Sectarian attacks/incidents in Northern Ireland for April 2001
From: Pat Finucane Centre
The following list of sectarian incidents and attacks is from 01 through 30 April 2001. We rely on a number of sources for our information, but this is by no means comprehensive. If you find incidents that have been left off the list please contact us. A full dossier of sectarian attacks from January 1999 until March 2001 is available on our website at www.serve.com/pfc. We apologise for the delay in the publication of this list, which was caused by the pressures of work currently being carried out by the PFC.
April 1, Sunday. Loyalists petrol bombed the home of a Catholic man in Birchill Park, Antrim, the second attack on his home in less than 24 hours. The victim has said he will now leave Antrim. The attacks, believed to have been carried out by the UDA, were condemned by Sinn Fein and by the PUP. (IN)
The Orange Order resumed its activities at Drumcree Hill in Portadown on the 1000th day of the 'protest'. However, residents of the nationalist Garvaghy Road say that there has not been a continuous presence at Drumcree Hill since some time before the protest was 'called off' due to Foot and Mouth disease. The date also marked the resumption of the 'free Johnny Adair' campaign. Adair, the UDA/UFF leader now in jail for directing terrorism, was a prominent figure at last year's Drumcree protest. (AN) Thomas Lowry, a 4-year-old Protestant father of two, who was mistaken for a Catholic, was attacked and fatally injured by a loyalist gang in Glengormley, on the northern outskirts of Belfast. He was found lying in a laneway near Harmin's Parade. The gang that attacked him are also thought to have tried to abduct a man leaving St Enda's GAA club on the Hightown road. They then tried to run him over in a car. (IN, RUC) A number of Catholics were beaten by a loyalist mob in the New Lodge area of Belfast, including a 51-year-old woman who suffered a fractured skull, and a 14-year-old boy. The 51-year-old woman, Mary Campbell, later underwent surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, where surgeons found a piece of bone lodged in her brain. The gang were in a silver coloured car. (AN, IN, RUC) April 2, Monday. In reply to an invitation SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon told Portadown Orangemen that he would not meet them in his capacity as Northern Irish Deputy First Minister. He did, however, offer to meet them in his capacity as the SDLP's deputy leader, along with BrEDd Rogers, the SDLP's Assembly member for the area. David Jones of the Portadown lodge said that the Order would only meet Mallon as Deputy First Minister. (IN)
A woman who was hit in the head when loyalists threw a pipe bomb through her living room window escaped without serious injury. The device, which was thrown through the window of her Rathlin Drive home in Ballymena, failed to explode. (IN)
In Derry, nationalist youths threw five petrol bombs into the mainly Protestant Fountain estate. The devices fell short of nearby houses and no one was injured. (LS, RUC, DJ, IN)
April 3, Tuesday. Thomas Lowry, the 4-year-old Protestant electrician who was assaulted on the night of March 31/April 1 because he had been mistaken for a Catholic (see above), died from his injuries. (IN, RUC, BBC)
The judge at Belfast Crown court reserved judgement in the case of 30-year-old William Thompson, from Mourne Drive in the Waterside in Derry, who pleaded not guilty to setting fire to a house in Irish Street and to causing grievous bodily harm to its three Catholic occupants in November 1. Thompson's co-accused, Gareth Holmes, had pleaded guilty. A witness told the judge that he had seen Thompson outside the house minutes before the attack and told him to go home. The occupants, an 82-year-old woman and her son and daughter, were saved when neighbours spotted the flames and sent for the fire brigade. Protestant neighbours rallied round the family after the attack, which was widely condemned. (IN)
April 4, Wednesday. Following the presentation of a report by the UN Human Rights Commission, the UN special rapporteur on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges, Dr Param Cumaraswamy, insisted that the current investigation into the murder of Pat Finucane was inadequate. He was joined by the Irish Government and a number of human rights groups in expressing concern about state collusion into the murder of the Belfast solicitor. Dr Cumaraswamy also called for an independent inquiry into the murder of Rosemary Nelson. In his report it emerged that RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan had refused the UN access to previous unpublished investigations by John Stevens into the murder, the so-called Stevens I& II investigations. IN, PFC)
