SAT. SEPTEMBER 1, 2001: Rioting was sparked after two nationalist teenagers were attacked by a loyalist mob at Westland Gardens in north Belfast. Minutes after the assault, a crowd of men armed with hammers, iron bars and sticks tried to invade the street. A number of people were injured, windows were smashed in two houses and a car windscreen smashed.
At around 2am in the small hours, a nationalist woman walking along Alliance Ave was attacked by men in a car.
Two men were in the car. They tried to pull her into the car. After a struggle the woman was able to break free. She suffered a broken nose and a number of other injuries.
The men then made off in the car at speed and turned right at the top of Alliance Ave onto the Ardoyne Road going into the loyalist Glenbryn area.
SUN. SEPTEMBER 2, 2001: Two men were arrested after members of an RUC patrol fired shots during an incident in Derry, close to the Border with Donegal.
A 15-year-old boy from the Seacourt Estate in Larne, Co Antrim was beaten with an iron bar by a loyalist mob near the Old Glernarm Road. He had to have four staples in the back of his head.
Loyalists attacked a number of nationalist homes at Limestone Road and Newington area. Stones, bricks and bottles were used. As nationalists came out onto the streets to defend their homes heavy fighting took place. Petrol bombs were thrown and a number of shots were fired by loyalist gun men.
Rioting took place in a number of areas. Limestone Road, North Queen Street, Duncairn Gardens. Brit Crown Forces flooded the area.
MON. SEPTEMBER 3, 2001: Loyalists trying to block nationalist children returning to their school clashed with police in North Belfast. It was the first day of the new school term, and trouble flared after attempts failed over the summer to negotiate a settlement between the parents of the schoolchildren and the loyalist protestors following violence in the area earlier this year. A crowd of up to 200 loyalist protesters were held back by British army troops and RUC officers who formed a pathway for the terrified youngsters and their parents at Holy Cross Primary School in the Ardoyne area. A mother of one of the pupils suffered a head injury when stones and bottles were thrown from a crowd gathered at the entrance to the Glenbryn estate. Missiles were also hurled by the protesting loyalists and one woman needed hospital treatment for head wounds. Protestants from the Glenbryn enclave shouted sectarian abuse and spat at the children and parents from the nationalists Ardoyne district as they were escorted to Holy Cross. “You Fenian scum,” some shouted while others spat at the parents and the cowering children. Bottles were also hurled from across the road as they went through the school gates.
Rioting took place in north Belfast after a day of heightened tension in the area. Petrol bombs were thrown in the Ardoyne area and it was reported that shots were fired in the area. A crowd of about 200 people gathered and there was stone throwing and incidents of serious disorder in several parts of the city. In Ardoyne, trouble began at about 6pm and loyalist protestors threw a number of petrol bombs at British Crown Forces. Stones were thrown for more than an hour by both nationalists and loyalists at the junction of Ardoyne Road and Alliance Avenue. Violence also flared around North Queen Street and in Limestone Road.
In the White City area, an object believed to have been a pipe bomb was thrown into a garden.
A Bellaghy, south Derry coach hire company, owned by Damien Convery, has been forced to close following threats from loyalist death squads. The company’s buses have been targeted on numerous occasions and a phone call to the Samaritans said there “would be no more warnings”.
Around 4.30am RUC Brit army moved in to the Ardoyne Road in force and set about setting up a barrier of perspex along the foot path at the left hand side of the Ardoyne Road, where the parents and their children would have to walk through.
9.00am. The Holy Cross children with their parents set off up the Ardoyne Road to school.
Hundreds of loyalists lined the route. Hundreds more stood in side streets. UDA/UFF, UVF from the Shankill were identified by locals from Ardoyne. These people, clearly ringleaders, standing at houses and in gardens along Ardoyne Road.
The children and their parents now faced sectarian foul-mouthed bigots using dirty talk too bad to repeat. Then came the stones, bricks and bottles and whatever else these bigots could get their hands on, to be used against children, some as young as four years old.
On witnessing this nationalists crossed Crown Force lines to go to the aid of the children and their parents, only to be blocked by Brit Crown Force lines of armoured cars, riot gear Brits and RUC about a hundred yards up the Ardoyne Road. A number of parents who covered their children from the attacks on them from loyalists were injured. At least three were taken to hospital with head and face wounds.
Around 9.30am RUC and Brits used batons and dogs to attack nationalists, of whom some were treated for dog bites. Others treated for injuries from batons.
9.40am. A Republican Sinn Féin member was threatened by loyalist on Ardoyne Road. Republican Sinn Féin representative in north Belfast, Seosamh Ó Leogáin, was threatened after a heated exchange with loyalist Mark Coulter and his body guard about the loyalist attacks on the children and parents going to the school.
The Republican Sinn Féin man was told by Mr Coulters body guard he’d never be able to sleep in his bed again and that he would have him [the RSF man] killed by loyalists. The body guard declined an offer from Seosamh Ó Leogáin to stop hiding behind the RUC and repeat the threats face to face.
Mark Coulter and his body guard – who turned up later on news reports as a ring leader in the attacks on the school children and their parents – then walked back up the Ardoyne Road.
