
FRI. JANUARY 26, 1996: The Provisionals will have to decide within a week if they agree with a draft report of the Dublin Forum for Peace and Reconciliation over any change in the status of the Six Counties, and therefore accept Britain’s right to rule part of Ireland because a local majority there supports it.
Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble said that his party would still require ‘decommissioning’ of arms held by the Provisionals’ military wing before “serious negotiations” would begin. He said that this requirement would remain even after elections to a New Stormont assembly had taken place.
Three political prisoners were released on parole after serving 21 years of their sentences in English prisons. Stephen Nordone, Co Louth; Noel Gibson, Co Laois; and Seán Kinsella, Co Fermanagh were all released on licence from Full Sutton prison, in north Yorkshire. They may not return to Ireland for three months. Brendan Dowd and Paul Norney, who were jailed at the same time as the other men in 1976, were refused parole. Norney’s application was refused because he didn’t attend the British parole board hearing, despite the fact that he had just been transferred to Maghaberry in the Six Counties and could not have been present.
It was announced that 200 temporary staff are to be laid off at the Intel computer plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare.
MON. JANUARY 29, 1996:
The British-appointed Northern Ireland Police Authority, which oversees the running of the RUC British police in the Six Counties, signed a £2 million contract with UB Networks for computer equipment “to help with analysis of data in its intelligence and crime-fighting activities”. The RUC is updating its “information systems” as part of something called the “Atlas” project.
TUES. JANUARY 30, 1996: 26-County Minister for Justice, Nora Owen, gave the go-ahead on plans to transfer political prisoners currently being held in Portlaoise to a new prison in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, when it is completed. Portlaoise prison would then be used exclusively for ordinary, non-political prisoners.
Gino Gallagher, spokesperson for the IRSP and INLA member, was shot dead on the Falls Road in Belfast.
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