Trouble flared in North Belfast on Wednesday after Holy Cross parents were abused and attacked by loyalists, a provocation followed by attacks on the school itself and then on nationalist Ardoyne by loyalist mobs. Free article

"The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann sends New Year greetings to our Volunteers, imprisoned comrades and supporter at home and abroad. Free article

The RUC/PSNI have welded closed a gate used by nationalist residents as an escape route from loyalist attack. Free article

Two incidents, one just days before Christmas and the second on 5 January, saw RUC/PSNI members carry out acts of unwarranted harassment against teenagers in West Belfast. Free article

Former British secretary of state Peter Mandelson has said that the IRA are freedom fighters and not terrorists. His admission, which was rather surprising given his strong unionist bias whilst in office in the Six Counties, was made during a Channel 4 documentary shown on 29 December about the 11 September attacks in America and provoked a furious response from unionists and British conservatives, forcing him into an almost immediate retraction. Free article

The British Conservative government under Edward Heath introduced internment in 1971 because it feared the imminent collapse of British rule in the Six Counties Free article