MON. MARCH 1, 1999: A nationalist family had a narrow escape after the mother opened a tin box containing a loyalist bomb left on the window sill of their country bungalow at Ballynakelly Road near Coalisland, Co Tyrone on Sunday night. The bomb which had been fitted with a 60-minute timer did not go off.
THURS. MARCH 4, 1999: The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party endorsed the decision by the Dublin administration to join the NATO-led Partnership for Peace, despite some opposition within the party.
SAT. MARCH 6, 1999: Members and supporters of the Save Josephine Hayden Committee in the US gathered in front of the Dublin consulate in New York City to protest the imprisonment of Josephine Hayden, the only woman political prisoner in the 26 Counties.
In the early hours arson attacks were carried out on the homes of two nationalist women in north Belfast. Flammable liquid was poured throught the letter-box of the houses and ignited. A 69 year old woman living on the mainly loyalist Graymunt Parade discovered the fire in her hallway.
A short time later the RUC came upon a fire at another home at Graymount Parade at 3.20am.
SUN. MARCH 7, 1999: According to a report from London, over a dozen people including two serving members of the British army were question in what is said to be the culmination of a year long inquiry by MI5, Special Branch and military police. British authorities raided 14 addresses across England and took over a dozen people in for questioning about nazi links to the loyalist death-squads. It is believed the main focu of the investigation is the Combat 18 group which takes its name from the first and eighth letters of the alphabet -- signifying the name Adolf Hitler.
MON. MARCH 8, 1999: British direct-ruler in the Six Counties Mo Mowlam extended the deadline for the creation of the 'Northern Ireland' executive until Easter Week.
Treaties to establish institutions prescribed by the Stormont Agreement were signed in Dublin Castle. The treaties were in relation to (a) a North-South ministerial council: (b) the implementation bodies in the Strand Two section of the Belfast Agreement; (c) a British-Irish Council (the 'Council of the British Isles'); and (d) a British-Irish intergovernmental conference.
A previously unheard of loyalist group styling itself the "Black Friday Brigade" threatened leading business organisations in the Six Counties because of their cross-border links, groups such as the Six-County Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of British Industry. The loyalist group demanded an end to any business links with the 26 Counties.
TUES. MARCH 9, 1999: Using their agents in the British colonial police (RUC), the UDA/UFF loyalist death squad issued threats against nationalists in north Belfast. One of the hot-spots for this campaign of ethnic cleansing is the mainly loyalist Graymount area where taxis and delivery drivers have been threatened. The death threats were issued to a taxi firm and two fast food outlets and were made under the name Red Hand Defenders.
WED. MARCH 10, 1999: In the Belfast High Court Judge Gillen ruled the amound paid to British Intelligence agent Brian Nelson, who was invloved in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was not necessary to enable a compensation claim to go ahead. Nelson (51) and the British Ministry of Defence are being sued for damages by Pat Finucane's widow Geraldine. She has claimed Nelson targeted her husband for assassination in their home at Fortwilliam Drive, Belfast, on February 12, 1989.
Several families were moved from their homes in Portadown, Co Armagh while British army bomb experts dealt with a pipe bomb thrown into the livingroom of a house in Atkinson Avenue on Monday night.
The loyalist protest at Drumcree Church in Portadown, Co Armagh entered its 250th day and loyalists staged a major rally at the protest site.
THURS. MARCH 11, 1999: Paratrooper Lee Clegg was acquitted of the murder of Belfast teenager Karen Reilly in 1992 during a second trial.
MON. MARCH 15, 1999: Rosemary Nelson, well-known civil rights lawyer from Lurgan, Co Armagh, who represented the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition and the Hamill family was killed when a bomb placed by a loyalist death squad exploded under her car not far from her home. The REd Hand Defenders said they were responsible for the bomb.
WED. MARCH 17, 1999: Trouble flared in Portadown, Co Armagh following the murder of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson, killed in a booby-trap bomb explosion on Monday. The disturbances followed an Orange Order drums display at Corcrain hall, close to the Garvaghy Road area.
Frankie Curry, a prominent loyalist from Belfast, was shot dead on the Shankill Road in Belfast.
THURS. MARCH 18, 1999: The RUC fired plastic bullets at nationalist who were attacking Portadown Orange Hall. The police also came under attack at Tullygally East Road in Craigavon, Co Armagh from a crown throwing stones, bottles and petrol bombs. Cars were hijacked and set alight in nationalist areas of Portadown as protesters took to the streets following the funeral of Rosemary Nelson. The GArvaghy Road was closed to traffic after 7pm when a bus was hijacked and set alight close to the Churchill Park area. In the loyalist Corcrain Estate a crowd gathered close to nationalist Craigwell Avenue.
SUN. MARCH 21, 1999: Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive), Republican Sinn Féin, said that during the previous week 'meticulous' searches of cells have been carried out at Maghaberry prison for a suspected firearm and flak-jacket, resulting in Republican prisoners there being strip-searched up to eight times a day and their cells being ransacked. No items were found during the search.
TUES. MARCH 23, 1999: Francis Trainor, a nationalist who runs a scrap yard business in Castlewellan, Co Down suffered minor injuries when he triggered a booby-trap bomb left outside his home. A British-backed loyalist death squad claimed responsibility for planting the device.
WED. MARCH 24, 1999: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) launched up to 100 cruise missiles against Yugoslavia as the start of a NATO operation called Allied Force.
The British-backed loyalist death squad the Orange Volunteers claimed responsibility for a grenade attack outside the Derryhirk Inn on the outskirtys of Lurgan, Co Armagh. The grenade exploded in the carpark, damaging the wall of the pub and a car.
Martin Joseph Toner, from Keady, Co Armagh, who lost an eye after being struck by a plastic bullet during distrubances in the town in July 1996 after the Portadown Orangement had been forced down the Garvaghy Road by the British authorities, was awarded £100,000 in an out-of-court settlement against the RUC.
THURS. MARCH 25, 1999: Belfast Crown Court acquitted Mark Hobson (22) of the murder of Robert Hamill because of "lack of evidence".
SAT. MARCH 27, 1999: Special Branch political police raided the home of Tomás Ó Curraoin, Republican Sinn Féin candidate for the Conamara area of Galway County Council. More than a dozen Special Branchmen were involved and other houses in the area were also raided. Houses in north County Leitrim were also raided.
MON. MARCH 29, 1999: The home of James McCarry, a member of the Provisional's political organisation who sits on Moyle District Council in Co Antrim, was targeted by a loyalist death squad when an explosive device was thrown into the children's playroom of his house in Ballycastle, Co Antrim. No one was injured but the room was badly damaged.
Dublin Minister for Justice John O'Donoghue rejected calles from Justice for the Forgotten, the committee of victims and relatives of those killed, for an independent inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings which killed 34 people.
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