At about 10am parents and some of the children returning back down the road were again subjected to foul dirty mouths, stones, bricks and bottles.
Other children were taken out of the back of the school and put into black taxis from Ardoyne and the Falls and taken to Ardoyne by the Crumlin Road.
The area was now very tense with crowds of people standing near interface area.
7.00pm. Loyalists again attacked nationalist homes at Limestone Road and Newinton which brought nationalists onto the streets. Fighting heavy between nationalist street fighters and loyalists at close hand. The fighting went on for well over an hour and there were a number of injuries on both sides.
8.15pm. Hundreds of loyalists moved towards the North Queen Street, New Lodge area. Fighting broke out and running battles took place. At least two nationalist street fighters were hit by petrol bombs thrown by loyalist rioters. Up to five others suffered a number of injuries. Nationalist street fighters pushed the loyalist crowds back up the North Queen Street road to their own area. Loyalist bomber threw a pipe bomb that fell short into the loyalist crowd. It’s believed to have caused a number of injuries. RUC and Brits moved into the area.
Tense stand-off took place as youths from the New Lodge raided bottle banks at York Gate shopping centre to use in defence of the area.
9.30pm. Fighting went on in Ardoyne after loyalists from Glenbryn attacked nationalist homes at Alliance Ave and Ardoyne Road. Fighting heavy on a number of fronts: Alliance Ave, Ardoyne Road, Crumlin Road, Twaddle Ave, Woodvale Road and Brompton Park.
About 10.45pm. Loyalist gunmen opened fire into Ardoyne. Around this time two nationalist homes were attacked and burned out by loyalists at Newington.
Loyalists attacked Brit occupation forces at Glenbryn. RUC moved into nationalist Ardoyne at the Crumlin Road, Brompton Park area and Estoril Park driving Land Rovers along footpaths, trying to knock nationalist people down. Rioting heavy in the area with nationalist street fighters putting one Land Rover out of action.
11.30pm. Loyalist crowds petrol bombed Holy Cross Chapel from the Woodvale Road setting a roof and trees on fire at the back of the Chapel. Loyalist crowds from Twaddle Ave tried to get into Brompton Park and were pushed back by nationalist street fighters.
Such attacks went on through the night.
Car burning across Brompton Park and on Crumlin Road.
Nationalist youths took to roofs of shops on the Crumlin Road and rained petrol bombs down on Brit occupation forces.
Fighting took place in a number of areas through the night.
A mixed religion couple were forced to jump from a first-floor window after a gang of loyalist youths kicked in the front door of their home in Tyress Gardens in a predominantly-loyalist area of Armagh city.
TUES. SEPTEMBER 4, 2001: There was another confrontation between Crown Forces and loyalists protesting outside a Catholic primary school in Ardoyne in North Belfast. The RUC wielding batons fought with an angry crowd who threw stones and fence poles at them. One RUC man was injured in an explosion thought to have been caused by a blast bomb. The loyalists were demonstrating for a second day against parents taking their children to the Catholic Holy Cross elementary school though a Protestant estate. About 50 children were escorted to the front gates by police in riot gear along a cordon set up along the Ardoyne Road lined with police and British army Land Rovers. A number were forced to turn back when stones were thrown at them, but all the children reached the school. The school is situated near the small Protestant Glenbryn enclave in the mainly nationalist Ardoyne area. As the children walked along the 400 yard cordon they were met with angry shouts from loyalist residents as they passed the mainly loyalist Hesketh Park area. The loyalist paramilitary group, the Red Hand Defenders, has issued a warning to parents to keep their children away from the school.
British Crown Forces in north Belfast came under attack from loyalist protesters in the Glenbryn area of the Ardoyne with bricks, bottles, stones, fireworks and ballbearings. A nail bomb and a number of blast bombs were thrown at police during disturbances on Ardoyne Road.
Children and parents once again made their way up the Ardoyne Road and were again faced with hundreds of RUC and Brits in riot gear as well as armoured cars, behind which there were hundreds of sectarian loyalist bigots standing with their own children and still they used their foul and dirty mouths at the children and parents as they walked the road to school. The number of children going to school was less than the day before because many children were sick through fear.
Once again bottles, stones, bricks and whatever the loyalists had at hand were used against the children and their parents, causing a number of injuries. The same was repeated as the children and their parents came back down the road on Tuesday afternoon.
7.00pm. Rioting broke out again at Glenbryn as loyalists attacked Brit Crown Forces, setting a Brit Land Rover on fire. (It should be noted that not one plastic bullet was used against loyalists. Republican Sinn Féin oppose the use of this weapon but the fact that on July 12, 2001 50 plastic bullets were fired at nationalists in Ardoyne and a countless number fired against nationalists in the weeks that followed in Ardoyne, New Lodge, Duncairn Garden, Limestone Road, North Queen Street, Whitewell and Serpentine Road. This is a fact that has to be pointed out. Also, it shows that anyone who has been fooled into thinking that the RUC have changed then these facts should make them think again.)
