June 1999

[May 1999] [Jul 1999]

Tue, June 1
Belfast City Council elected Marie Moore as deputy to new Lord Mayor, Cllr Bob Stoker of the UUP. Cllr Moore is the first republican to hold the post.

Sat, June 5
A protestant woman who was married to a catholic was killed in a pipe bomb attack on her home in the loyalist Corcrain estate in Portadown. Elizabeth OÕNeill (59) had lived on the estate with her husband and two children for 36 years. Dissident loyalists were blamed for the attack, as well as three others in Portadown and east Belfast. Proximity talks between the Garvaghy residents and Portadown Orangemen stalled, as the Orangemen accused the talks facilitator, Frank Blair of Scottish ACAS, of "complete bias".

Tue, June 8
14 pipe bimbs were found by RUC officers in the Mourneview estate in Lurgan, Co Armagh. A man was later charged. Police Federation chairman Les Rodgers claimed at the organiSation's annual conference that some lawyers, acaemics and human rights groups were part of "an evil conspiracy to vilify this police force", which was "being coordinated by Sinn Fein.

Thurs, June 10
Just over half the electorate votes in the European elections. The results would not be announced until the following Monday. The Irish Times reported that UUP deputy leader twice threatened to resign in the previous fortnight, over the candidature of Jim Nicholson. In the High Court in London, lawyers representing 17 Paratroopers present at Bloody Sunday argued that it was "unsustainable" of the Saville inquiry to deny anonymity to their clients. RTE's Prime Time claimed that RUC and UDR men were involved in the 1975 gun and bomb attack on a bar in Silverbridge, Co Armagh, which killed three people. The attack was claimed at the time by the Red Hand Commandos. The Presbyterian general assembly passed a motion calling on all sides to obey the rulings of the Parades Commission.

Mon, June 14
Ian Paisley topped the poll in the European election results, with 192,762 votes. John Hume was also elected on the first count, with 190,731. Jim Nicholson got 119, 507 first preference votes, and was elected on the third count. Mitchel McLaughlin got 117, 643 votes, folloWed by David Ervine (22,494), Bob McCartney (20,283), Sean Neeson (14,391) and James Anderson (998). Unionists blamed the IRA for the murder of Paul "Bull" Downey (37), an alleged drug dealer whose body was found in south Armagh on Sunday. The Methodist Church called for direct talks between the opposing sides over Drumcree. Two men were uninjured after shots were fired at them in Sandy Row, south Belfast. The PUP admitted that "it is more than likely that UVF personnel carried this out". The shooting was said to be connected to the 1997 killing of ex-UVF prisoner Bobby "Basher" Bates.

Tues, June 15
Tony Blair told secondary students at Belfast's Stranmillis College that "I am serious about this deadline. Either on July 1st we will move this process foward or we will have to look for another way forward". Later, the PM met the Orange Order and the Garvaghy residents.

Thurs, June 17
The High Court in London found against the Saville inquiry's decision not to allow Paratroopers anonymity at its hearings. Lord Saville's team said they would not appeal. The ruling was criticised by reklatives of the 14 victims of Bloody Sunday. IRA informer Martin McGartland was shot and seriously injured in Whitley Bay, in the north-east of England, where he had been living under an assumed name. He blamed the IRA for trying to kill him.

Fri, June 18
Three NI people were named by the Prime Minister as Working Peers in the House of Lords: John Laird, former UUP StorMont MP; Dennis Rogan, UUP chairman: and May Blood, Shankill community worker. Ballycastle SF councillor James McCarry became the first republican to get a gun licence, after the persopnal intewrvention of Mo Mowlam. There were several attacks on his Co Antrim home in the the previous two years. Paratrooper Lee Clegg was sentenced in Belfast High Court to four years for wounding with intent Martin Peake, after being cleared of the murder of Karen Reilly in the same incident in 1990. Clegg was released immediately, as he served the time in prison after being initially found guilty of Reilly's murder.

Mon, June 21
BBC's Panorama broadcast allegations that the RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan told the UN rapporteur, Param Cumaraswamy, that some lawyers Òwere working for a paramilitary agendaÓ. Sir Ronnie enied making the remark. The programme also alleged RUC collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.¥ A survey, commissioned by the Parades Commission, found that a clear majority of protestants and catholics agreed that the loyal orders should talk directly with residents groups and the Parades Commission. However, a clear mjority of protestants disagreed with the determinations reached by the Commission.

Thurs, June 24
The chair of the Decommissioning Commission, General John de Chastelain issued all the NI parties with a list of questions relating to their attitude towards disarmament of paramilitary weapons. The parties had until the following Monday to answer the questions, which asked about timing and "modalities" as well as a willingness to disarm. The Long March, to commerate victims of the troubles and paticularly the IRA, left Derry. The 10-day march ended at Drumcree on July 4th, and passed off without violence, despite nationalist objections. William Stobie (48), was charged with the murder of solicitor Pat finucane in 1989. Mr Stobie, a former member of the UDR, was said to have been the west Belfast quartermaster for the UFF. In court, his lawyers claimed he was a crown agent at the time of the killing.

Sat, June 26
The two prime ministers left StorMont for the weekend, planning to return on Monday for intensive talks.

Sun, June 27
The UUP leader, David Trimble, challanged Sinn Fein to get a pledge from the IRA to disarm by May 2000. Proximity talks between the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition and the Portadown Orangemen failed to reach agreement over the following Sunday's Drumcree parade.

Mon, June 28
Talks resumed at Stormont between the parties and the two goernments, but were overshadoWed by the Parades Commission's anticipated ruling on the Drumcree parade. Late in the afternoon, the Parades Commission determined that the Portadown Orangemen be banned from returning to Carleton St Orange Hall via their "traditional route" of the Garvaghy Road. The Commission also ruled that the "Long March" be rerouted away from nationalist areas of Lurgan, Co Armagh. The press conference, at the StorMont Hotel, was disrupted when a hoax bomb scare was telephoned. Alistair Graham, chair of the Commission, finished the press conference in the hotel car park.

Tue, June 29
The StorMont talks continued, with contradictory signals coming from the governments (optimistic) and the NI parties (pessimistic). Garda search units uncovered two bodies of the "disappeared" in a bog in Co Monaghan, after 30 days of digging for the remains of John McClory (17) and Brian McKinney (22). Both men were abducted and later shot by the IRA in May 1978, for allegedly stealing weapons.

Wed, June 30
There were indications from the two governments that SF had verbally condeded the obligation of the IRA to decommission weapons. However, unionist spokesmen continued to insist that actual disarmament must happen before or at the same time as the formation of an Executive.
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