The RUC found parts of a pipe bomb in the yard of a house in Ebor Street, in the Donegall Road area of Belfast. (IN)
The Londonderry Sentinel reported that vandals had broken into St Columb's Cathedral in Derry and daubed IRA across the altar. The Dean of St Columb's, William Norton, confirmed to the PFC that vandals had scratched the letters IRA into the altar, but that it had actually happened while a group was on a tour of the historic Cathedral, the first cathedral to be built in Ireland or Britain following the Reformation. (LS, CW, PFC)
April 5, Thursday. Loyalists fired shots into the house of a Catholic family in Ardoyne, North Belfast. Henry Hayles, who was in his Alliance Avenue house with his four children , their grandparents and two aunts when the attack took place, said he believed he was the intended target. Mr Hayles had previously been subjected to pipe bomb attacks, death threats and attacks on his previous home. Mr Hayles says he has no political connections. A Sinn FEin spokesperson said that a number of Republicans living in the area had recently been told that their names were on a loyalist death list. Local sources believe the attack was carried out by the UDA. (IN, CW)
Nationalist youths threw eight petrol bombs over the 'peace line' dividing the nationalist Bishop Street area from the loyalist Fountain Estate, on Derry's Cityside. The incident was the most serious in a recent series of incidents spanning several weeks. Recently UDA banners were flown from a building on the peace line, and a loyalist type pipe bomb was left on Abercorn Road, on the nationalist side. (IN, RUC, LS, DJ, BBC)
April 6, Friday. Members of the Bellaghy Wolfe Tones Gaelic Football Club, returning from a trip to Tenerife, had their baggage slashed while it went through baggage handling at Belfast International Airport. They believe their bags were chosen because of the GAA logos on the side. In 17 the club's 61-year-old chairman, SeE1n Brown, was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries while locking the gates of the club. (IN)20
The funeral took place of Trevor Lowry (see above), the man mistaken by his attackers for a Catholic. Nationalists in the Glengormley area have been expressing concern for some time about the growing number of young Catholics who have been targeted for attack by gangs of loyalists. At a recent meeting particular concern was expressed at the pattern of carloads of loyalists driving around supposedly looking for Catholics. (IN)
Loyalists fired shots at a house in Alliance Avenue in Belfast, before driving off in a maroon-coloured Vauxhall Cavalier. The car was later found burning in the loyalist Ballysillan area. During follow-up searches the RUC found a pipe bomb and a number of weapons. Several arrests were made. (RUC)
A cross-community meeting held in the Fountain area of Derry as a result of recent attacks heard calls for a community forum to be set up to deal with the issue. The forum is to be comprised of residents from the Fountain, on the loyalist side, and from the Long Tower, the Bogside and the Brandywell, on the nationalist side. The RUC arrested a man for "assault and various public order offences" in connection with the incidents. Another man has been charged with throwing petrol bombs. (LS)
April 7, Saturday. The Andersonstown News reported that sources close to the UDA claimed that they are planning a "major summer offensive" against the Catholic population in an effort to help the Drumcree Orangemen down the Garvaghy Road. Graffiti in loyalist areas has appeared warning of Drumcree 2001 and posters warning of "no more Garvaghy Roads" have been put up on the Lisburn Road in Belfast. (AN)
April 8, Sunday. A "crude but lethal" device exploded outside a house in Hamiltonsbawm, Co Armagh. The device caused some structural damage without injuring the two small children inside, or their babysitter. (IN, RUC)
According to the RUC, twelve of their officers were injured when a fracas broke out after they attempted to stop a crowd from erecting a tricolour outside the Grouse Inn in Ballymoney. Six people were arrested. (RUC)
In north Belfast loyalist youths threw stones and paintbombs at children queuing to get tickets for the Ardoyne Fleadh. (NbelfN)
In Cliftonville Avenue in north Belfast a gang wielding hammers assaulted a 43-year-old Catholic man. (IN)
