Wednesday 1 March
Two weeks after the suspension of the North’s devolved institutions, Bertie Ahern tells the Dáil [Dáil Éireann is the Republic of Ireland’s lower House of Parliament] that he will consider reconvening the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation if the deadlock in the North continues.

Thursday 2 March 
An 18-year-old man receives a seven-year suspended sentence at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court for participating in training and drilling in the use of firearms in a Co. Meath Real IRA training camp.
A man is shot in both legs in North Belfast in a paramilitary-style punishment attack.

Friday 3 March 
Gerry Adams has what he calls “a frank and constructive meeting” at Government Buildings in Dublin with Bertie Ahern. He reaffirms that the onus is on the British Government to restore the institutions in the North if it wants to put the peace process back on track.
A British Government spokesman announces that President Clinton’s senior advisor on Northern Ireland is to take part in another round of talks between the North’s political parties. The talks are to be led by the Secretary of State and the Irish Foreign Minister before Northern Ireland’s senior politicians travel to the US for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. 

Saturday 4 March 
The deputy leader of the SDLP, Séamus Mallon, complains that nothing has been done by the British Government since the suspension to revive the flagging peace process. 
In the wake of the publication by the Home Office of a report claiming that the Prevention of Terrorism Act should be retained because there is evidence that paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland are preparing to unleash further violence, an anti-Agreement UUP MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, criticises the Northern Secretary for not suspending the early release of IRA prisoners.

Sunday 5 March
The Taoiseach warns that decommissioning is not likely to occur if the Northern Ireland Assembly and power-sharing executive are not re-instated.

Monday 6 March 
The UUP and the SDLP jointly urge the two Governments to convene round-table talks to break the political logjam.
An Alliance delegation meets the Irish Foreign Minister in Dublin.
John Bruton, the Republic of Ireland’s leader of the opposition, expresses concern over recent suggestions by the Taoiseach and other Irish ministers that the IRA should no longer be urged to decommission but to disband. This he says would hinder the peace process as it would be impossible to verify disbandment.

Tuesday 7 March 
In a libel court action before the High Court in London, David Trimble indignantly dismisses allegations that he was involved in killings of Catholics by loyalist paramilitaries in his own constituency in the 1970s.
Peter Mandelson announces that the two Governments are to put in place bilateral and multilateral meetings between the parties so that the institutions can be revived at the earliest opportunity.
Clinton’s special advisor on national security, Jim Steinberg, meets with political parties in what Gerry Adams describes as a “listening mood.” 
The President of Sinn Féin confirms that his party has plans to meet with the UUP before Northern Ireland’s leading politicians all leave for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington. 

Wednesday 8 March 
The Secretary of State has separate meetings with all the pro-Agreement parties. Later on, the parties all meet together (for the first time since the suspension) with Peter Mandelson and Brian Cowen for multi-party talks which last only one hour and are afterwards described as “symbolic rather than constructive.” David Trimble calls for a review of the peace process but Gerry Adams again accuses the Secretary of State of pursuing “a unionist agenda” and calls for an immediate restoration of Northern Ireland’s devolved government.

Thursday 9 March 
The shipyard Harland and Wolff warns its 1,745 workers that because it has failed to secure the order for a new super-liner, the Queen Mary II, from the cruise-line company Cunard, they could be out of a job in three months’ time owing to lack of orders. Harland and Wolff says that the financial support that the British Government offered was “too little, too late.”

Friday 10 March 
Tony Blair refutes claims by the chief executive of Harland and Wolff that the British Government offered too little too late to help the ailing shipyard win the £400-million order for the Queen Mary II, the biggest cruiser ever launched.
In an hour-long interview with Irish radio, Peter Mandelson says that, given good will and good faith on both sides, the suspended Stormont institutions could be reinstated by Easter.

Saturday 11 March
The Northern Ireland Secretary dismisses a call from the Conservative defence spokesman that he should apologise to the families of soldiers killed by terrorists in Northern Ireland for describing the Household Division of the British Army as “chinless wonders” in a RTÉ Radio interview.

Sunday 12 March 
The Minister for Foreign Affairs says it is essential to boost confidence in both communities by decommissioning and reducing British military presence.
Speaking at a rally in West Belfast, Gerry Adams says the North’s devolved institutions should be reinstated immediately and denounces once again “a situation that Ireland votes and Britain vetoes.” 
The Taoiseach tells an Australian audience that while it is essential that all paramilitaries should decommission their weapons, the North’s institutions should be reinstated because peace cannot be achieved without them.

Monday 13 March 
Speaking in Australia, the Taoiseach says that the British Government should cut the numbers of troops in Northern Ireland’s border areas to bolster confidence in the peace process. 
Gerry Adams tells a republican rally that he is prepared to “offer the hand of friendship” to the UUP, but that the devolved institutions must be restored immediately.
The Garda Commissioner, Pat Byrne, says that the perpetrators of the Omagh bombing may never be charged because of difficulties in obtaining concrete evidence. He goes on to say that he thinks the Real IRA did not set out to kill on a mass scale in Omagh. His remarks cause a huge outcry from the victims’ families.

