TUES. NOVEMBER 4, 1997: The family of Portadown nationalist, Robert Hamill, announced that they would take legal proceedings against loyalists said to have been involved in his death and against the RUC. The decision follows the release of three of the accused loyalists the previous week after charges of murdering the father-of-three were dropped.
A firm of lawyers, D&G McCormick and Co, lawyers on the Andersonstown Road, whose office is next door to the Provisionals headquarters in Belfast had their premises sprayed with automatic gunfire.
THURS. NOVEMBER 6, 1997: The Irish Independent stated that "key activists, including a former chief of staff and the quartermaster general" had resigned from the Provisionals at an "extraordinary army convention" in Donegal during October. The newspaper alleged that twenty senior personnel including those responsible for engineering and weapons storage were involved.
Following a meeting in Dundalk, there were public resignations of County Louth members of the Provisionals' political organisation. Fra Browne, a former Sinn Féin councillor said that up to 30 members of the organisation in the county had resigned both at the meeting and over the following day, constituting most of the members of three of the four Cumainn (branches) in Dundalk.
FRI. NOVEMBER 7, 1997: The body of loyalist Robert John Kerr (54), was found near a burnt-out cabin cruiser on the main Newry to Warrenpoint Road.The circumstances surrounding the manner of his death are unclear.
SAT./SUN. NOVEMBER 8/9, 1997: The 93rd Ard-Fheis of Republican Sinn Féin took place in Dublin.
SUN. NOVEMBER 9, 1997: Sunday Business Post columnist Tom McGurk reported that six of the 12-person executive of the Provisionals' military organisation had resigned.
The first nationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast, SDLP member Alban Maginness, wearing a red poppy, took part in a Remembrance Sunday ceremony to commemorate soldiers who died in the service of the British State at the Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall.
Meanwhile in Dublin, 26-County president-elect Mary McAleese joined a Royal British Legion Remembrance day service in St Patrick's Church of Ireland cathedral.
The body of a young Newtownabbey man, Raymond McCord, was found dumped in Ballyduff quarry in the town having suffered horrific injuries to the head. The UDA/UFF British-backed loyalist death squad is believed to have been responsible for the killing.
The mainly nationalist village of Bellaghy in Co Derry was saturated by British Crown Forces as the British Legion marched through the town behind the Union Jack, sporting poppies to commemorate those who had died fighting for the British Empire.
MON. NOVEMBER 10, 1997: The court of appeal in Belfast agreed on November 10 to admit new ballistics evidence into the case of the British soldier, Lee Clegg, who was convicted by the British courts of killing a Belfast teenager, Karen Reilly, in 1990. Lord Chief Justice Robert Carswell and Lord Justices MacDermott and Nicholson decided against a retrial and instead chose to admit the fresh evidence when the hearing reconvenes on January 12.
WED. NOVERMBER 12, 1997: A bomb, left near Dundalk, Co Louth and consisting of a 3.5kg camping cylinder attached by a fuse wire to batteries and packed with fireworks powder, was defused by the 26-County army. A spate of bomb warnings on the Belfast to Dublin railway line accompanied the Dundalk attack and each used a recognised LVF pro-British death squad codeword.
Joe Duffy, of Portadown, Co Armagh, a nationalist member of Craigavon District Council, who was alleged to have assaulted RUC member Harry Pye at the Garvaghy Road, Portadown on July 11 last year, was cleared of the assault charge.
SUN. NOVEMBER 16, 1997: Parishioners were attacked by a gang of youths from the loyalists Tiger Bay area while attending Mass on Belfast's Limestone Road. Teenagers who had been standing at the back of the church were chased around the grounds and on to the Limestone Road, in full view of the RUC.
MON. NOVEMBER 17, 1997: A contingent of RUC stopped a car containing Colin Duffy, Lurgan, Co Armagh and a number of friends coming from a celebration of the birth of his daughter Sinead and subjected its occupants to a series of vicious assaults. Later that day Crown Forces raided the Duffy home and arrested Colin Duffy on charges of causing grievous bodily harm.
Several cars were hijacked and set alight in nationalist areas of Lurgan and Armagh city in response to the arrest and charging of Colin Duffy. In Armagh at least six vehicles were hijacked and set alight on the Moy, Monaghan, Killyleagh and Cathedral roads.
The vehicles included an Ulsterbus, a lorry and a Post Office mail van. In Lurgan hijackings and burnings took place at Old Portadown Road and the Lake Street level crossing and a bomb alert closed a stretch of railway line between Portadown and Lisburn. Vehicles were stoned in the Kilwilkie and Taighnavon estates in Lurgan and in the Meadowbrook estate in Craigavon, Co Armagh.
TUES. NOVEMBER 18, 1997: Colin Duffy (29) was brought before the High Court in Belfast with his arm in a sling and was remanded in custody on a charge of grievous bodily harm to a policeman.
