SUN. MAY 2, 1999: A 32-year-old male nurse was the victim of a sectarian knife attack by an Orange gang of up to eight men as he and two female colleagues were making their way home off the Donegall Road in the loyalist Village area from a pop concert in Belfast. The victim was cut with a knife or a blade and he later received medical attention for multiple stab wounds.
A 16-year-old north Belfast youth was beaten unconscious by a 20-strong group of loyalists sporting Glasgow Rangers football shirts, one of them wielding a metal bar. The youth was walking home with his girlfriend when he was set upon at the junction of Landsdowne Road and Antrim Road. Although she was also attacked, she was not seriously injured.
A scanner in the Post Office in Cookstown, Co Tyrone found two .38 calibre bullets in separate letters addressed to two brothers at their elderly mother's home in the Ballinderry Bridge area of south Derry. The letters threatened that "the next one is for you" and was signed "OVF" (the Orange Volunteers loyalist death squad).
Johnny Adair, the UDA/UFF loyalist death squad leader serving a sentence in Long Kesh, was shot and injured when he attended an open-air concert in Belfast's Botanic Gardens while on weekend parole from prison.
MON. MAY 3, 1999: A 27-year-old nationalist man suffered a broken leg, cuts and bruises when he was attacked by a crowd of about 15 loyalists in Market Street, Lurgan, Co Armagh.
Also in Lurgan, a 24-year-old nationalist man was hit in the face with a bottle by a loyalist bandsman as he walked home towards the nationalist Taghevan estate.
TUES. MAY 4, 1999: A burst of automatic gunfire was fired at Lisnaskea RUC barracks in Co Fermanagh.
WED. MAY 5, 1999: In a sectarian attack, two 12-year-old nationalist boys, Declan Lagan and Gary McWilliams were at the corner of Brompton Park and the Crumlin Road in north Belfast when a car pulled up beside them and a man fired a gun at Declan. The gun jammed and Gary pulled Declan towards a nearby bookie's shop. The gunmen fired between four and five more bullets at the boys and another passer-by before they found safety in the bookie's shop.
An RUC Land Rover was reported to have chased the car but the two occupants made their getaway.
The Cutter's Wharf pub on the Lockview Road near Stranmillis in south Belfast was gutted in an arson attack by loyalists.
Members of Republican Sinn Féin in London and surrounding areas held a picket outside 10 Downing Street demanding political status for all political prisoners.
THURS. MAY 6, 1999: A nationalist couple were forced to flee their home at Broadway Parade in a loyalist area of south Belfast after a pipe bomb, wrapped in nails, blew a hole in the back door of the house. At the same time "Taigs Out" was sprayed in brightly coloured paint across the living room window and gable end of the house.
The Emer Art Gallery in Donegall Pass in Belfast, owned by Michael Flanagan, was attacked when the window was smashed by a breeze block and flammable liquid poured inside. A number of paintings and sculptures were destroyed and damage of tens of thousands of pounds done. Michael Flanagan said he believed that the UVF loyalist death squad carried out the attack because he refused requests for protection money.
FRI. MAY 7, 1999: A man claiming to represent the Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for the attack on Lisnaskea RUC barracks in Co Fermanagh on Tuesday, May 4.
SUN. MAY 9, 1999: The home of Barry Oliver, a nationalist who lives in the predominantly loyalist Edenaveys Crescent area of Armagh city, was attacked by a petrol bomb which hit the back wall of the house, narrowly missing the room where his mother and younger brother was sleeping. Barry Oliver and his brother have moved out of the house following the latest in a long line of attacks but their mother says she will not be intimidated out of her home.
MON. MAY 10, 1999: A petrol bomb was thrown through the window of a flat belonging to a nationalist family on Kilgreel Road in the predominantly loyalist Parkhall estate in Antrim. The flat was extensively damaged.
TUES. MAY 11, 1999: Lawyers within the Six Counties, at a meeting of the Six-County Law Society, attended by 700 of the Six Counties 1,700 solicitors, overturned a decision of its ruling council and passed a motion calling for an independent judicial inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. It also passed a motion calling for an independent inquiry into the murder of Lurgan solicitor, Rosemary Nelson.
WED. MAY 12, 1999: A nationalist man was shot by loyalists as he arrived to open a building site in Carnhill Walk in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.
The Motte and Bailey, a pub owned by nationalist Artie McGlone in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast, and which attracted clients from both sides of the community, was forced to close after a loyalist mob broke into it in the latest of a series of attacks by loyalists, including two attempts to set it on fire.