Loyalists from Glenbryn/Alliance Road attacked houses at Alliance Ave. Nationalist crowds came out on to the streets and fighting took place at Brompton Park and Alliance Ave/Ardoyne Road. After a time the area was tense but loyalists again attacked Brit Occupation forces.
At about 10.30pm up to eight Provisionals, one with a Colt 45 auto in the air ordered nationalists on Alliance Ave off the streets, telling people in raised voices they were the IRA and to “fuck off” off the streets. This Provisional police action took place only yards from RUC and Brit lines at Ardoyne Road/Alliance Ave yet the men who weren’t masked didn’t seem to worry about this as they pushed nationalists back off the streets, in effect taking away nationalist’s rights not only to protest but also to defend their families and homes. How was such an action [a Provisional police action] able to take place so near RUC and Brit occupation forces lines at the top of Alliance Ave/Ardoyne Road? This question went through many peoples minds. An action was also made by Provisional police men at Brompton Park. Many people taken back by this police action. Couldn’t believe it.
If anything there’s little doubt that the Provisionals want to make sure they have control. They had lost that control a number of times and will no doubt use the jackboot to get it back.
The Provisionals who won’t use their guns against Brit occupation don’t have any problems at all taking them out against the nationalist people. This is the sign of the future for Provisional policemen and the Republican/nationalist community had better get wise to the road the Provisionals are taking them.
WED.SEPTEMBER 5, 2001: Catholic children trying to get to their elementary school in the Ardoyne district of North Belfast this morning came under attack when loyalists threw a pipebomb at them. The route to the school leads through the loyalist Glenbryn area whose residents have been staging protests in order to prevent the children and their parents from reaching the school via the loyalist area. As the children and their nationalist parents ran the gauntlet of loyalist protesters, a line of Crown Forces held the loyalists back from physically attacking the children and their parents. However, as the children were emerging from the loyalist stretch of road, a pipe bomb was thrown onto the road followed by a barrage of rocks and missiles. A volley of shots was also fired from the Glenbryn estate. Two of the nationalist parents and two RUC men were taken to hospital suffering from minor injuries.
The Holy Cross Primary School children and their parents once again set off up the Ardoyne Road.
They had to pass through riot gear Brits and RUC men as well as armoured cars. Once again through those lines they were faced by foul-mouthed loyalist bigots and, as before, bricks, stones and bottles rained down on the children and their parents. The cries of the innocent could be heard over the voices of hate.
Then the bang of a bomb broke the air. Loyalists threw a bomb that fell short on the RUC lines.
Panic set in as mothers and fathers tried to cover the children as they rushed to get them to safety of the school gate or back to Ardoyne. Some children fell as they were pulled along by parents.
Republican Sinn Féin in north Belfast rejected claims that the bomb was aimed at the RUC. A spokesman told SAOIRSE this is not the case. The loyalists, if they had wanted to attack the RUC could have done so at any time over a two-day period as the RUC were manning road blocks in the Glenbryn, Ardoyne, Alliance Ave area for that time.
The order to carry out that bombing came at a very high level within the loyalist groupings.
They knew very well that to hurt a child or parent or worse would have caused the maximum fear within the nationalist community and that is why the bombing was carried out. It was only luck that the bomb fell short and none of the children were hurt.
Tensions were high and minor trouble broke out in a number of areas. Most of the children were taken home. Those left had to face the foul-mouthed bigots as they returned down the Ardoyne Road.
Wednesday night. As night fell tension was high and there was trouble in a number of areas around north Belfast but nothing on the level seen in the past number of days.
THURS. SEPTEMBER 6, 2001: 9am. Even more parents then in previous days walked up the Ardoyne Road with their children to Holy Cross primary school and again they passed through the lines of armoured cars and riot-clad RUC and Brits. This time, unlike the three previous days, they turned their backs on the parents and their children.
They [the loyalists] had now realised that the world had seen their hate and sectarian bigotry for what it is. But their new tactic of blowing whistles and airhorns, banging bin lids and shouting is every bit intimidating as anything else they have used against the children since they started their campaign to stop the children going to school.
Loyalist death squads threatened to kill a number of the parents of the children naming a number of people. The loyalist RHD cover-name for most of the loyalist groupings said they would kill them and any nationalists that set foot on the Ardoyne Road.
News of an attack on a 12-year-old nationalist being carried out by loyalists in Glengormley on Wednesday, September 5. The boy who was playing with some friends was set upon by up to 15 men and youths who chased the friends. Some of the loyalists were on mopeds and caught the 12-year-old near the Valley Leisure Centre in Newtownabbey. The boy was beaten with golf clubs, bricks and iron bars. The boy suffered serious head injuries and received 25 stitches and is now deeply traumatised. His attackers shouted “we got a Fenian” as they beat him.
Tension stayed very high with some stone-throwing at nationalist homes in Alliance Ave and a number of other interfaces.
The home at La Salle Park in the Falls area of west Belfast of Liam Shannon, a prominent Provisional, was targeted in an arson attack, causing scorch damage to brickwork and windows.