A leading Sunday newspaper reported that the conviction of former Royal Irish Regiment soldier William Thompson, to nine years for storing loyalist arms and explosives, would strengthen the case for a full and independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Rosemary Nelson. Thompson, who joined the then UDR in 18 and was given an 'exemplary discharge' from the RIR two months after the murder of Rosemary Nelson in March 1, was arrested in March 2000. The court had been told that material produced by the LVF, the UFF/UDA, the UVF and the British neo-Nazi Combat 18, some of which made disturbing references to Rosemary Nelson, had been found in Thompson's house. Links between units of the British Army, loyalists, and British fascists are well established. "By the time the UDR was disbanded in 12," explained the article "1 of its soldiers were serving time for sectarian murders. One of the Shankill Butchers was in the regiment and UDR soldiers were convicted of the Miami Showband murders in 175... In the 170s the National Front and the UDA declared common cause under the banner of British nationalism. (Enoch Powell, the man who fired British racists with his "rivers of blood" rhetoric, was Ulster Unionist MP for South Down from 174 to 187.) In 183 Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair was one of several leading loyalists photographed at a National Front Rally in Belfast ... After [Adair] was returned to prison, his wife, Gina, went to Downing street with a letter demanding his release. The British anti-fascist magazine Searchlight identified among those who came to support her members of C18 ... and, for good measure, a former Ku Klux Klan activist. ... Stephen Irwin, one of the UDA gunmen who carried out the Greysteel massacre in 13, also has C18 links. C18 has taken part in loyalist activities at Drumcree for several years now, joining forces with the LVF for "Blood and Honour" benefit concerts and Billy Wright commemorations in Portadown." (ST)
April 9 , Monday. St Gabriel's College
on the Crumlin Road was closed after vandals smashed 0 windows in the building.
The attack is believed to have been sectarian. (IN)
April 10, Tuesday. Seven people, including an RUC reserve constable, were arrested in Portadown as part of the probe into the Robert Hamill case being directed by the Police Ombudsman's Office. The arrests were criticised by DUP MLA Ian Paisley Jr. Robert Hamill, a Catholic father of three died after he was attacked by a loyalist mob in Portadown on April 27 17. Officers parked in a nearby RUC landrover refused to intervene. Charges against five of the six who were arrested soon after the attack were dropped. The sixth accused was acquitted of murder but charged with affray. He was released in 1. The RUC told the Irish News that the RUC reserve constable arrested by the Police Ombudsman's office would be suspended on full pay until the end of the investigations. For more details on the Robert Hamill case see our website: www.serve.com/pfc (IN)
The PUP's David Ervine said that he regretted that he and his UVF associates had not killed more republicans in the 170s. He made the comments during the Assembly debate on the presence of Easter Lilies (a republican symbol) in Stormont, which he was supporting. (IN, BBC)
April 11, Wednesday. Northern Irish First Minister David Trimble announced plans to explore the possibility of an 'Anti-Intimidation Unit' in the RUC to deal with paramilitary expulsions. The announcement follows a parliamentary report, which found that 1,600 people had been forcibly relocated since the ceasefires. The report recommended a commitment to dealing with the problem of unconvicted drug dealers moving to the top of the Housing Executive's waiting list because they had been expelled. The report also warned against attempts by paramilitaries to create "homogenous" communities. "Housing homogeneity appears to be a particular aim of the loyalist paramilitaries," it concluded. (IN)
DUP assembly member Jim Wells announced that he was submitting a motion to have the display of Easter Lilies removed from Stormont Parliament Buildings. Mr Wells complained that extra security had been laid on to prevent people from interfering with the floral display. Sinn FEin's Dara O'Hagan said the situation surrounding the lilies was an equality issue and demonstrated the lack of willingness among sections of unionism to accept nationalists as equals. (IN)
April 12, Thursday. Gunmen fired shots at the front door of a house in the mixed Dobbins Grove area of Armagh City. (IN)
