A Mark 16 horizontal mortar was found in the boot of a car by British Crown Forces in the Thomas Street area of Warrenpoint, Co Down.
TUES. MARCH 4, 1997: Two loyalists — Mark Bellringer (22), of Thompson House, Antrim Road, and Christopher McMillan (21), Kansas Avenue — went on trial in Belfast for beating a nationalist man, Norman Gabriel Anthony Harley (45), to death in November 1995.
A bomb was placed by a loyalist death squad outside the Provisionals office in Monaghan town. The device was said to contain enough explosives to blow half the town apart. The device only partially exploded.
Seán Kinsella, who escaped from Portlaoise jail in 1974, while serving a life sentence and later spent nearly 20 years in English prisons, was recaptured by 26-County police and returned to Portlaoise.
WED. MARCH 5, 1997: The Prevention of Terrorism Act was renewed in the British House of Commons, when the Labour Party abstained in the vote which was 384 to 13.
THURS. MARCH 6, 1997: A bomb, thrown at a British army and police patrol failed to go off in Ballymurphy, west Belfast. Several people were arrested.
In the Short Strand area of Belfast the British police (RUC) seized weapons and explosives in houses in Clyde Court.
FRI. MARCH 7, 1997: Eight months pregnant Róisín McAliskey had her security classification downgraded from High Risk Category A to Standard Risk Category A in the light of international pressure.
Loyalist leader Billy Wright (36) of Portadown, known as 'King Rat'received two concurrent eight-year sentences for threatening to shoot a Portadown woman, Gwen Reed and threatening her 15-year-old son, Thomas, on the same occasion on August 10, 1995. His co-accused Trevor Buchanan (29), and Dale Weathered (28), also of Portadown, received sentences of eight years and seven years respectively for assaulting Nicola Reed, the daughter of the Portadown woman Wright threatened and for causing grievous bodily harm to the girl's boyfriend, Jason Hughes.
An explosive device was found at Newell Street in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
The number of people out of work in the 26 Counties is 259,500.
SAT. MARCH 8, 1997: On International Women's Day Republican Sinn Féin distributed leaflets across the 26 Counties detailing the regime in the women's wing of the jail ("C" Block) in which Josephine Hayden, Cumann na mBan member and the only woman political prisoner in the 26 Counties, and other prisoners are held.
Monica McWilliams, the leader of the Six-County political party, Women's Coalition, was hit by a rock and suffered minor injuries as she took part in a show of solidarity with Mass-goers at Our Lady's Church in Harryville, Ballymena, Co Antrim.
West Belfastman Christy Walsh now in his sixth year of a 14-year sentence on explosives charges may be released in the light of new evidence which was presented to Britain's supremo in occupied Ireland, Patrick Mayhew.
SUN. MARCH 9, 1997: Two tourist offices in Banbridge and Newcastle in County Down were extensively damaged in firebomb attacks. A previously unknown group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force claimed responsibility for the attack in Banbridge but made no mention of Newcastle. However both attacks which occurred within an hour of each other are thought to be linked.
THURS. MARCH 13, 1997: Several hundred rounds of ammunition were found by Crown Forces during a search of a derelict house at Langholme Row on the Tullycarnet estate in the Dundonald area of east Belfast.
A British soldier and an RUC British policeman suffered shrapnel injuries in a bomb attack in Strand Walk in east Belfast. The device, packed with shrapnel and believed to have contained about 5lb of Semtex, was concealed in an alley way and detonated by a command wire as a Crown Forces patrol passed by. A man was arrested in a Crown Forces operation after the attack.
FRI. MARCH 14, 1997: British Crown Forces carried out a series of raids on homes in the Beechmount area of west Belfast
A coffee-jar bomb was defused in the Poleglass area of west Belfast
A suspect device was found in a shop in Castle Street, Strabane, Co Tyrone.
Members of the British Crown Forces fired on bar staff at a public house at Aghagallon, near Lurgan. Co Armagh.
SAT. MARCH 15, 1997: The UDA death-squad is believed to be responsible for killing a nationalist man in Belfast. John Slane (44), a father of ten, was in the kitchen of his Thames Court home making up feed for his twin infant daughters when two gunmen shot him.
SUN. MARCH 16, 1997: A former member of the Parachute Regiment who was present during the massacre of 13 civilians by that regiment in Derry in 1972 has come forward with new evidence, claiming that a statement he had prepared for the Widgery Tribunal of Inquiry into Bloody Sunday was torn up by Crown lawyers on Lord Widgery's team and replaced with a statement which fitted with the official version of events.
It was announced that residents of Dromore, Co Tyrone had come to an arrangement with the Orange Order allowing them to march through the mainly-nationalist town on July 12.
MON. MARCH 17, 1997: The case of John Kinsella (51), who is serving 16 years in jail in England on charges of storing explosives, has been referred to the British Court of Appeal.
WED. MARCH 19, 1997: The Apprentice Boys announced that they will march as far as the Ormeau Bridge in Belfast on Easter Monday in the first loyalist march of the season, but they will not march through the nationalist lower Ormeau Road. After marching to Ormeau Bridge they will travel by coach to join the main parade in Killyleagh, County Down.
British forces defused two Mark 16 mortar-bombs in Derrylin, County Fermanagh. They began a search of the area on March 18 following a coded phone warning from the Provisionals that the devices had been abandoned there.
It was announced that Róisín McAliskey, who is eight months pregnant and on remand in Holloway prison in London on foot of an extradition warrant from Germany, is to stand for the Mid-Ulster constituency in the Westminster general election.
THURS. MARCH 20, 1997: The British government announced that it is to close the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast.
FRI. MARCH 21, 1997: British Crown forces announced that they had seized nearly 2lbs of Semtex, 200 rounds of ammunition, a coffee-jar bomb and a tripod for a heavy machine-gun following searches in Corragunt, Roslea, County Fermanagh.
SUN. MARCH 23, 1997: Bernadette McAliskey announced that her daughter Róisín McAliskey will not stand in the Westminster election.
An escape tunnel leading from H-Block 7 was discovered by prison officers at Long Kesh prison, outside Lisburn, Co Antrim.
MON. MARCH 24, 1997: A Presbyterian minister, David Templeton (42), died from injuries received early in February in a loyalist punishment beating in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim. This is the first time a punishment beating has resulted in the death of the victim.
FRI. MARCH 28, 1997: A nationalist man was chased and beaten by a 20-strong loyalist mob on the Shankill Road, Belfast. He was treated in hospital for severe bruising and broken teeth.
It was reported that more than 40 political prisoners are believed to have been assaulted by warders in Long Kesh following the recent discovery of an escape tunnel built by Provisional prisoners in H-Block 7.
SUN. MARCH 30, 1997: A car-bomb containing a beer keg packed with nearly 100lb of home-made explosives parked outside a Provisional advice centre in Lepper Street in the New Lodge area of Belfast has been attributed by loyalist sources to the Red Hand Commando British-backed death-squad.
Figures released by the British government in March show that 569 people were detained in Britain under the racist 'Prevention of Terrorism Act' (PTA) in 1996.
Easter ceremonies commemorating the 1916 Rising were held by Republican Sinn Féin all over Ireland and in Scotland, England and the USA.
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