Tuesday 14 March 
The Mid-Ulster MLA, William McCrea, leads a DUP delegation to Dublin to protest at the continuation of cross-border bodies despite the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Speaking in West Belfast, Gerry Adams says that the May deadline can no longer be contemplated. He adds that a breakthrough is most unlikely and that British demilitarisation of Northern Ireland is part of the Good Friday Agreement and must be implemented. 
Speaking in Canberra, the Taoiseach says there is little hope that the Washington talks between the US President and Irish politicians will produce any immediate result.
Denying Sinn Féin’s claims that nothing has been done towards demilitarisation, a British Army spokesman says that a third of bases have been closed and that troops levels on the ground are at their lowest level since 1970. He defends the high security measures in south Armagh (which Sinn Féin wants to see lifted) as indispensable in view of the paramilitary threat there.
A 26-year-old man — the sixth victim of paramilitary attacks in as many days — is shot in the legs by a gang of armed and masked men in Belfast. 
Mo Mowlam receives a peace award in New York for her role in the peace process. 

Wednesday 15 March 
The British Government rejects calls from human-rights activists and the Nelson family for a further independent international inquiry into the murder of the Catholic solicitor, Rosemary Nelson. [Mrs Nelson was killed on 15 March 1999 by the loyalist Red-Hand Defenders and there have been claims among nationalists of RUC collusion. A team of 20 RUC officers and 45 non-RUC personnel is already investigating the murder.] 
Speaking at Dublin airport on his way to Washington, Gerry Adams says the Agreement is in tatters.
Northern Ireland politicians from both sides of the political divide mingle at a reception given in the evening by the American Ireland Fund in Washington to honour Pat Hume and Daphne Trimble’s work on behalf of the victims of the conflict. Although many hope that the presence of all major politicians in Washington is likely to improve the atmosphere, no one really expects a breakthrough.

Thursday 16 March 
The escalation of violence in Northern Ireland, where punishment attacks have been averaging one per night for a year, catches the attention of David Trimble in Washington. He says that it signals splits within the IRA and a rejection of the Good Friday Agreement and calls on Sinn Féin to use its influence to end the attacks. [It is true that more than half of punishment attacks have taken place in republican areas of Derry, Belfast and Co; Tyrone, but the rest have occurred in loyalist areas of Belfast.] Speaking at the British Embassy in Washington, Peter Mandelson says that all sides must compromise if the deadlock is to be overcome. He goes on to say that dissidents still pose a threat to security as witnessed by the arrest of two men and the seizure of explosives in Hillsborough on 15 March.
Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the RUC Chief Constable, announces that troop numbers in the North are to be further reduced to less than 14,000, a decision which is criticised by unionist politicians.
A man is charged with LVF membership and firearms offences at Banbridge, Co. Down, magistrates’ court.

Friday 17 March 
Three men linked with the Real IRA, the dissident republican splinter group, are arrested by the RUC on the outskirts of Belfast. They are questioned about transporting more than 200 kilograms of homemade explosives. Peter Mandelson warns that dissident paramilitary organisations continue to be a real danger to the peace process.
Speaking in Washington, the UUP leader, David Trimble hints that he might re-enter power-sharing with Sinn Féin even without the IRA surrendering its weapons. “I have made it clear that we are prepared to be involved in a fresh sequence which will probably not involve arms up front but it has to involve the issue being dealt with, it has to involve the matter working, ” he says. He goes on to say that such a plan would require a clear commitment from republicans that the war is over and that violence is finished for good. His remarks are described as helpful by the Taoiseach and John Hume but attract stinging criticism from all anti-Agreement unionists. President Clinton, who is hosting the last St Patrick’s gathering of his presidency, meets the leaders of all Northern Ireland political parties who have travelled to Washington for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Scuffles break out in Kilkeel in Co. Down when loyalists confront an Ancient Order of Hibernians’ St Patrick’s Day Parade.
The Parades Commission imposes restrictions on a St Patrick’s Day Apprentice Boys’ parade (loyalist) and on the Lurgan Martyrs Flute Band (nationalist) in Lurgan.

Saturday 18 March 
The UUP’s security spokesman, Ken Maginnis, endorses his leader’s statement on the possibility of a new executive without prior IRA decommissioning on condition republicans outlined their decommissioning schedule before re-taking their seats in the executive. Gerry Adams, for his part, remains deeply sceptical about David Trimble’s sincerity.
The Orange Order calls for an inquest into the deaths of the Quinn children in 1998 which it insists were not linked to its Drumcree protest of that year.
Disturbances involving loyalist and nationalist youths occur in Portadown, Co. Armagh. 