Derry businessman Garvan O'Doherty, who helped broker the agreement between Bogside residents and the Apprentice Boys, criticised the Parades' Commission's decision to allow the loyal order's Easter parade to go ahead on the Lower Ormeau Road. The decision risked jeopardising agreement over the Apprentice Boys' August March in Derry, and was the result of the Commission reacting " to circumstances rather than creating solutions" he said. (IN)
The Office of the Police Ombudsman gave an SDLP delegation in Belfast timeframes for completion of investigations into the cases of Robert Hamill and aspects of the case involving the murder of Rosemary Nelson. Assembly member Alex Atwood said that he found the timeframes "reasonable". (IN)
The High Court in Belfast dismissed an application for a judicial review of the Parades' Commission's decision to allow the Apprentice Boys to march down the Lower Ormeau Road on Easter Monday. The application had been made by the Lower Ormeau Concerned Citizens [LOCC]. (PFC)
A petrol bomb was thrown at a house in Queen's Road, Antrim. The family of six who were living in the house were uninjured. (RUC)
April 13, Friday. It was reported that a pipe bomb had been discovered in Lower Main Street in Strabane. Although it turned out to be an elaborate hoax, Sinn FEin called on the RUC to clarify whether it was an "elaborate hoax on behalf of loyalists or just a prank." (DJ)
April 14, Saturday. Nationalist youths used baseball bats to attack cars parked outside the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall in Derry. (LS)
A 42-year-old window cleaner and a 16-year-old youth were charged in connection with the murder of Trevor Lowry (see above). The juvenile was charged with Mr Lowry's murder, while both were charged in connection with an incident minutes later in which a car full of people attempted to run over a man who was leaving a nearby GAA club. The RUC are still looking for two more people in connection with Mr Lowry's murder. His family have asked people who might know something that they are hiding to examine their consciences. (IN, RUC)
April 15, Sunday. The Apprentice Boys of Derry announced that, in the interests of the farming community, they were cancelling their annual Easter Monday (April 16) march due to the ongoing foot-and-mouth crisis. The march was to have taken place in Limavady this year. At the same time the Ballynafeigh lodge announced it was cancelling its feeder march down the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast for the same reasons. A spokesperson for the Apprentice Boys was adamant that the decision had not been reached because of the tension caused but "because of foot-and-mouth disease here, especially in the north-west. That's it. Full stop." There was widespread relief in the nationalist community. (IN, LS, DJ, CW)
April 16, Monday. Youths from Derry's nationalist Bogside threw stones at the Apprentice Boys' Memorial Hall, causing damage to a car parked outside. (DJ)
April 19, Thursday. The Derry News reported that the British broadcasting watchdog, the ITC, had cleared the ITV game show "Who Wants To be a Millionaire?" of anti-Irish racism. The body ruled that the question "Paddy is a nickname given to men or boys from which country?" asked by presenter Chris Tarrant, was justified. In March, the Channel 4 program "TFI Friday", presented by Chris Evans, featured a comedian who caricatured the Irish language as being like clearing one's throat. In February, in what was widely taken as a reference to the members of the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, the presenter on the BBC2 television programme "We Are History" said: "If a bunch of lefties can get some obviously guilty Irish people off the hook, let's see what we can do for Richard III." The BBC said that complaining viewers had "misunderstood" the comments. (DN, IN)
The RUC arrested several people in connection with stone throwing incidents at the Craigwell Avenue/ Church Street interface area in Portadown. Nationalists have expressed concern at the increasing incidence of sectarian attacks in the area. (IN)
The RUC recovered a number of weapons after searches on houses in Antrim. (RUC)
Portadown Orangemen vowed to continue their protest at Drumcree in spite of the foot-and-mouth crisis. (IN)
April 20, Friday. In Belfast Magistrates Court a man was charged in connection with the RUC discovery of a loyalist bomb factory in the UVF stronghold of Mount Vernon in February. (IN, RUC)
April 21, Saturday. Sinn FEin in Derry blamed the UDA for the rise in the number of threats against republicans in the north west. The spokesperson urged local republicans to be vigilant, highlighting the fact that almost one third of all recent pipe bomb attacks had taken place in the Derry area, and criticised the RUC's reaction to the threats. (IN)
