FRI. OCTOBER 1, 1999: A car, parked at Craig Circus Avenue, in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim was set alight by a petrol bomb causing extensive damage. At the same time a stone was thrown through the kitchen window of a nearby house.
MON. OCTOBER 4, 1999: A pipe bomb was thrown by the Red Hand Defenders loyalist death squad at a nationalist taxi driver as he travelled through the Peter’s Hill area of west Belfast. The bomb failed to explode.
It was reported that John O’Neill, a nationalist man from the Antrim Road in Belfast, had been attacked by an RUC patrol as he returned home with a friend, sustaining injuries which resulted in microsurgery to his face and three days in hospital.
Conor McGrath, a 31-year-old electrician and fitter from Castlebridge, Co Wexford appeared before the Special Court in Dublin charged with membership of an unlawful organisation.
An arms cache which included Semtex explosives, three handguns and ammunition and a hand-made weapon was discovered in a State forest at Shelmalier Commons, Murrinstown, near the village of Castlebridge, Co Wexford.
FAIT (Families Against Intimidation and Terror), a group which had campaigned against Republican activity since 1990 and had been funded by the British closed down.
TUES. OCTOBER 5, 1999: Malcolm McKeown (34), a member of a leading loyalist family, was shot and injured when he opened the door of his house in the Parkmore area of Craigavon, Co Armagh. The shooting was by other loyalists and is believed to be drug-related.
The Dublin cabinet approved entry into NATO’s Partnership for Peace for the 26-County State.
WED. OCTOBER 6, 1999: Four men were arrested in south Donegal under the Offences Against the State Act.
SAT. OCTOBER 9, 1999: A loyalist gang hammered four hundred masonry nails with the sharp ends pointing up into a football pitch at Tildark Avenue on the Black’s Road in Belfast. Two under-11 Catholic school teams were supposed to use the pitch before the referee spotted the nails.
MON. OCTOBER 11, 1999: British direct-ruler in the Occupied Six Counties, Mo Mowlam, was recalled to Britain to take up a post as "cabinet enforcer" of the British government and was replaced by Peter Mandelson.
A pipe bomb was hurled through the living room window of a nationalist family in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast. It failed to explode. A second pipe bomb was found outside the home. A couple and their two-month old baby were in the house at the time but escaped injury.
The home of Mrs Agnes Robinson (57), a widow living in Ballymurphy Crescent in west Belfast, who suffers from spinal arthritis and a heart complaint, was raided at 6.30 in the morning by four Land Rovers of RUC personnel, who forced open her door and ransacked the house while she and two of her sons were forced to stay in the kitchen. The raid was said by the RUC to have taken place on "information received" but nothing was found.
TUES. OCTOBER 12, 1999: The Special non-Jury Court in Dublin set February 29, 2000 as the date for the trial of South Armagh man Colm Murphy who is charged with conspiring to cause an explosion in August 1998 and with membership of an unlawful organisation.
THURS. OCTOBER 14, 1999: Twelve men were being held under the Offences Against the State Act by 26-County Special Branch at police stations in Trim, Kells and Navan, Co Meath in connection with the attempt to smuggle arms into the country from Florida, USA in July.
FRI. OCTOBER 15, 1999: A nationalist couple and their three children were forced from their north Belfast home after it came under attack for the second time in a week when a hoax device was thrown by the Red Hand Defenders loyalist death squad at the house.
SAT. OCTOBER 16, 1999: SDLP assembly member Carmel Hanna revealed that she received a phone warning from loyalists in regards to nails being hammered into a Belfast football pitch. According to Cllr Hanna, "The message as received was something like: ‘We have spread hundreds of nails on the pitch at Carnamore because we don’t want Catholic teams playing there. Next time we won’t give a warning."
Larne, Co Antrim nationalist grandmother Elizabeth Brown was viciously beaten by a loyalist mob while the RUC ignored her calls for help. She and her 21-year-old pregnant daughter fled a bar in the town after being set upon by the mob who had asked her what was her religion. When she told them she was subjected to sectarian abuse and punched to the ground and pelted with glasses, an RUC car outside the pub refused to take her home and would not stay on the street to protect them. The gang pursued the women hurling more sectarian abuse before pulling and punching Mrs Brown from a telephone box.
An article in the Andersonstown News (Belfast), titled "Message of Hate", highlighted the contents of a loyalist propaganda leaflet currently circulating in west Belfast. The leaflet, a photocopied four-page hate-sheet, names a number of west and north Belfast men as prominent IRA men. It also gives their personal details (including home addresses and car registration numbers.)