Sunday 19 March
Peter Robinson, the deputy leader of the DUP, again attacks David Trimble for hinting that he would soften his stance on decommissioning. He says that the UUP leader is completely out of touch with the thinking of the unionist community.

Monday 20 March
On his return from Washington, David Trimble faces a meeting with his deputy leader, John Taylor, and the prominent anti-Agreement UUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who want him to clarify the hints he dropped in Washington that he was prepared to reactivate the peace process by going back to the power-sharing executive ahead of IRA decommissioning. David Trimble denies any softening of his stance on IRA decommissioning. 
It emerges that both republican and loyalist paramilitaries have been carrying out at least six “punishment attacks” (kneecapping, shootings in the legs or feet) in Northern Ireland in the past week.

Tuesday 21 March 
In a nine-page speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Peter Mandelson insists that while a solution cannot be foisted on the parties, the two Governments are as committed as ever to revive the North’s institutions as soon as possible. He never once uses the word “decommissioning,” but demands that the pro-Agreement political parties answer the following questions: “How can we all be sure, now that the guns are silent, that they will stay silent and that any threat of a return to war has gone for ever? And how can we maintain the political progress made under the Good Friday Agreement so that all parties feel it is being implemented in ways that are consistent with the principle of consent?”

Wednesday 22 March 
Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator meets the Irish foreign Minister, Brian Cowen, in Dublin. After the meeting, Martin McGuinness declares that the British Government do not have “the foggiest clue” where they are going in the process. He again urges the British to reinstate the institutions, which he claims were illegally suspended.
Gerry Adams says that the promotion of the British paratrooper Lee Clegg to corporal from lance corporal is a further insult to the families of the two joyriders he killed in . Clegg’s conviction for the murders was quashed by the Court of Appeal in early .
Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Mary Freehill, invites the Orange Order to march in the city centre in May. The Dublin Sinn Féin City councillor Larry O’Toole says his party will organise “a non-violent and dignified protest” against the parade, the first since 1937.
The nationalist Irish News reports that the RUC Chief Constable does not approve of anti-Agreement unionists who want to make the re-establishment of the Assembly contingent on amendments to the Patten Report on RUC reform. 

Thursday 23 March 
The Rev. Martin Smyth announces that he will be challenging David Trimble’s leadership of the UUP at the UUP’s meeting on Saturday 25 March. He defends his move by arguing that it is time someone promoted unionist policies more vigorously. David Trimble says that he hopes the meeting will “clear the air and unite the party.”
The Taoiseach and the British prime Minister hold talks on the fringes of a European summit in Lisbon.

Saturday 25 March 
The Ulster Unionist Council, the UUP’s 858-strong ruling body, meets at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. Traditionalist Unionists or, in Sinn Féin parlance, “rejectionists” (i.e. anti-Agreement UUP members) deal a damaging blow to the peace process and to David Trimble’s authority by giving 43.3 percent support to his challenger, the Rev. Martin Smyth, in the leadership contest that takes place on the occasion (the first such contest in five years). With his slender 56.7 percent David Trimble fails to win a clear endorsement of his handling of the Northern Ireland peace process and will as a consequence find his room for manoeuvre severely curtailed in the future. Most political analysts are of the opinion that David Trimble’s imprudent comments made on St Patrick’s night in Washington, namely that the IRA would not necessarily have to surrender its arsenal up front in order to allow Sinn Féin into another executive, was a gesture too much for many of his rank-and-file, who have never stomached the Agreement. [The Rev. Martin Smyth, a Presbyterian minister who was Grand Master of the Orange Order from 1972 to 1997, is the UUP’s Westminster chief whip. He has been the MP for South Belfast since 1982 and has taken an uncompromising stance against the Good Friday Agreement and power-sharing with Sinn Féin.] The Ulster Unionist Council deals another blow to the peace process by voting — largely because of the block votes of the Orange Order and the Young Unionists — to link the party’s return to a power-sharing executive to the retention of the RUC’s name and symbols, a move which is criticised by the RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan, his predecessor Sir Jack Hermon and a Conservative peer, Viscount Cranborne. What the linkage vote really means is that many UUP members think that the price of devolution is too high and as a consequence prefer the status quo of direct rule. If the vote is abided by, it means that David Trimble will not be allowed by his party to form a new power-sharing executive if the RUC’s name is changed to the “Police Service of Northern Ireland,” as the Patten Report recommends. 