A bag containing blast bombs was found in a search of a derelict house off the lower Shankill Road in Belfast.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 7, 2001: 9am. Once again the parents and children of Holy Cross set out to walk up the Ardoyne Road to Holy Cross Primary. Again they had to walk through lines of armoured cars and riot-clad RUC and Brits. The loyalists now stood with their backs to the children and their parents in what they claimed was a silent protest in respect for a 16-year-old Protestant who died in a car accident after a nationalist woman’s car was attacked by stone-throwers on the Whitewell Road on Tuesday. This show of respect wasn’t shown as the children and their parents returned back down the Ardoyne Road again that afternoon and once again the bigots subjected the children and parents to foul mouths, whistles and airhorn blowing and banging of bin-lids.
It should be noted that the parents and children before setting off to the school on Friday morning held a minutes silence and said the rosary as a mark of respect for the dead.
Friday afternoon. Crowds gathered on the Falls Road at Dunville Park in a show of solidarity with the rights of the Holy Cross children to walk to school and their right to education.
Over 60 petrol bombs and 160 bottles were found in the loyalist Rebina Street, Tigers Bay. Also found were containers of flammable liquid and barrels filled with broken paving stones.
Nationalist homes were once again attacked by loyalists who threw paint bombs. A number of windows were broken at nationalist homes on Westland Road. In recent weeks and months loyalist attacks on the nationalist homes in the Westland area of north Belfast have been constant. Everything from stones, bottles, paint bombs, petrol bombs and pipe bombs have been used.
SAT & SUN. SEPTEMBER 8 & 9, 2001: Only minor trouble in some interface areas.
SUN. SEPTEMBER 9, 2001: Tipperary won the All-Ireland Hurling final at Croke Park in Dublin.
MON. SEPTEMBER 10, 2001: Holy Cross Primary School children and their parents walked up the Ardoyne Road to school once again. As before the children and their parents have to walk through armoured Land Rovers, through lines of riot-gear RUC and Brits.
Again, as before, they were faced with bigots, down in number but still foul mouthed, blowing air horns and whistles. Some threw lit cigwerettes at the children. One of the mothers of a child suffered a burn to her hand.
The same was repeated as the parents returned down the road.
At around 9.30am as the parents came back through the Brit RUC lines. A nationalist pulled a baton off a riot-clad Brit and ran off down the Ardoyne Road. What happened next left many people unable to take it in. A number of Provos pursued the youth, held him and took the baton off him. A well-known Provisional from the Ardoyne handed the baton back to the Brit to cheers from other Provos.
These same Provisionals only a week before used guns to order nationalists off the streets and now seen handing a Brit baton back. The baton is a weapon that the Brits and RUC have used against the nationalists down the years. It has been used constantly against nationalists in the past number of weeks.
The parents and children had to face more of the same as they returned back down the road on Monday afternoon.
There was trouble in a number of areas in north Belfast but not on a level as it had been.
It was reported that residents at the nationalist end of the Duncairn Gardens interface in north Belfast had received letters signed by the Red Hand Defenders loyalist death squad telling them to leave the area within 48 hours.
Holy Family Primary school on Newington Avenue in north Belfast was damaged in an arson attack.
A nationalist family in Hawthorne Avenue, Carrigfergus, Co Antrim escaped injury when a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of their home.
Two double-glazed windows were broken by loyalist stone-throwers in the nearby Windmill estate just 10 minutes later. A young couple and their two children escaped injury.
A short distance away a Skoda car had its windows broken outside a house in Westmount Avenue.
A pipe bomb was planted in the ladies toilet of the Anchor Bar in Portstewart, Co Antrim. Loyalist death squad, the Loyalist Action Force, claimed they had placed the device.
TUE. SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: Once again children of Holy Cross with their parents walked up the Ardoyne Road to RUC and Brit lines at 9.00am. They walked through riot-clad RUC and Brits, through the lines of armoured cars.
Again crowds of bigots subjected the children and their parents to foul mouths, airhorns, whistles and banging of bin lids and tins.
The same was repeated on Tuesday afternoon. Tension was once again very high in the area and minor stone-throwing took place. Nationalist homes were stoned in Alliance Ave, Limestone Road, Newington and at Westland Road, north Belfast.
Hijacked commercial planes carrying passengers were used by suicide bombers to crash into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, USA. Many thousands of people were killed and the twin towers of the WTC collapsed causing the deaths of many fire-fighters and New York police.
WED. SEPTEMBER 12, 2001: There was hope from parents of the children that after the deaths of so many people in New York and other parts of America that the loyalists, through respect, would call off their attacks on them and their children.
Any hopes that this would happen were soon gone after they passed through the RUC and Brit lines. Loyalist women and men marched alongside the parents with sectarian flags and singing party songs as well as blowing air horns and whistles, shouting “there wasn’t enough of your bastard friends killed in America”. This was repeated on Wednesday afternoon as the parents and their children returned back down the road again.
The area stayed tense as crowds of nationalists and loyalists faced each other in a stand off.
An explosive device exploded beside an unmarked RUC armoured car in the Shantallow area of Derry city. There were no injuries.