FRI. MAY 14, 1999: A dossier, entitled Rosemary Nelson - the life and death of a human rights defender claimed the process of threats and intimidation which ultimately led to the murder of Rosemary Nelson began when she was "demonised" by the RUC on the grounds of guilt by association.
SAT. MAY 15, 1999: The British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced an "absolute" deadline of June 30 next for the devolution of power to the Stormont Assembly.
SUN. MAY 16, 1999: Two petrol bombs were thrown at the home of a nationalist family in the Colindale Park area of Dunmurry, outside Belfast.
The British-backed loyalist death squad the LVF said in a statement that it retained the right to go back to violence "on behalf of the loyalist people".
TUES. MAY 18, 1999: Twelve people were injured when rioting erupted during an Orange march in Portadown. One of the injured was a nine-year-old bandsman. The marchers, bandsmen and supporters shouted abuse and threw missiles at nationalist homes in Obins Drive and Obins Avenue. RUC and British soldiers in full riot gear were in the area and as the parade returned loyalist youths attacked RUC Land Rovers. At least one Land-Rover was overturned, trapping two RUC officers inside. An RUC vehicle struck a 65-year-old woman, knocking her to the ground.
A window at the home of a nationalist man in Hampton Crescent, Larne, Co Antrim was broken and a petrol bomb thrown inside. The occupant sustained minor injuries and there was some damage to the house.
THURS. MAY 20, 1999: A delegation of members of the Ard-Chomhairle (National Executive) and Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive) of Republican Sinn Féin travelled to London and delivered a letter to the British Prime Minister in Downing Street. The delegation was joined by members and supporters of Republican Sinn Fein in Britain. They attended a press conference at at the Hotel Russell, Russell Square, London. Those who travelled were : Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Uachtaran; Cathleen Knowles McGuirk, Leas Uachtaran; Líta Ní Chathmhaoil, Ard-Runai; Joseph O Neill, Cisteoir; Geraldine Taylor, Ard-Chomhairle, Belfast; and Sorcha McElhinney, Runai, Comhairle Uladh.
Four people were treated in hospital for minor injuries when a bomb exploded at the junction of Broadway and the Falls Road, Belfast.
FRI. MAY 21, 1999: Three men were injured when loyalists attacked the Red Devils bar on the Falls Road in Belfast. Only the quick action of the two doormen inside the Red Devils and Caffrey's Bar opposite prevented a more serious incident when a car pulled up and an unmasked loyalist jumped out and tried to throw the grenade into the pub. The doormen forced him to throw it into the street and the force of the blast shattered windows in both pubs and three customers suffered shrapnel wounds.
Anthony Hyland (26) was jailed for 25 years and Darren Mulholland (20) from Dundalk, Co Louth and Liam Grogan (21) from Naas, Co Kildare were jailed for 22 years when they were found guilty in an English court of conspiring to cause explosions between June 1 and July 11, 1998.
TUES. MAY 25, 1999: Tommy Crossan (26), a Republican prisoner from west Belfast in the unsegregated Maghaberry jail, Co Antrim was the subject of a serious and unprovoked attack by another prisoner while he was making tea on his landing. He was kicked in the back and was further assaulted as he lay dazed on the ground. His injuries necessitated stitches to his head and he also suffered swelling and bruising to his hand and chest.
FRI. MAY 28, 1999: Frank Pettigrew (48), a nationalist youth worker, was ambushed by two members of a loyalist death squad as he dropped a 14-year-old girl off at her home in Snugville Street in the Shankill area of Belfast following a cross-community horse-riding event. Up to seven shots were fired at his jeep and one of the bullets shattered the windows of a nearby pub but no one was injured.
A 38-year-old Protestant woman, her Catholic husband and their two children were forced to leave their home in Co Antrim following threats from a gang of loyalists who burst into her home.
The coffined body of north Belfast IRA man Eamon Farrell, executed in 1975 for informing to British Crown Forces, was left in Faughart Cemetery near the Border in Co Louth, the first of the remains of nine people who were killed in the 1970s to be returned to their relatives. The Provisional's military wing gave information through two priests as to the whereabouts of the other eight bodies.
A nationalist family of four escaped without injury after a loyalist pipe bomb attack on their home in Alexander Road in Armagh city.
SAT. MAY 29, 1999: Over 50 plastic bullets were fired by the RUC at protesting nationalist residents following a junior Orange parade down the Garvaghy Road. Several people were injured when gangs of loyalists tried to follow the junior parade down the Garvaghy Road. Nationalists also clashed with the RUC in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
A nationalist family, including two young children, were forced to flee their home in Larne, Co Antrim following an attack by around 15 loyalists as they entered a wine bar in the town.
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