Sunday 26 March 
In A BBC television interview, Peter Mandelson expresses his disappointment at the UUC’s decision to link its participation in a new power-sharing executive to the retention of the name and symbols of the RUC. He insists that the force policing Northern Ireland must become a “community-based police service” and should not be linked in any way to one particular political party. His comments attract much criticism from the UUP's deputy leader, John Taylor. 
Speaking on This Week , Séamus Mallon, the deputy leader of the SDLP, says the UUP is now hopelessly divided and urges its pro-Agreement members to split and form a new party. The UUP MP Willie Ross, speaking on the same programme, retorts that there can be no other executive if the RUC is not allowed to retain its name and emblems and that the Agreement died the moment the IRA refused to decommission. 
Around 2,000 people walk in a candlelit vigil to Londonderry’s Guildhall on the eve of the Saville inquiry.

Monday 27 March 
Britain’s second inquiry into the 1972 Bloody Sunday tragedy begins its public hearings in Londonderry’s Guildhall, with the promise that “the truth will be sought whatever the political consequences.” The fact-finding tribunal, which is chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate and is comprised of Lord Saville and two other judges, the Canadian William Hoyt and Sir Edward Somers from New Zealand, will re-examine the sequence of events, not try anyone. It has already spent £1.5 million in its first two years of existence, and is expected to publish its findings in another two years, by which time it is reckoned it will have cost around £100 million. [On Sunday 30 January 1972, “Bloody Sunday,” 14 male civilians died in Londonderry when British paratroopers opened fire on an illegal civil rights parade. The first inquiry, conducted immediately after the events by Lord Widgery, the then Lord Chief Justice, reported in April 1972. It cleared the Army of any criminal wrongdoing by concluding that the soldiers were fired on before they fired back, but it also found that “none of the deceased or wounded is proved to have been shot whilst handling a firearm or bomb.” With the nationalist community naturally fastening on this important caveat, the verdict has ever since been bitterly contested in Derry and the victims’ families have for twenty-five years been campaigning for the re-examination of the evidence.] 
Peter Mandelson hold talks with David Trimble.
The former Stormont further education minister, Sean Farren, calls on republican and loyalist groups to make a gesture to help advance the stalled peace process. He urges the two Governments to reconvene meetings involving all pro-Agreement parties. 
Martin McGuinness again calls on the Secretary of State to lift the suspension of the devolved institutions. Commenting on the UUP’s vote, he emphasised that decommissioning is not the problem. “The reality is that these people [UUP rejectionists] don’t want a Catholic about the place. They don’t want to share power. They don’t want an all-Ireland ministerial council. They don’t want a new policing service. They don’t want prisoner releases. They don’t want justice, equality and human rights for the nationalist people. That is the message they are sending us.”
Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Féin’s national chairman, says: “I think it’s time for all of us — republicans, unionists and loyalists — to come together. We will take all the guns out of circulation if we make politics work.”
The DUP's deputy leader, Peter Robinson, claims that the Good Friday Agreement no longer has any credibility as three-quarters of the unionist community oppose it. He urges the UUP’s “rejectionists” to leave the party and re-align themselves with other anti-Agreement unionists. [It is now certain that if the East Londonderry MLA, Pauline Armitage, were to leave the UUP, David Trimble could count on the support of only 26 of the 28 UUP MLAs. Peter Weir, the anti-Agreement Foyle MLA, had the party whip withdrawn from him for defying the UUP and SDLP’s plan for the structures of devolved government.]

Tuesday 28 March 
Gerry Adams leads his party’s delegation in his first meeting with Peter Mandelson since the St Patrick's Day celebrations in Washington. The Secretary of State also meets with a SDLP delegation.
John Bruton, the Irish Republic’s leader of the Opposition, steps up pressure for a new round of multi-party talks. He accuses the two prime ministers, Ahern and Blair, of contributing to the current stand-off by appearing to have divergences over February’s suspension of the Northern Ireland institutions.
Addressing a meeting of the Northern Ireland Institute of Directors, Peter Mandelson says that it is the republicans’ turn to make a gesture towards the unionists by recognising that the process of change is a “painful” one for many of them. He goes on to say there is no point in “swapping an alienated nationalist community for an alienated unionist one.”
David Trimble says that the May deadline for decommissioning is still achievable, but that while his party entered a power-sharing executive in December because it expected the IRA would disarm, it will now re-enter it only if there is certainty on IRA decommissioning.

Wednesday 29 March 
Responding to questions in the Dáil, the Taoiseach says that neither he nor the British Government see any prospect that paramilitary weapons will be decommissioned by the May deadline. In a speech delivered in Northern Ireland, the Secretary of State warns that the “window of opportunity” for the peace process is in danger of closing. He again calls on the IRA to declare that violence will never be part of Northern Irish politics again.
Responding to Peter Mandelson’s latest call on the parties to declare that the war is over, Gerry Adams insists that while republicans certainly do not want to go back to war, a return to violence cannot be prevented by simply stating that the war is over.
The Irish Victims Commissioner, [the head of the independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains], John Wilson, announces that he has authorised the Garda [the Irish Republic’s police] to conduct “a fresh and final search” for the remains of six of the “disappeared” [Northern Irish men and women killed and secretly buried by the IRA in the Republic in the 1960s and 1970s]. Three bodies were found in July 1999.