THURS. SEPTEMBER 13, 2001: The routine of walking up the Ardoyne Road was once again a task for the parents and children of Holy Cross. Again, as before, they walked through lines of Brit Crown Forces to once again be faced by the loyalist bigots. Again as before blowing airhorns, whistles and one with a George Bush mask on, played tapes on a hi-fi that were making sick jokes about hunger striker Bobby Sands. Again this was repeated as the parents returned down the Ardoyne Road.
And again in the afternoon when the parents went to the school to pick up the children and returned back down to Ardoyne. Again throughout the day minor trouble broke out.
At the Crumlin Road and Woodvale Twaddle Ave, crowds of nationalists and loyalists faced each other in a stand off. Tension was very high.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 14, 2001: As before the children of Holy Cross Primary and their parents once again walked through Brit Crown Forces lines to be faced, as before, with crowds of sectarian loyalist bigots banging bin-lids, blowing airhorns and whistles with loyalist flags and their foul mouths.
This again was repeated when the parents went up in the afternoon and returned with the children.
At one stage a group of loyalists wearing Glasgow Celtic tops got very close to the children and their parents.
There was minor trouble in a number of areas in north Belfast, at Ardoyne, New Lodge, Limestone Road and Newington Street.
SAT & SUN, SEPTEMBER 15 & 16, 2001: 6am, Saturday. A nationalist taxi driver escaped death after a bogus call to the Park Mount Street in the loyalist Shore Road, north Belfast.
He had just pulled up outside a home when two gunmen opened up on him. The car was hit but the driver escaped unhurt and was treated for shock.
The weekend was witness to a number of places being victim to yet more trouble as nationalist homes came under attack from loyalist stone throwers.
Tension was very high and crowds gathered in a number of areas.
SAT. SEPTEMBER 15, 2001: A house at Donard Drive in the Toagh area of Co Antrim was targeted in a petrol bomb attack.
A nationalist taxi-driver narrowly escaped when he was targeted by a loyalist death squad as he was in his car at Parkmount Terrace on the Shore Road in north Belfast. The Red Hand Defenders, a cover-name for the UDA and the LVF, claimed they had carried out the shooting.
MON. SEPTEMBER 17, 2001: The children of Holy Cross with their parents walked up the Ardoyne Road to Crown Force lines. As they went through the lines waiting for them were the loyalist bigots with their foul mouths and sectarian songs, with their flags and air horns, whistles and bin lids. This was repeated in the return down the road back to Ardoyne and again in the afternoon.
As the day drew into night nationalist homes at Westland Road, Alliance Ave were attacked by loyalists. A number of windows were broken and Westland Road. There were also reports of pipe bomb attacks on the Limestone Road, Newington area.
John Hume announced that he would be stepping down as leader of the SDLP at his party’s conference in October.
TUE. SEPTEMBER 18, 2001: The walk of the Holy Cross children was repeated as before. Parents and children once again went through Brit Crown Force lines and were faced with the bigots of loyalism, men, women and children blowing airhorns, whistles, banging bin lids and singing sectarian party songs.
This was repeated through the day as parents went to pick up their children and return down the Ardoyne Road again.
Fighting, minor trouble again broke out at interface areas around north Belfast and crowds once again faced each other in a stand off. Tension was very high.
WED. SEPTEMBER 19, 2001: A number of loyalists from Glenbryn area were arrested, eight in all. As the day went on it became clear that most of those lifted weren’t from Glenbryn but from other loyalist areas as well as the Shankill. This confirmed nationalist claims that loyalists were brought in to the Glenbryn area.
As the parents and children of Holy Cross once again set off to walk to the school the RUC held them up claiming loyalist women had blocked the road.
After a short time the children with their parents were able to go through Crown Force lines to once again be faced with hate-filled bigots.
In the afternoon as the children and their parents were returning back down the Ardoyne Road loyalists used the cover of airhorns and whistle-blowers to attack the parents and children with stones and bottles, one little girl being hurt but not badly.
Nationalists reacted to this attack on the children and fighting broke out, with loyalists being pushed back. Again tension was high as nationalists and loyalists faced each other in a stand-off.
As the day went on there was trouble in a number of places as youths stoned each other.
THURS. SEPTEMBER 20, 2001: In a repeat of every day since the Holy Cross started back to school the children and their parents once more walked through Brit Crown Force lines and again into the hate-filled air of Glenbryn where as before women and men, carrying flags, banging bin-lids and blowing airhorns and whistles once again greeted the Holy Cross children in a sick sectarian manner.
This was the same for the parents as they returned down the road after leaving the children into school.
Again in the afternoon going to the school and returning back down the Ardoyne Road tension was high as minor trouble broke out in a number of areas around north Belfast.
The Provisionals’ military wing said in a statement that their representative was prepared to reengage with the British Decommissioning Body “in a bid to move the peace process (sic) forward”.
In a telephone call to a Belfast newsroom using a recognised codeword the Red Hand Defenders loyalist death squad ( cover-name for the UDA and the LVF) issued three pipe bomb warnings at three Catholic schools in Belfast.
A pipe bomb was thrown at a house in the Craig Hill area of Antrim. No one was injured but a window was broken.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 21, 2001: The children of Holy Cross and their parents set off up the Ardoyne Road through Brit Crown Forces lines and stepped once again into the hate filled air of Glenbryn. Whistles, air horns and bin-lid played the party songs of hate as the children walk by with their parents in what must seem to them to be normal now, at least for the very young.