April 22, Sunday. Ireland on Sunday reported that the UDA had issued a threat to "retaliate" against "nationalist attacks" on the Tiger's Bay area in north Belfast. Sinn FEin's Gerry Kelly described the claim as utter nonsense. The only attacks in the area recently were carried out against nationalists, including a 51 year old Catholic woman who was attacked with pick axe handles and had to be treated in hospital. (See April 1) (IN, AN, IoS)
Shots were fired into the living room of a house in Conlig and a pipe bomb was then thrown into the room. A man and a woman inside the house escaped before it exploded. (RUC)
In Armagh gunmen fired a shot into the living room of a Woodford Place house where the Catholic occupant and his three companions were sitting. All were uninjured. The incident follows a shooting and a petrol bomb attack in the mixed Dobbins Grove estate. (IN)
April 24, Wednesday. The British Ministry of Defence obtained a court injunction to prevent the showing of a UTV Insight documentary on the activities of the British Army's Force Research Unit (FRU). The programme is said to contain allegations that the unit ran agents within the IRA knowing they were engaged in illegal activities, including the killings of civilians and members of the security forces. The London-based British Irish Rights Watch have forwarded a report on the banning of the programme to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion. Further details, and a copy of the BIRW report, 'Shooting The Messenger', can be found on our website at www.serve.com/pfc.20
April 25, Thursday. The trial of William Stobie, the RUC Special Branch informer accused of aiding and abetting in the murder of Pat Finucane, faced collapse following reports that one of the key witnesses may withdraw. The case was adjourned for four weeks to allow the crown to obtain medical reports on the witness in question, former journalist Neil Mulholland. (IN)
In the Londonderry Sentinel the DUP's Gregory Campbell blasted claims made in a letter sent by a Northern Ireland Statistics and Research agent to the effect that Derry is now the official name of the city.20
April 27, Friday. Belfast crown court was told that the main culprits behind a "vicious and cowardly" attack, which left Irish League footballer Jackie Coulter on a life support machine, were still at large. Coulter and his teammates, Dean Gordon and Andy Beattie, were leaving Larne's Inver Park soccer ground on April 2 2000 when they were set upon by a gang of drunken youths who mistook them for Catholics. (IN)
Army bomb experts defused a pipe bomb on the road between Annalong and Newcastle. (RUC)
April 28, Saturday. The Andersonstown News reported that the Housing Executive had been accused of "blatant discrimination against Catholics" after they announced a A3600,000 package to ten "problem" areas to carry out audits of need. "Estates like Poleglass, Twinbrook, and Lenadoon will not be included in the scheme, as they do not hold one empty house thanks to the overwhelming demand for housing in Catholic areas" the newspaper said. (AN)
A Catholic family living in Dunluce Avenue, off the Lisburn Road in Belfast, was evacuated when an unexploded device was discovered in the living room of their home. It had been thrown through their front window sometime during the night. Loyalists are thought to have been to blame for the device. (AN)
April 27, Friday. Information on over 80 republicans and nationalists was discovered on a computer disc belonging to a man connected to an as yet unnamed loyalist organisation. The man had appeared at Belfast's magistrate's court on Saturday 21 April, where he was charged with possessing information likely to be of use to terrorists. Republican sources complained that the RUC would not give them any information about the source of the threats. (IN, RUC, RM)
April 30, Monday. Three days before the 25th anniversary of the loyalist murder of Seamus Ludlow in Co. Louth, his family revealed that the Northern Irish Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, has agreed to review the RUC's investigation into the murder. See our website www.serve.com/pfc for details on the Seamus Ludlow case. (IN)
Sources:
AN: Andersonstown
News.
BBC: BBC radio
and television news, BBC online, Radio Foyle.
CW: Local community
workers.
DJ: Derry Journal.
DN Derry News
IN: Irish News.
IOS: Ireland on
Sunday.
LS: Londonderry
Sentinel.
NBelfN: North Belfast News
PFC: Pat Finucane
Centre.
RM: RM Distribution.
RUC: RUC website.
ST Sunday Tribune.