Thursday 30 March 
David Trimble, who said earlier this week that he was ready for a direct meeting with the IRA, reaffirms that he is willing to re-enter a power-sharing executive with Sinn Féin before IRA decommissioning, on condition that the organisation states clearly that it will disarm. 
The body set up under the Good Friday Agreement to review the current Northern Ireland criminal justice system — which should have handed in its findings by autumn 1999 — issues its long-awaited report. The 447-page Criminal Justice Review Report spells out legal reforms prompted by the Agreement. Among its 294 proposals are:
- a radical overhaul of the prosecution service and the setting up of a new independent prosecuting authority;
- the setting up an independent commission with the responsibility of appointing judges; 
- the removal of Crown emblems from inside Northern Ireland courts;
- the creation of a new Department of Justice for Northern Ireland; 
- the replacement of the Royal oath by a judicial oath.
The Report is broadly welcomed by the SDLP and by the pro-Agreement wing of the UUP but criticised by the anti-Agreement UUP and, not surprisingly, the DUP. The Secretary of State announces a six-month consultation period, after which the Government is expected to act on its recommendations. 

Friday 31 March
The Taoiseach holds separate meetings with Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and with the UUP leader, David Trimble, at Government Buildings in Dublin.
The SF president and chief negotiator urge the Taoiseach to press for the immediate restoration of Northern Ireland’s devolved institutions.
Peter Weir, a leading anti-Agreement MLA is selected as the UUP’s candidate for the North Down constituency at the next Westminster election in preference to Lady Sylvia Hermon. He will stand against the present incumbent, Robert McCartney of the UK Unionist Party (UKUP).
Two men are shot in the legs in loyalist areas of the North (Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey).

Saturday 1 April
David Trimble makes history by being the first UUP leader to appear on RTÉ’s Late, Late Show, after having talks with Bertie Ahern at Dublin airport. He says he is confident that a way out of the impasse in Northern Ireland can be found. 

Sunday 2 April
Peter Mandelson urges the IRA to state that the war is over and to re-establish contact with the IICD. He says that a political solution must be found before the marching season begins.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Martin McGuinness says that his party and the Irish Government are trying to establish one last opportunity to save the Good Friday Agreement. He adds that because a majority of the unionist community supports the Agreement, David Trimble and the British Government should face down the UUP’s “rejectionists.” 

Monday 3 April
Gerry Kelly, one of Sinn Féin’s chief negotiators, says that there is now virtually no chance of the IRA surrendering its arsenal by 22 May. He adds that unionist insistence on imposing IRA disarmament as a precondition only served to push the target date further out of reach.
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry hears that the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) unaccountably destroyed rifles that were used by paratroopers on that day, in spite of the Inquiry Counsel’s repeated demands that they be preserved. 
It is announced that plans to create a science park in Belfast are to go ahead. The park, which will have close links with Belfast’s two universities (Queen’s University and the University of Ulster), is expected to be a major development in terms of wealth and job creation. 
Following a meeting of officials in London, informed sources report that both Governments envisage another period of negotiation at Easter in a bid to resolve outstanding issues.

Tuesday 4 April
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry hears a dozen witnesses give evidence that the Provisional IRA promised to stay away from the anti-internment march that took place on 30 January 1972. A former Official IRA quartermaster tells the Tribunal that if one of his men actually fired a shot he was acting against orders. 
After meeting Peter Mandelson at Stormont, the representative of Portadown’s Garvaghy Road Residents Committee (GRRC) says that he would like to know why “when there seems to be a crisis in unionism, the Government is so eager to bring Garvaghy Road into the equation.” The GRRC suspects David Trimble’s pro-Agreement unionists of trying to woo the Orange bloc within the UUC into rallying round their weakened leader by getting the Government to resolve the 22-month-old deadlock over Drumcree. 
A Co. Tyrone teenager, who was ordered out of Northern Ireland following IRA claims of “anti-social behaviour” in August 1999, returns to Belfast to attend his father’s funeral. As punishment attacks in republican areas continue unabated, he is told that his safety cannot be guaranteed once the funeral is over.

Wednesday 5 April
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg begins hearing allegations that British security forces and the RUC breached the European Human Rights Convention by operating a shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland during the 1980s and early 1990s. The families of victims claim that hundreds of Catholic civilians were killed arbitrarily instead of being arrested. The British Government rejects the allegations. 
Speaking at the UUP Women’s conference in Whiteabbey, near Belfast, David Trimble says that unless the decommissioning issue is resolved by 22 May (the date set in the Agreement for the completion of decommissioning) there is very little chance of a political settlement occurring in the next few years. 