The afternoon would see a repeat of this but the loyalists had also planned a party. One loyalist dressed as a big red teddy bear got enjoyment as he/she shouted sectarian remarks as the nationalist children walked past.
Fighting broke out at Ardoyne and North Queen Street when loyalists in cars sounding horns gave notice of attacks on nationalists.
As the car-horns sounded crowds of loyalists armed with stones, bricks, bottles and iron bars and whatever else they could get their hands on attacked nationalist Ardoyne at the Crumlin Road near Brompton Park and nationalist North Queen Street at the New Lodge, both areas coming under attack almost to the very minute of each other.
Nationalist street-fighters pushed the loyalists back after some time with a number of injuries on both sides.
The British supremo in the Six Counties, John Reid, announced another 24-hour suspension of the Stormont assembly to allow more time to cobble some form of agreement between the Stormont parties.
SAT. SEPTEMBER 22, 2001: Loyalists attacked nationalist homes at Limestone Road, Newington area.
Fighting between loyalist rioters and nationalist street fighters took place and went on for some time.
Less than a mile away at Clifton Park Ave loyalist crowds attacked nationalist homes at around 9.00pm. As people came out onto the street fighting took place and loyalists were pushed back up the Ave again. At this loyalist gunmen opened fire, shooting a nationalist woman standing at her house in the leg. The area stayed tense as the RUC and Brits flooded the area.
At the Limestone Road loyalist bombers threw at least two pipe bombs at nationalists. As the night went on the fighting subsided but fighting broke out between loyalist rioters and nationalist street fighters at North Queen Street.
There was clearly orchestration by loyalists. Within a short time they had opened attacks on nationalist homes in a number of areas in north Belfast and in a number of cases bombs and bullets were used by loyalists.
A nationalist green-keeper may have been the target of a pipe bomb placed at the 17th hole at Moyola Golf Club at Castledawson, Co Derry.
SUN. SEPTEMBER 23, 2001: Loyalists bombers threw two pipe bombs into the grounds of Brookfield Mill on the Crumlin Road at Ardoyne. One went off causing damage to a car and one of the buildings.
Sunday afternoon. Loyalists again attacked nationalist homes in the Limestone Road, Newinton area. A number of pipe bombs were used by loyalist bombers.
Fighting took place as loyalist rioters and nationalist street fighters faced each other and running battles took place.
Fighting took place in a number of parts of Belfast, North Queen Street, Clifton Park Ave and New Brookfield Mill at Ardoyne.
As the day drew on and darkness fell all these areas were still witness to fighting between nationalist defending their areas and loyalist rioters.
Gunfire and bombs were heard in the Limestone Road, Newington area around 7.45pm as nationalist homes once again were attacked. A number of houses were damaged.
Fighting went on at Clifton Park Ave and at Ardoyne around Brookfield Mill where loyalist bombers once again used pipe bombs. It is believed that up to ten or more pipe bomb were thrown bewteen Saturday and Sunday.night.
The Brookfield Mill Complex on the Crumlin Road in Belfast was targeted when two nail bombs were thrown into the grounds, one of which smashed a window in the restaurant.
A member of the British royal family, Andrew Windsor took part in a ceremony held by the 26-County state commemorating the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, an event that led to the end of the Gaelic Order in Ireland.
Galway won the All-Ireland Football final at Croke Park in Dublin.
It was reported that Provisionals dissidents would shortly call another ceasefire.
MON. SEPTEMBER 24, 2001: Holy Cross Girls Primary School had two days holiday, Monday and Tuesday, because of teacher training.
The streets bore testimony to the constant attacks of the day before. Bricks, stones, broken bottles, the rubble of the fighting, were everywhere but mostly in back yards of houses that had been attacked by loyalists. Broken windows and damaged homes were many.
In the Limestone Road, Newington area six unexploded pipe bombs were found in back yards and gardens.
5.45pm. RUC claimed they were attacked by nationalist gunmen who fired seven to eight shots from the nationalist part of Hallidays Road.
Fighting once again took place in a number of areas, Ardoyne, Limestone Road, North Queen Street, Clifton Park Ave. Pipe bombs were used once again by loyalist bombers.
9.00pm. Up to 20 shots were heard on the Limestone Road. Claims were made that nationalist gunmen opened fire. This is unconfirmed. Locals claimed the only shooting done was done by loyalists. A number of pipe bombs were again thrown at Ardoyne and Limestone Road, Newington Street areas.
Early on Monday night loyalist crowds of men, women and children blocked the Crumlin Road near Ardoyne.
Around 10.00pm up to ten shots were fired by loyalist gunmen operating from the grounds of Holy Cross Chapel targeting nationalists standing on the Crumlin Road. There were no hits.
Reports of a Protestant woman being attacked on the Crumlin Road at 10.30pm by nationalists who drove off in a car and claimed to have gone towards Ardoyne seem not to be true. Republican Sinn Féin’s investigation into the attack could find no evidence that nationalists carried it out.
