THURS. JULY 1, 1999: Gerry Adams, President of the Provisionals' political organisation, indicated a "significant shift" in the Provisonals' position on decommissioning, in that they agreed that all arms would be "decommissioned" by May 2000.
The Scottish parliament and Welsh asembly which had been agreed in two referendums in those countries in 1998 met for the first time.
FRI. JULY 2, 1999: Following a week of talks at Stormont attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the leader of the Dublin Administration Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair proposed a further deadline of July 15.
SUN. JULY 4, 1999: The Orange parade to Drumcree, which had been banned from the nationalist Garvaghy Road, went off without incident. In the evening there were clashes between loyalists and the RUC.
TUES. JULY 6, 1999: The centre of Letterkenny, Co Donegal was closed for two hours after a man claiming to be from the British-backed loyalist death squad the Red Hand Commando had telephoned a bomb warning to a Belfast newsroom.
Loyalists from the Donegall Pass area of Belfast threw bricks and stones at nationalist homes in nearby Joy Street, off the Ormeau Road. Nationalist homes in the Markets area of Belfast were attacked by loyalists.
A 20-year old Portadown, Co Armagh man appeared in court on charges of riotous behaviour following clashes in which 150 loyalists fired firecrackers and pesticide containers at the RUC. Six policemen were injured.
A report by the [British] Northern Ireland Fair Employment Commission found that nationalists were under-represented in more than three-quarters of private companies and public sector bodies in the Six Occupied Counties.
WED. JULY 7, 1999: A report in the Irish News (Belfast) said that whole streets in the Collingwood estate, an upmarket housing development in Lurgan, Co Armagh, have been abandoned by nationalists after terrified families had fled to escape attacks by loyalists from the nearby Mourneview estate.
In Ballycastle, Co Antrim a pipe bomb was left outside the home of a member of the Provisionals' political organisation in Stroanhesk Park. The bomb was defused by British Crown Forces.
In Carrickfergus, Co Antrim a house at the Birches was set on fire shortly after midnight and a video shop at the Woodburn Centre owned by a nationalist in the town was also attacked by a petrol bomb.
FRI. JULY 9, 1999: A nationalist couple, Thomas Gault (20) and his fiance Fiona Lennon (18) fled their home at Lissize Avenue, Rathfriland, Co Down after it was attacked by a loyalist mob of up to 30 people.
Two sawn-off shotguns and ammunition, pistols and rifles as well as two circuit boards for detonating high-explosive devices and clamps for telescopic rifle sights were found at Scotshouse, Co Monaghan by 26-County police.
SUN. JULY 11, 1999: A number of people were injured when nationalists protesting against an Orange march through Keady, Co Armagh were driven back by the RUC.
St Patrick's Catholic church in Derriaghy, Co Antrim was extensively damaged when loyalists set fire to inflammable liquid at the front door. St Patrick's Chapel, Chapel Hill, Lisburn, Co Antrim was also attacked by arsonists.
Four RUC members were injured and a number of civilians were injured during clashes after a crowd of 1,000 loyalists blocked the main Derry to Strabane road at Newbuildings, Co Derry.
A report on Channel 4 television, based on a report by the investigative journalist Duncan Campbell, said that British intelligence services have been electronically intercepting telephone calls to and from the 26-County State for over ten years.
THURS. JULY 15, 1999: The Ulster Unionist Party failed to turn up at Stormont to take part in setting up the Stormont Executive. The Democratic Unionist party, the Progressive Unionist Party and the Alliance Party refused to take part in the charade which followed and the SDLP and [Provisional] Sinn Fein nominated five and four ministers respectively. As it did not fulfil the criteria set up under the Stormont Agreement that the unionists had to be represented, the Executive was immediately abolished. Seamus Mallon resigned as ‘Deputy First Minister'. Republican Sinn Féin President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh said in a statement that “the English government should confront the situation squarely and commence the process of a planned and orderly final disengagement from Ireland”.
Simon Delaney (27) described how three men charged through the front door of the house on Rowan Road in Ballymoney, Co Antrim at around 11.30pm shouting “Fenian bastard” while another man with a pistol came in the back. The men beat him for several minutes while his two-year-old niece looked on helplessly until his parents came in from the other room whereupon the man with the gun pointed it at them and fired a shot into the air and they all ran off. His sister who was in the kitchen had been ordered to kneel on the floor by the one with the gun, which turned out to be a starting pistol.