Thursday 6 April
During the Commons debate on the Patten Report, unionist MPs urge the British Government not to introduce a number of proposed changes to the Province’s police force, the RUC (see 25 January). The Secretary of State says that most changes will be implemented only when the security situation allows them, but insists that the name will be changed to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Nobody is hurt in a bomb attack on a British Army security installation, Ebrington Barracks, in Londonderry’s Waterside area. It comes only six weeks after a failed attack on Ballykelly Army Base ten miles away and, like it, is thought to have been perpetrated by the Continuity IRA, the only republican paramilitary organisation which is not on ceasefire. The Taoiseach denounces the attack as “anti-republican” and David Trimble says that these attacks indicate that dissident republicans are “intent on a sustained bombing campaign.” 
At Londonderry’s Guildhall, the Saville Tribunal hears allegations that Martin McGuinness fired the first shot that precipitated the whole Bloody Sunday tragedy on 30 January 1972. Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator, who is reputed to have been the Provisional IRA commander in Derry at the time, rejects the claims from 1984 British security service documents as a “pathetic fabrication.” 
At a sitting of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights in Geneva, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers calls on the British Government to set up an independent judicial inquiry into the murders of the solicitors Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane.

Saturday 8 April
The President of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, tells his party’s Ard Fheis (conference) in Dublin that Tony Blair must reinstate the North’s devolved institutions immediately if he wants to salvage the peace process and prevent the return of violence. He reaffirms that Sinn Féin, for its part, remains committed to “taking all of the guns out of Irish politics.” The party’s chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin, tells delegates that there is no chance of progress unless David Trimble commands the support of the UUP and “gets it to move forward.” 
Martin McGuinness again denies allegations that he fired the first shot that precipitated the Bloody Sunday killings and says he is considering giving evidence to the Saville tribunal.
The delegates at the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland’s annual conference in Carrickfergus (Co. Antrim), urge their guest, the Secretary of State, to produce an initiative to break the current impasse. 

Sunday 9 April
Speaking on This Week Gerry Adams says that Sinn Féin’s entering a coalition government in the Republic is a matter of tactics and should not be ruled out . He also says that although the situation in the North is bleak, it could be improved if the British Government would behave like a government rather than as a “message boy for unionism.” The former health minister on the Belfast power-sharing executive (Bairbre De Bruin) and the only Sinn Féin TD (Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin) fail to win seats in elections to the party's Ard Comhairle. 
The RUC investigate of what appears to be the racially-motivated murder of a man of Chinese origin in Newtownabbey near Belfast.

Monday 10 April
Despite David Trimble’s gloomy forecast, informed sources report that the two Governments are poised to engage in another round of intense negotiations at Easter, the second anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Tuesday 11 April
The Saville tribunal hears allegations that British soldiers were just shooting at anything and that the only British soldier to have been injured actually shot himself accidentally.
Speaking in the Dáil, the Taoiseach says that the current meetings and contacts between the two Governments at official and political levels are to continue with a view to finalising a joint position on a way forward.
John Bruton, the Republic’s leader of the Opposition, calls on the IRA and all paramilitary organisations to publicly sign up to the Mitchell Principles which underlie the Good Friday Agreement, as all the pro-Agreement parties, including Sinn Féin, did in 1998. He says that it if this were done, the institutions could be reinstated without prior decommissioning . He calls on paramilitaries to bring punishment beatings to an end and urges the British Government to pledge that it will never again suspend the North’s institutions unilaterally.

Wednesday 12 April
Queen Elizabeth presents the George Cross [Britain’s highest civilian honour] to the RUC during a ceremony held at Hillsborough Castle and attended by the Garda Commissioner and the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh. In her brief address, she pays tribute to the gallantry and courage shown by the RUC, 302 of whose members have been killed and over 8,000 injured in the past thirty years. The presentation comes at a contentious time for the RUC and is criticised by sections of both communities: while republicans describe it as grossly offensive, some unionists see it as a sop to those of them who oppose the radical changes to the RUC recommended by the Patten Report. Relatives for Justice, an organisation of people whose relatives were killed by the RUC, stage a black flag protest at Belfast City Hall.
In the Commons, the Prime Minister also praises the Northern Ireland police force and suggests that while the Government is committed to legislating on its reform to make it more acceptable to nationalists, the proposal to cut its numbers from 13,000 to 8,000 may not be implemented until the security situation improves.
The independent Upper Bann MLA, Denis Watson, who was expelled from the UUP in 1998, joins the hardline anti-Agreement DUP. More defections from the UUP are expected in the weeks to come.
William Larmour, a UUP district councillor in Co. Tyrone, announces that he is resigning from the UUP and will in future be sitting as an independent on Cookstown District Council.
The RUC seals off the centre of Omagh for the fourth time in the last fortnight. The bomb alert again turns out to be a hoax.