Five men were arrested in the Tallaght, Mulhuddart and Palmerstown areas of Dublin and held under the Offences Against the State Act. It was claimed that two low-calibre rifles, a handgun and ammunition were found.
SAT./SUN. OCTOBER 16/17, 1999: A number of homes were evacuated in the Cliftondene Crescent area of north Belfast as part of a security alert. A pipe bomb was later found and made safe.
TUES. OCTOBER 19, 1999: The first ever strike by nurses in the 26 Counties began.
WED. OCTOBER 20, 1999: Ten people were arrested when 26-County police raided the cellar of a ruined mansion near Stamullin, Co Meath, where a training camp appeared to be in progress. An AKM assault rifle, a CZ automatic pistol and a Soviet era SEN sub-machinegun as well as 150 rounds of ammunition were found.
SAT. OCTOBER 23, 1999: It was reported that the home of SDLP Assembly member Carmel Hanna had come under attack twice in the last week. Cllr Hanna claimed that loyalists are targeting her because she has been speaking out against sectarianism in south Belfast. Two windows in Cllr Hanna’s house have been smashed by ball bearings. A paint bomb was thrown at her house only a week before.
Members of the West Belfast Football Club come under attack at an Irish Junior Cup match in Lurgan, Co. Armagh when around 60 loyalists hurled sectarian abuse at them. The players from the West Belfast club were outnumbered five-to-one, the match had to be abandoned and players were shepherded into the dressing rooms. When they tried to board their bus and make their way out of Lurgan they found that the tyres on their bus had been slashed.
Paul Rodney Hobson, who had been sentenced to four years for his part in the sectarian murder of Robert Hamill, beaten to death by a loyalist gang in Portadown, Co Armagh in April, 1997, lost an appeal against his sentence. He was convicted of "causing an affray".
Twenty-six-County police uncovered an arms cache at Stamullin, Co Meath not far from the site of a training camp found earlier in the week. The find included an RPG rocket launcher, detonators and other bomb-making equipment.
MON. OCTOBER 25, 1999: A loyalist death squad targeted Liam Shannon, a well-known Provisional from west Belfast by placing a bomb, attached to a container of fuel and packed around with a large quantity of six-inch nails, at his front door at La Salle Park when he and his wife returned home shortly before midnight.
The home and a car belonging to a mixed couple living in Bushmills, Co Antrim, came under attack when paint bombs were thrown through the living room window of the couple’s house and sectarian slogans were daubed on the front wall of the house as well. The windscreen of the couple’s car was smashed and flammable liquid was poured inside and set alight. It was the second time in 12 months that the couple had come under attack.
TUES. OCTOBER 26, 1999: Two loyalist men were arrested near Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, after the RUC discovered a pipe bomb and two hand grenades in their van. British Army technical experts then carried out a controlled explosion on the vehicle.
WED. OCTOBER 27, 1999: Garfield Gilmour, a 24-year old salesman from Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, was convicted in a Belfast crown court for the murders of Richard Quinn (11), Mark Quinn (10) and Jason Quinn (9.) who died when fire swept through their home after a petrol bomb attack on their home in Ballymoney on July 13, 1998. The attack was carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Gilmour drove the getaway car.
Belfast-based journalist Ed Moloney, Northern Editor of the Sunday Tribune won a legal battle against a judge’s order to hand over his notes of an interview with William Stobie, charged with killing Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane ten years ago.
The nurses’ strike was deferred pending consideration of a settlement.
THURS. OCTOBER 28, 1999: It was revealed that one of the men arrested by the RUC after explosive devices were found near Dungannon, Co Tyrone on October 26 was fundamentalist preacher Clifford Peebles, a self-styled Protestant religious figure from the Woodvale area of north Belfast.
FRI. OCTOBER 29, 1999: Pastor Clifford Norman Peebles (30), Woodvale Road, Belfast and James McGookin Fisher, Deerpark Park, Belfast were remanded in custody when they appeared in Cookstown Magistrate’s court charged with having two grenades and an improvised pipe-bomb with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property at Dungannon on October 26.
SUN. OCTOBER 31, 1999:
Tommy Crossan, Belfast, Republican prisoner in Maghaberry prison was attacked by two loyalist prisoners (Pastor Clifford Peebles and James Fisher) as he queued to make a telephone call to his wife Anne around 6pm. Boiling water was thrown on his right side and he suffered blistering on his chest and hands. He averted his head at the last second as he saw his attackers. Tommy Crossan was attacked by loyalists in May of this year in the prison.
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