TUES. SEPTEMBER 2, 1997: Gerry Adams offered his condolences to the British royal family including the future heir to the British throne on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. He said Diana, who once served as Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Hampshire Regiment and enjoyed visiting these soldiers when they were on a tour of duty in occupied Ireland, showed sympathy for people who were suffering or in need.
WED. SEPTEMBER 3, 1997: Journalist Suzanne Breen wrote in the Belfast Telegraph (Belfast) and Irish Times (Dublin) of her face-to-face interview with a senior member of the Continuity IRA at a secret location just inside the Border in the 26 Counties.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 5, 1997: Scuffles broke out in the County Antrim village of Crumlin during a loyalist band competition when nationalists who were protesting at the decision to allow the competition go ahead noticed that one of the organisers of the competition was filming them. The implication behind filming the protesters was clearly that the footage could be used again to help "target" the nationalists involved.
The home of Janine Kerr, who was asleep in her home in Deerpark Road in a predominantly loyalist area of north Belfast was petrol-bombed by loyalists.
MON. SEPTEMBER 8, 1997: British police (RUC) opened fire and injured Wayne Hinds (21) in the leg whom they claim was one of three men who ran from a house in Lecale Street in the loyalist Village area of south Belfast.
TUES. SEPTEMBER 9, 1997: Two nationalist homes were petrol-bombed in Ballymena, Co Antrim. The O'Kane family, who have lived in the house on the Ballykeel Estate for 33 years moved out after the attack.
In another attack a couple and their two young sons narrowly escaped injury when a petrol bomb was hurled into the livingroom of their Inchkeith Road home minutes after the attack on the O'Kanes.
An extremely sophisticated and well-supplied spy-bunker used by British Crown Forces to monitor a huge stretch of the Border area including the Dundalk-Castleblaney Road was accidentally uncovered by workmen in Clonalig, South Armagh.
THURS-SUN. SEPTEMBER 11-14, 1997: Residents of three houses in Belfast's Greymount estate were subjected to a series of orchestrated attacks by Orange pro-British elements from the loyalist White City estate and the Whitehall Road district. The first attack was on Thursday evening when missiles at the home of an old woman living alone. On Friday and on Sunday two young families came under attack from the same sectarian mob. In all three cases stones, bottles and other missiles were used. A car was also wrecked.
THURS. SEPTEMBER 11, 1997: The Scottish people voted by 74.3% for a devolved Scottish parliament.
A nationalist teenager needed nine stitches when a brick thrown through the window of a school-bus by a gang of youths shouting sectarian slogans hit him between the eyes as he and more than 30 other children were travelling home from St Patrick's High School in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
Three nationalist men in their early twenties claimed they were attacked by up to six British police (RUC) members in Ballymena, Co Antrim.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 12, 1997: Eighteen schoolgirls were injured when their school-bus was stoned in the Ballysillan area of north Belfast. The girls, pupils of Our Lady of Mercy School, received various injuries, mainly cuts and bruises.
In a separate incident a schoolboy was injured when he was hit by a piece of metal as a bus was attacked on the Ormeau Road.
Both incidents were believed to have been sectarian.
SUN. SEPTEMBER 14, 1997: British police (RUC) blocked an Orange march through the nationalist village of Dunloy, Co Antrim. Nationalists staged a protest in the village at the march.
MON. SEPTEMBER 15, 1997: The 'talks' process which is designed to copperfasten partition in Ireland commenced in Belfast.
The pro-British death squad, the LVF, claimed to have planted three bombs in the 26 Counties. A caller claiming to represent the group phoned the UTV newsroom at around 3pm. He claimed three devices were ready to go off in 30 minutes. The three devices were alleged to have been planted at the car park at Dublin Airport, the main railway-line between Dundalk and Dublin and in a bin in Dundalk town centre. The pro-British LVF group is linked to jailed loyalist Billy Wright (King Rat) and has support among the main unionist parties.
TUES. SEPTEMBER 16, 1997: A huge bomb exploded outside the RUC barracks in Markethill, Co Armagh just before 12 noon.