Thursday 13 April
The Church of Ireland (Anglican) vicar of St Anne’s Church on Dublin’s Dawson Street refuses the Dublin Wicklow Orange Lodge a special service in his church following the 28 May Orange Parade in Dublin. He says that while he has no objection to an Orange Order Parade in Dublin, which he describes as a sign of “political maturity,” he does not want to reinforce the widely-held misconception that the Church of Ireland is linked to the Orange Order. 
The relocation of the 1st Battalion of the Prince of Wales’ own Regiment of Yorkshire to Chester in England means that there are now no short-stay battalions based in Belfast (as against 15 in 1972) and that the number of British troops in the North (below 14,000) is now at its lowest level since 1972.
Gerry Adams meets some of the Omagh victims’ relatives in a bid to counter claims that Sinn Féin is reluctant to help catch the perpetrators of the terrorist outrage. 
Sinn Féin doubles its vote in a by-election for Omagh District Council. Its candidate polls 3,757 votes, more than twice as many as its UUP rival and 2,500 more than the SDLP contender.

Friday 14 April
A survey compiled by the Police Authority for Northern Ireland shows that 44 percent of Catholics are now satisfied with the RUC, as against 37 percent in May last year.(The figures for Protestants stand at 83 percent and 73 percent respectively.)
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland warns that incidents of religious, racial, sex, age and disability discrimination are still commonplace in the Province (the Catholic unemployment rate, for instance, is still double that of Protestants).
A government survey released at the same time reveals that Northern Ireland suffers significant levels of anti-Asian and anti-black racism.

Saturday 15 April 
Speaking at a conference organised by the Friends of the Good Friday Agreement in London, Mitchel McLaughlin says that pro-Agreement unionists’ doubts about the IRA’s commitment to peace should be allayed by the fact that its ceasefire remains intact.
Séamus Mallon says that it is now clear that the IRA will not deliver on its part of the deal in the sense that unionists have been seeking over the past two years. 
Addressing the Construction Employers’ Federation’s dinner in Templepatrick, Co. Antrim, David Trimble says that while rejecting the Patten Report’s “unfair, anti-unionist whitewash,” he believes the reform of the RUC can be achieved in a balanced manner.

Sunday 16 April
David Trimble’s announcement that he is to propose reforms that might result in barring the Orange Order and other anti-Agreement groupings from sending delegates to the Ulster Unionist Council attracts criticism from Jeffrey Donaldson and other anti-Agreement MPs, who see this as an attempt to muffle opposition within the Party. [David Trimble wants to modernise the UUP by imposing a “one man, one vote” structure and reviewing its links with the Orange Order.]

Monday 17 April
An Irish Labour party delegation holds talks with the UUP, Sinn Féin and the SDLP in Belfast. Ruairi Quinn, the party’s leader, expresses concern over the political vacuum that has been created by the suspension of the North’s institutions and calls for immediate inclusive talks between all pro-Agreement parties.
The RUC investigate a sectarian arson attack on an Orange Hall in Rathfriland, Co. Down. 

Tuesday 18 April
The two Governments’ officials having failed to agree a common position after a busy week of inter-governmental communication, Tony Blair travels to Belfast on his first visit since last summer without any blueprint for a way out of the impasse. He holds separate talks, which partake of the listening exercise rather than of discussion, with all pro-Agreement parties and with the DUP at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast. 
After the talks, both the UUP and Sinn Féin are heard engaging in their customary exercise of exonerating themselves from guilt by blaming the current deadlock on the Irish and British Governments respectively. David Trimble urges the Irish Government to rethink its approach to dealing with republicans, which he says has not worked in the past three months. His message to Irish officials and politicians is that “offering carrot after carrot” is not the right way to go about it. Sinn Féin, for its part, accuses the British Government of “caving in” to the “unionist veto” and failing to face up to the “resistance to change” within unionism. It urges the Prime Minister to pledge that once reinstated, the North’s institutions will not be suspended again.
Presenting Tony Blair with an eight-point plan on how the impasse might be resolved, John Hume, the conciliatory SDLP leader, urges the Prime Minister to repeal the legislation suspending the Northern Ireland institutions and to pledge that the British will never again suspend them unilaterally. He also calls on all parties and on the two Governments to reaffirm that that they are committed to working constructively with General de Chastelain’s IICD.
David Trimble urges the Prime Minister to seek IRA disarmament if the peace process is to be put on track again. He says that both the SDLP and Sinn Féin’s demand that the institutions should never be suspended again is unsustainable.
He also criticises the SDLP for not applying enough pressure on republicans to surrender their arsenal.
Before travelling to Dublin to discuss the way forward, Tony Blair reminds his Northern Ireland interlocutors that the Good Friday Agreement is the “only show in town.”
Speaking in the Dáil, the Taoiseach tells opposition deputies that while the two Prime Ministers have a clear view of what is to be done, the problem is to get all the parties to agree with them.
The two Prime Ministers hold talks in Dublin in the evening.