Locals believe that the woman was attacked by loyalists mistaking her for a Catholic. A number of nationalists have been attacked in this part of the Crumlin Road, a route that parents have to walk their children to school. There are two Catholic schools in this area that runs close to the loyalist Glenbryn.
As Monday night ran into Tuesday morning the fighting subsided. Mass damage was done to nationalist homes on the Limestone Road, Newington and Newington Street.
TUES. SEPTEMBER 25, 2001: Trouble in a number of parts of North Belfast around 7.30pm. Two pipe bombs were thrown at nationalist homes in Roseapenna Street but didn’t go off. Up to five more were thrown at homes in the Limestone Road, Newington Street area.
WED. SEPTEMBER 26, 2001: Pipe bombs were found on the Ardoyne Road along the route Holy Cross children and their parents walk to school. Once again the children and their parents walked up through Brit Crown Forces lines behind which loyalists were waiting and once again the sound of foul mouths and airhorns, whistles filled the air. The same was repeated as the parents returned back down Ardoyne Road.
At around 2.00pm parents gathered on the Ardoyne Road to go up to the school to pick their children up at Holy Cross Primary school. They were informed by Fr Troy that a caller to UTV Live (TV station) using a code word and claiming to be a member of the RHD, a cover name for loyalist groups such as the UFF, UDA, UVF etc, said they were going to shoot the parents and children if they set foot on the Ardoyne Road.
Fr Troy also said that the caller stated they had a number of gunmen in the area. He asked the parents did they still want to go up the Ardoyne Road with the threat against them.
The parents agreed there was nothing else they could do but go up the Ardoyne Road. There was an uneasy feeling as the parents walked through the Brit Crown Force lines. Then the sound of air-horns, whistles and the banging of bin-lids filled the air as loyalists walked along the footpath close enough to touch the parents of the children.
After picking up their children the parents and children set off, returning down the Ardoyne Road again.
As they did so loyalists once again blew air horns, whistles and banded bin-lied.
Then a barrage of fireworks start. A number of these were thrown at the children and their parents.
One mother told Republican Sinn Féin “It was terrible. We had been told that the RHD had a number of gunmen in the area around Glenbryn. We knew of the threat against us. We just didn’t know if the fireworks were cover for the gunmen. It was hard to know what was going on.
“Panic set in. People just wanted to get off that road. The RUC wanted us to go back to the school. We only wanted to get to the safety of Ardoyne. We ran as fast as we could to make it to Ardoyne.
“Fireworks hit a number of people. One woman had a hot cup of tea thrown over her. I don’t know if she’s badly hurt or not. Two wee girls done that. Wee girls in their school uniforms. What drives girls so young to hurt someone as they did?
“Their hate for us is a terrible thing. Just terrible.”
The mother with her child told the Republican Sinn Féin man: “I don’t know where this will end. I thought they were shooting at us.”
Tension was very high in the area. Republican Sinn Féin in north Belfast rubbished claims by loyalists that a nationalist gunman had opened fire into Glenbryn area on Tuesday night. Loyalists claimed the gunman had opened up from the top of Alliance Ave. This claim that the fire came from this area would mean the gunman would be shooting from an RUC, Brit army road block, which is constant at the top of Alliance Ave. There’s just no foundation to these claims.
Once again loyalists were trying to take the focus (little as it is) off the sectarian loyalist attacks being carried out constantly against Catholics.
Early in the day on Wednesday loyalist bombers attacked people in Brookfield Mill as they worked in the grounds of the Mill. The bomb, a pipe bomb, went off but there was no injuries.
Loyalists once again blocked the Crumlin Road at 7.00pm near the Brookfield Mill at Ardoyne. Hundreds of loyalists had gathered and set about attacking the Mill also trying to cut across the Old Mill grounds to attack nationalist homes at an interface in the Bone area of the Old Park Road and also Ardoyne. Up to six hundred loyalists were on the move.
When they were unable to do this they turned on the RUC and Brit army. Loyalist rioters not for the first time attacking the Crown. Petrol bombs pipe bombs, stones and bottles were used.
Around 9.00pm a number of shots were fired by loyalist gunmen and again pipe bombs could be heard going off. Countless now. At the Crumlin Road near the top of Brompton Park nationalist crowds stood off hundreds and hundreds of loyalists at Woodvale Road/Twaddle Ave. A crowd of loyalists then came out of a side street around 9.05pm and headed towards the Holy Cross Chapel. They took off when the nationalist crowds made down the road towards the loyalists. More gun shots were heard in the area. The targets once again were nationalists.
At 10.00pm more pipe bombs went off near nationalist Ardoyne and again at 11.10pm. (More than 30 pipe bombs have been used by loyalists since Saturday, September 22.) More shots were heard in the area.
Fighting went on at Alliance Ave and Ardoyne Road as loyalists attacked nationalist homes and as nationalists came out onto the streets. At one stage loyalists on the Ardoyne Road started to fight each other as the nationalists looked on over the riot-clad RUC and Brit Army who were in force with armoured cars and Land Rovers. Loyalism very confused within itself.
