It has been a dreadful week. Serious trouble in North Belfast sparked by loyalists last Wednesday culminated in the shooting dead of a Catholic postal worker on Saturday by the UDA and with death threats hanging over Catholic teachers and postal workers. Free article

The roots of last week's serious rioting in north Belfast lie firmly in the ongoing scandal of sectarian persecution at Holy Cross school. Despite repeated assurances from loyalist community leaders and politicians that the harassment of pupils and parents would stop, the attacks began again from the very first day of the new term, Monday 7 January. Indeed, the head teacher of Holy Cross, Anne Tanney, telephoned the RUC the same day to inform them that that was the case, but it seems that she was ignored. Free article

In a controversial decision on Tuesday 15 January, Belfast coroner John Leckey granted anonymity to all the RUC and British Army witnesses involved in the operation that lead to the death of IRA Volunteer Pearse Jordan in November 1992. Free article

On the eve of a meeting between British Secretary of State John Reid and Justice Henry Barron, chair of the Independent Commission of Inquiry set up by the Dublin government in January 2000, the families of those killed in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings have expressed their deep concern at the lack of cooperation by the British despite many requests. Free article

A loyalist attempt to kill a former republican prisoner in Ballycastle was foiled after a neighbour of the man stumbled on masked men behind houses in the Knockglade area of the North Antrim town. Free article

Tommy Bunting was struck by an RUC/PSNI Land Rover on the Crumlin Road in North Belfast last Wednesday, 10 January. Free article