Wednesday 19 April
In its traditional Easter message, the IRA reaffirms its commitment to the peace process but calls on the British Government to “accept and deliver on its responsibilities.” 

Thursday 20 April
The two Prime Ministers discuss the IRA’s statement and continue their talks at 10 Downing Street. The Taoiseach says that cooperation between the two Governments is excellent and Tony Blair’s spokesman that the Prime Minister is optimistic about the future of the peace process.

Friday 21 April
Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the RUC Chief Constable, orders an independent, “detailed and thorough” assessment of the police investigation into the Omagh bombing. [Both the Garda and the RUC seem to know the identities of the bombers but have insufficient evidence to bring charges against them.] 

Saturday 22 April
Gerry Kelly, the Sinn Féin negotiator, is told by the RUC that he is a loyalist murder gang target.
A nationalist band parade passes off peacefully in the Belfast Whitewell area when the marchers follow the alternative route prescribed by the new Parades Commission.

Sunday 23 April
Republicans commemorated the 84th anniversary of the Easter Rising at various venues throughout the country. Sinn Fein speakers called on the British to stand up to David Trimble and reinstate the North's political institutions. 
Speaking at the GPO in Dublin at the annual Easter Rising Commemoration, Sinn Féin's Chief Negotiator, Martin McGuinness says that unless the current political vacuum is filled soon, anti-Agreement groups could slide back into conflict.
The SDLP former Stormont minister, Sean Farren, also warns that a return to “Cold War” politics is to be expected if the Good Friday Agreement is not revived immediately. 
Speaking at an Easter Rising Commemoration in Derry, Gerry Adams says the onus is on Tony Blair, not the IRA, to save the Northern Ireland peace process. He goes on to say that the question is not to Sinn Féin about guns, but to the Prime Minister as to whether he has “the courage to unlock the future” by reinstating the north’s devolved institutions.
At an Easter Rising Commemoration in Milltown Cemetery in West Belfast, Ruairí O'Bradaigh, the leader of Republican Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Continuity IRA, describes Sinn Féin’s support for the re-establishment of the Stormont executive as a sell-out to unionists and the British.
In his Easter sermon at St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh, the Church of Ireland (Anglican) primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, urges politicians on both sides to break the current deadlock in the peace process as soon as possible.

Monday 24 April
Today, 24 April, is the date on which the Easter Rising began 84 years ago in Dublin.
Speaking at a Fianna Fáil Commemoration in Arbour Hill, the Taoiseach says he is determined to have the institutions agreed under the Good Friday Agreement functioning again in the shortest possible time.
The Apprentice Boys’ Parade, the first contentious parade of the “marching season,” passes off without incident in the Ormeau Bridge area in South Belfast, in the presence of Tony Holland, the new chairman of the Parades Commission. The small contingent of Apprentice Boys, which has been banned from parading along the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road, march from Ballynafeigh to the Ormeau Bridge.

Wednesday 26 April
An internal SDLP report leaked to Ulster Television says that because the party is seen to be too middle class and middle aged, it is in danger of losing its dominant position in the nationalist community to its rival, Sinn Féin. Speaking on RTÉ, the SDLP deputy leader, Séamus Mallon, confirms that his party is poised to introduce major changes in its structures and policies in a bid to strengthen its appeal for voters. The proposals include a campaign to attract younger and non-Catholic members, updating the party logo and changing the party’s name. 

Thursday 27 April
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Bureau calls on the Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, to clamp down on punishment beatings and shootings in the legs by paramilitaries or to resign. [Fifteen children under 18 have been the victims of kneecapping in the past three weeks.]
The Ulster Unionist MP for Antrim South since 1983, Clifford Forsythe, dies at the age of 70. 

Friday 28 April
The Parades Commission imposes restrictions on two loyalist band parades which are due to take place in Belfast and Lurgan on Saturday 6 May. 
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains announces that the searches for the bodies of six Northern Ireland victims of the IRA [the so-called “Disappeared”] will be resumed by the Gardaí in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday 2 May. It warns, however, that they will be discontinued after three weeks, whatever their outcome. [The previous searches were called off in July 1999 after seven weeks.]
Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Féin chairman, warns that unless the present approach to decommissioning changes, the IRA will never surrender its arsenal. 

Saturday 29 April
Copies of the Northern Ireland Police Bill embodying some of the recommendations of the Patten Commission are leaked to the public before its official publication. Its contents attract angry criticisms from both sides of Northern Ireland society. 

Sunday 30 April
Shortly before 12 am, the RUC prevents more than 200 Orangemen from entering the Garvaghy Road, where most of the Portadown’s minority Catholic population live. The Orange Order’s spokesman warns that the Drumcree march might not pass off quietly this year if it is re-routed again. [It was first prohibited from the Garvaghy Road in 1995, which led to loyalist stand-offs at Drumcree and to sectarian attacks and clashes with the RUC throughout Northern Ireland in the following years.]