Loyalists burned a number of cars, vans and a bus at Cambrai Street and Ohio Street. Also in this area just off the Crumlin Road loyalist gunmen fired around 50 shots and pipe bombs were also thrown at RUC and Brits as confusedd loyalism attacks Brit Crown Forces.
As the night went on the rioting subsided.
A pipe bomb was thrown into the Brookfield Mill Complex in Belfast.
Bertie Ahern’s Dublin administration announced that Irish airports had been offered to the USA for use for refuelling military aircraft during any forthcoming war in the aftermath of the attack on America.
THURS. SEPTEMBER 27, 2001: The children and parents of Holy Cross once again gathered on the Ardoyne to walk to the school in heavy rain. They walked up the road through RUC and Brits in riot gear. As they passed through those lines the first thing they notices was that there were far less loyalists than there had been for some time. The sound of their air-horns, whistles and singing not as loud.
Afternoon. As the parents walked up to pick their children up again there was only a smaller group of loyalists than there had been for some time on the Ardoyne Road and as it was that morning the sound of the airhorns, whistles and singing was not as loud as it had been before.
1.00pm. A group of loyalists blocked the Crumlin Road at Brookfield Mill for a time. The same was repeated again at 2.00pm and this time loyalists once again attacked their own Crown Forces.
Loyalists used petrol bombs, bombs and gun fire against the RUC and Brit Army. Also used were fireworks.
Reports that a Protestant woman was shot by Republicans were untrue. The only gunfire was from loyalist gunmen and the woman’s leg wound was caused by a loyalist bullet.
Again, a number of cars and vans were burned out and a number of RUC men were hurt as loyalism went to war with those they claim to be their own Crown Forces.
A banner across Ardoyne Road is somewhat lost in the confused loyalism of today. It read “For God and for Ulster. God save the Queen”. Yet they attacked the Brit Crown. This trouble went on for some time before it subsided.
At Ardoyne groups of nationalists stood around a number of interface areas as part of the defence of the area.
FRI. SEPTEMBER 28, 2001: Once again the children of Holy Cross walked the route up Ardoyne Road to school and as before they walked through the lines of riot-clad RUC and Brits, through the armoured cars and face-to-face with the loyalist bigots growing even smaller in number but not in hate for the nationalist neighbours. Holy Cross hadn’t a full day to do this Friday and were out of school before 2.00pm.
The loyalists of Glenbryn had planned for a protest for Ardoyne Road at the time the children always get out — 3.00pm. When the children came down from school at 2.00pm there were only 15 loyalists on the Ardoyne Road. At 3.00pm when a few hundred loyalists turned up the children and parents had been well away from any danger that may have been caused to them.
The fact that the school had already planned to let the children out early on Friday before the loyalist protest was ever called must be pointed out. It had nothing to do with the protest. But still there was the general feeling that the bigots were left with egg on their faces.
Around 7.00pm the loyalists again blocked the Crumlin Road at Brookfield Mill. Up until 10.00pm there was no trouble in the area but tension was very high.
Republican Sinn Féin members in north Belfast were among a number of people from north Belfast who were informed by the RUC that they were on a loyalist death list.
They were told that the threats came from the Red Hand Defenders ( cover name for most loyalist death squads, UDA/UFF, UVF/RHC), who were said to have names and addresses and vehicles, information only the RUC and British Crown Forces in general could have.
Martin O’Hagan, A journalist who worked for the northern edition of the Sunday World newspaper, was shot dead by a loyalist death squad gunman at Wheatfield Gardens close to his home in Lurgan, Co Armagh. The killing was claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, a cover-name for the LVF and the UDA.
Seven students were injured in an attack on their school bus in north Belfast when a block was thrown through a window of the bus, which was taking the children to Hazelwood Integrated College. The pupils, aged between 12-16 years, were taken to hospital for treatment. No one was seriously injured in the attack. It was the latest in a series of attacks on school buses in north Belfast area in recent weeks.
SAT. SEPTEMBER 29, 2001: Trouble in a number of interface areas of north Belfast, minor to that of previous days.
SUN. SEPTEMBER 30, 2001: Heavy rioting took place at Limestone Road when loyalist crowds attacked nationalist homes on the Limestone Road and Newington Street.
Bricks, bottles, stones and fireworks were used, many of the fireworks doctored and in fact were small bombs. Fighting between nationalist street fighters and loyalist rioters was heavy and running battles took place. A child with her mother in the nationalist Newington Street was hit in the face with a brick when the loyalists first attacked the Newington area. As the fighting went on a number of people were injured.
The loyalist rioters were driven back by nationalist street fighters as British Occupation Forces flooded the area. Tension was high in the area.
Around 5.00pm, loyalist crowds attacked nationalist areas at Duncairn Gardens, North Queen Street, Unity and Carlisle Circus. Again nationalist street fighters battled with loyalist rioters in heavy fighting, in which a number of windows were broken in loyalist houses. A number of people were injured.
After a time British Occupation Forces flooded the area and went into the nationalist Unity Flats in a heavy-handed manner, beating people as they did so.
At around 10.00pm fighting broke out on the Crumlin Road between loyalists and nationalists. The area was filled with tension but only minor trouble ensued.
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