WED. SEPTEMBER 17, 1997: A student of Drumcree High School was hit by objects thrown at her in the town centre. She was later found in a "very disturbed" state. Other school children said they were chased through the town and spat on as well as being subjected to verbal, sectarian abuse.
THURS. SEPTEMBER 18, 1997: The Welsh people voted narrowly for a devolved assembly.
Three Derry men — Paddy McGlinchy, Tommy Duffy and a third man who did not wish to be named — came forward to tell how the British police (RUC) attempted to recruit them as informers on the nationalist community.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 19, 1997: The Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for the 1000lb bomb attack on Markethill RUC barracks in County Armagh three days previously. The claim was phoned to the Irish News in Belfast by a caller using a codeword. The CIRA also claimed responsibility for the bomb at Carrybridge in Fermanagh seven weeks previously.
The Provisionals stopped and disarmed a member of the Continuity IRA before a planned attack on the British Crown Forces in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast.
Speaking at a Belfast press conference, Provisional leader Gerry Adams called for a new police force or "neighbourhood watch". Adams said he had already written to dozens of statutory agencies about his idea and had received a positive response. He said that it would have an obligation to refer more serious crimes to the British colonial police (RUC). A new version of the Broy Harriers, perhaps?
Around 25 pupils from the Catholic Drumcree High School, who change buses in Portadown town centre, have reported harassment which is reported to come from loyalists of the same age. According to the principal of Drumcree High School, Seamus O'Neill, a male pupil was taken to hospital after being hit on the head with a stone in Portadown.
SAT. SEPTEMBER 20, 1997: The sectarian picket by loyalists outside Harryville Catholic church in Ballymena recommenced.
SUN. SEPTEMBER 21, 1997: Breige Hughes, a nationalist mother-of-four, requested the British Housing Executive to move her from her home in Rosapenna Street, off the Oldpark Road in north Belfast following repeated loyalist attacks over nine years.
MON. SEPTEMBER 22, 1997: The British government announced that the chairman of the co-called International Commission on Decommissioning was to be Canadian General John de Chastelain, both of whose parents were agents of British Military Intelligence during World War II. He is also to jointly chair Strand Two of the Stormont talks process with Senator George Mitchell and Harri Kolkeri.
TUES. SEPTEMBER 23, 1997: Gareth Doris (20) who was shot in the stomach and arrested after an explosive device was thrown outside Coalisland, County Tyrone RUC barracks and who is in prison on remand on charges arising out of the incident was refused parole on compassionate grounds to attend the funeral of his grandmother.
THURS. SEPTEMBER 25, 1997: An 11-year old schoolboy, Gerard Daly, was on his way to class at CBS, Glen Road, Belfast when a British police Land Rover pulled up beside him at Norglen Parade, Turf Lodge and a member of the RUC jumped out and started interrogating him and then hit him in the face.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 26, 1997: Five Provisionals — Patrick Villa (28), Dermot McFarland (32) and Kieran McFadden (34) of Derry city were released along with Michael McLaughlin (31), Buncrana and Paul Rodgers (35) of Manorcunningham, Co Donegal — were given early release from Portlaoise prison.
SAT. SEPTEMBER 27, 1997: A former RIR British soldier who is believed to have been drunk at the time of the offence later admitted responsibility for an elaborate hoax bomb which caused panic in Markethill, County Armagh.
SUN. SEPTEMBER 28, 1997: A number of petrol bombs were launched at houses in Roseville Street in the Oldpark area of Belfast at around 4am. Eyewitnesses claim the attackers used a ladder to position themselves behind a wall before lobbing the incendiaries directly at the homes of Phyllis O'Donoghue and Margaret O'Dell and other families.
MON. SEPTEMBER 29, 1997:
It was reported that loyalists in north Antrim are planning to extend the picket outside Harryville Catholic church in Ballymena to other Catholic churches in the area in Ballymoney and Coleraine which they will begin to picket.
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