MON. JULY 19, 1999: Stewart Armstrong (33), Pine Way, in the Donegal Pass area of Belfast was charged with having three handguns, a sub-machine gun and a quantity of ammunition at his home with intent to endanger life at Belfast Crown Court. Two other men, Richard Fitzsimmons (25), also from Pine way and William Hewitt (24), from Forthriver Green, north Belfast -- were charged with possessing details useful to terrorists about people living in the Donegall Road area.
TUES. JULY 20, 1999: A community worker, Anne Nee and her three children, were watching television at their home in the predominantly nationalist area of Whitewell which is adjacent to the loyalist White City area, when two petrol bombs came hurling through her door. Only one of the bombs exploded causing scorch damage to the windows and walls. No one was injured in the attack.
WED. JULY 21, 1999: Moyarget Orange hall in Co Antrim was burned down by a group calling itself the ‘Moyle Action Group'.
An RUC man was injured following disturbances which erupted when the police were called to investigate a bomb hoax in Lurgan, Co Armagh. As they examined three gas cylinders, two of them wrapped in wire, which had been placed on the tracks, a crowd of up to 30 youths threw petrol bombs and bricks at them.
FRI. JULY 23, 1999: Members of a loyalist death squad left an explosive device outside O'Neill Park, home of Dungannon Clarke's Gaelic football club in the Lissahull area of Dungannon, Co Tyrone. The bomb was defused by Crown Forces.
SAT. JULY 24, 1999: Republican Sinn Féin in England held a protest picket outside the British Home Office in protest against the conditions imposed on Republican prisoners in Maghaberry prison and calling for political status for these prisoners.
SUN. JULY 25, 1999: A pipe bomb left outside St Trea's Catholic church in Moneymore, Larne, Co Antrim exploded but no one was injured.
MON. JULY 26, 1999: A car in which three nationalists were driving was stopped at the Old Ballygawley Road, near Dungannon, Co Tyrone by between 30 and 40 members of the RUC who surrounded their car and threatened them with the British-backed loyalist death squad the LVF. The occupants of the car were intimidated at the roadside for over two hours.
The Court of Appeal in London ruled that former British soldiers of the Parachute regiment who were present in Derry on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972 should not have their names published by the Saville Inquiry.
WED. JULY 28, 1999: Seven people were arrested, two men and a woman at a house in Inverin, Co Galway and four at Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the USA, in an arms smuggling operation in which guns were sent through the post to Ireland from the US. Six handguns were found in the house in Co Galway.
THURS. JULY 29, 1999: Three Irish people, Conor Anthony Claxton from Belfast, Siobhan Browne from Co Cork and Anthony Smyth were refused bail by a judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after being charged in relation to a guns smuggling operation. In Dublin, guns and ammunition were found at the SDS postal depot at the Naas Road, having been sent from Florida.
FRI. JULY 30, 1999: Charles Bennett (22) a taxi driver from Upper Meadow Street in the New Lodge area of Belfast was found shot dead behind St Gall's GAA club. He had been missing since Tuesday. It was reported that he had been shot by the Provisional's military wing for allegedly stealing a gun from an arms dump in the Markets area.
Loyalists swamped the nationalist area of Rose Street and Clifton Park in north Belfast around 8pm and hurled fireworks at the RUC. Nationalists who defended their area said that they were being terrorised nightly by loyalist gangs.
Jacqueline McIntyre (32) was charged at the Special Court in Dublin with possession of three Ruger .347 magnum revolver, three Glock semi-automatic pistols and 120 rounds of .40 Smith and Wesson ammunition for an unlawful purpose.
SAT. JULY 31, 1999: Nationalists in Portadown, Co Armagh said that they foiled a loyalist murder bid when they confronted and disarmed a man armed with an AK47 rifle and a handgun at the junction of Obins Street and Craigwell Avenue. The man was arrested by the RUC.
Earlier in the day a nationalist man was arrested on the Garvaghy Road during disturbances as loyalists took down a Twelfth of July arch.
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