WED. NOVEMBER 19, 1997: Two men charged with killing nationalist father-of-three, Robert Hamill, in Portadown, Co Armagh in April this year had charges against them dropped. A US human rights group, Voice for Human Rights in Northern Ireland, has supported moves by the family of Robert Hamill for a private prosecution in the case.
Michael Godfrey (41) from Berlin Street, Shankill Road, Belfast who was seriously injured when he was struck in the face by a plastic bullet fired by an RUC member in June 1993 was awarded £25,000 damages. was unconscious for six days after the incident. The shooting happened after the RUC re-routed an Orange march in the Whiterock area of west Belfast. A UVF member, Brian McCollum (26), was killed during the incident when a grenade he was carrying exploded prematurely. Godfrey was later cleared of charges and sued the RUC.
Justice Pringle released Lurganman Colin Duffy on his own bail of £250 with two sureties of £500 each and ordered him to remain at his home at Drumnamoe Gardens, Lurgan between 10pm and 7am and to report to the colonial police twice a week.
THURS. NOVEMBER 20, 1997: British army bomb experts carried out a controlled explosion on a device said to have contained a small quantity of commercial explosives. The bomb was placed outside the office of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) at Belfast City Hall. An anonymous caller claiming to represent the Continuity Irish Republican Army informed the BBC on Wednesday night that the bomb had been left at the back of City Hall but gave no codeword. The media faithfully carried the alleged claim that the CIRA planted the bomb despite the fact that no codeword had been given.
It was announced that 250 British soldiers from the Third Battalion of the Parachute regiment would be withdrawn from the Six Occupied Counties
FRI. NOVEMBER 21, 1997: A confidential document from the British/NATO inspired body, the International Commission on Decommissioning, and described by its authors, joint chairmen, Canadian Gen John de Chastelain, whose parents worked for British military intelligence in World War II, US diplomat Donald Johnson and Brig Tauno Nieminin of Finland, as a possible "road map for decommissioning" was distributed to the parties at the Stormont talks.
The Provisionals' two Westminster MPs, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, have been admitted into the 'Key Persons Protection Scheme' along with Belfast City Councillor Alex Maskey. Adam Ingram, security minister at the British colonial office at Stormont has written to the party to inform it of the governmental decision. Membership of the scheme will entitle these 'key persons' to RUC bodyguards and cars with armour-plating.
MON. NOVEMBER 24, 1997: A nationalist man from north Belfast was arrested by the RUC in the early hours of the morning, bundled into a Land Rover and beaten in the back of the vehicle. At the police barracks the man, who has heart trouble, had pains in his heart and a doctor was called and he was taken to the Mater Hospital.
A bomb warning from the LVF loyalist death squad, using a recognised codeword, claimed that a bomb had been left at Main Street in Buncrana, Co Donegal. It was found to be a hoax.
TUES. NOVEMBER 25, 1997: It was announced that British army foot patrols from the streets of west Belfast would not patrol west Belfast during daylight hours. However, British colonial police chief, Ronnie Flanagan, said the need to continue mobile patrols and the accompaniment of police patrols by British troops would be subject to constant review.
WED. NOVEMBER 26, 1997: The north Belfast nationalist who was arrested two days previously by the RUC received a card addressed to his dead brother with a message reading: "UFF Second Battalion. From your friends who can't wait to see you again. Just missed you at the Mater, you lucky ****. Won't be so lucky next time. Say hello to brother. We'll get the right one next time. See you soon." The brother referred to on the card was killed by a loyalist death-squad five years ago.
THURS. NOVEMBER 27, 1997: A former member of the PUP's team at Stormont, Jackie Mahood, who is known to have links with the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) was shot three times in the head and neck when his attackers burst into his taxi company office on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast. Mahood, who was taken to Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, was described by hospital staff as seriously ill.
Judge Peter Smithwick of the Dublin District Court ordered the extradition to the Six Counties of Long Kesh escaper Anthony Kelly. He informed Kelly that he had 15 days to appeal to the Dublin High Court. Derryman Anthony Kelly (36) was one of 38 IRA prisoners who escaped from Long Kesh in 1983. He is also wanted in the Six Counties for the killing of a reserve member of the colonial police in 1979.
British Crown Forces broke their own rules during the Garvaghy Road disturbances last July according to a report launched by US rights group Peacewatch Ireland. Crown Forces behaved in a highly provocative and heavy-handed fashion by attacking peaceful protesters, the report said.
FRI. NOVEMBER 28, 1997: The PUP, the political spokespersons for the UVF loyalist death squad, blamed the attack on Jackie Mahood on a criminal element.
Long Kesh escaper Anthony Kelly was readmitted to bail in Dublin's High Court.
The town centre of Letterkenny, Co Donegal was closed for several hours while a bomb warning, phoned to a Derry newspaper by the loyalist death squad, the LVF, was checked out. Nothing was found.
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