SAT. JANUARY 1, 2000: Denver Smith (32), a member of the Progressive Unionist Party, was beaten to death in the Stiles Estate in Antrim town in the early hours of the New Year.
MON. JANUARY 3, 2000: Angelo Fusco (43), from west Belfast, was arrested by 26-County police outside Castleisland in Co Kerry on foot of an extradition warrant to send him back to serve a life sentence in the Six Counties. Fusco escaped from Crumlin Road jail in 1981, having being sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of SAS Captain Herbert Westmacott and later served a ten-year sentence in Portlaoise prison, having being convicted under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of escaping from custody. He fought a six-year battle against extradition to the Six Counties on the original charge and when the Dublin Supreme Court ruled that he should be extradited he absconded and has been on the run since.
TUES. JANUARY 4, 2000: Lawyers for Angelo Fusco made an application to the Dublin High Court asking that he not be extradited. Justice Finnegan made an order restraining the extradition and ordered that he appear before the High Court on Thursday, January 6.
Rioting broke out in Maghaberry jail, Co Antrim as 19 prisoners set fire to cells and locked themselves into the recreation room of Foyle wing. The outbreak was brought under control and the prisoners returned to their cells.
WED. JANUARY 5, 2000: The clothing company, Hawkesbay, is to close its plant in Ardee, Co Louth with the loss of 300 jobs and a further 160 workers will be made redundant at its plants in Derry and Newtownards, Co Down.
FRI. JANUARY 7, 2000: Josephine Hayden, the sole Republican women prisoner in Ireland, ended a five-day hunger strike in Limerick prison following the agreement of the prison authorities to lift the lock-up punishment imposed on the women prisoners over the holiday period.
The British Director of Public Prosecutions in the Six Occupied Counties stated that it would not be prosecuting RUC members accused of issuing death threats against civil rights Rosemary Nelson assassinated by loyalist death squads on march 15 last.
A pipe-bomb exploded at a house in Andraid Street in Co Antrim, causing minor damage.
MON. JANUARY 10, 2000: Richard Jameson (46), reported to be the leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Portadown, was shot dead in his car outside his home at Derrylettif Road, five miles outside Portadown, Co Armagh.
TUES. JANUARY 11, 2000: Charges against a Co Galway woman, charged with possessing weapons smuggled into the 26-Counties from Florida for the military wing of the Provisionals, were dropped at the Special Criminal Court.
Farmers throughout the 26 Counties began a blockade of meat plants in protest against what the IFA called a cartel where farmers are paid less than 90p per lb for meat.
FRI. JANUARY 14, 2000: The IFA, which had been blockading meat plants throughout the 26 Counties, was fined £100,000 per day by the Dublin High Court for refusing to obey a court order telling them to desist.
SUN. JANUARY 16, 2000: Five members of the LVF loyalist death squad were warned by the RUC that they had been put on a death list by the UVF.
MON. JANUARY 17, 2000: The president of the IFA and most of its executive resigned after the fines imposed by the High Court in Dublin were increased to £500,000 a day until it ceased blockading meat plants. The blockades continued.
TUES. JANUARY 18, 2000: A Provisional Sinn Féin councillor from Co Monaghan received a letter bomb at his home in Monaghan. It did not explode and was later made safe by the Free State army.
WED. JANUARY 19, 2000: The remains of Volunteer Tom Williams, who was hanged in Belfast prison by the British in 1942, were released to his family and buried at the family plot in Miltown Cemetery, Belfast.
British supremo in the Six Counties Peter Mandelson announced that he intended to implement most of the changes in the RUC proposed by the Patten Commission.
A nationalist mother-of-two from Belfast received a bullet and death threat in a letter sent by loyalists.
THURS. JANUARY 20, 2000: Marian Price, former hunger striker, was refused a visa to enter the USA to speak at the Michael Flannery Memorial Dinner on January 29.
The Republican Plot in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery was vandalised and 16 monuments damaged.
A family in Co Armagh which is of mixed religion were intimidated out of their home in the Mourneview Estate, Lurgan by the UVF loyalist death squad.
Four Irish nationals -- Conor Claxton, Siobhán Browne, Martin Mullan and Anthony Smyth -- who are charged with attempting to smuggle arms to the military wing of the Provisionals in Ireland were given further charges.
SUN. JANUARY 23, 2000: A van containing bomb equipment was stopped by the 26-County police near Cahir, Co Tipperary and a man was arrested.
Lisnamuligan Orange Hall, near Hilltown, Co Down was damaged in an arson attack.
MON. JANUARY 24, 2000: Beef plants throughout the 26 Counties returned to work after making individual deals with farmers giving them an increase to 90p per lb.
TUES. JANUARY 25, 2000: Charges against two Provisionals -- Thomas Ashe Mellon and Raymond Griffith, both from Derry -- were dropped by the Special Court in Dublin. They were charged with possession of explosives substances at Balleegan, Co Donegal, having being stopped in a van.
Three coffee jar bombs were discovered under a hedge near a derelict school at Randalstown, Co Antrim.
WED. JANUARY 26, 2000: Christopher Smith (38), Shanbooley Road, Ballynanty Beg, Limerick was charged at the Special Court in Dublin with having two anti-armour drogue bombs containing Semtex, 17 improvised hand-grenade bodies, 22 improvised projectile grenades and components for grenades and other bomb-making material at Townspark, Cahir, Co Tipperary.
FRI. JANUARY 28, 2000: Michael McManus, Fermanagh, a member of the Republican Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle, was turned back at Dublin Airport by US immigration officers as he prepared to travel to New York to speak at the Michael Flannery Memorial Dinner on January 29.
SUN. JANUARY 30, 2000: A shop belonging to a nationalist was petrol-bombed in the mainly Protestant village of Broughshane, near Ballymena, Co Antrim, causing considerable smoke damage.
An RUC patrol was attacked by a crowd on the New Lodge Road area of Belfast, injuring one of them.
The RUC also came under attack in Derry city centre when a crowd of more than 40 people threw stones and bottles and punched and kicked the policemen, two of whom were injured and a police car windscreen was smashed.
MON. JANUARY 31, 2000: Private Lee Clegg, the British paratrooper who was cleared of killing Belfast teenager Karen Reilly, was cleared of all charges relating to the killing of another teenager, Martin Peake during a retrial at Belfast Crown Court.
General John de Chastelain, head of the British decommissioning body, submitted his report to the London and Dublin governments.
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