The following list of sectarian and other hate-driven incidents and attacks is from 1 through 31 August 2003. The criteria we use for inclusion is based on the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) criteria; if a person/organisation feels that the motivation for an attack against them was sectarian (or racist or homophobic), then it should be counted as such. 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.
1 August, Friday. In the Donegall Road area of Belfast nationalist teenagers attacked an 11 year-old Protestant boy wearing a Rangers top. Adam Reid, who is deaf, ran on to a motorway to escape from his assailants who had ripped his shirt off and set fire to it. The situation escalated, and by evening time up to 40 nationalist and loyalist youths were engaged in a sectarian riot. (UTV, CW, SBN, PSNI)
2 August, Saturday. Sectarian rioting continued on the Donegall Road/Broadway interface in west Belfast. (UTV, PSNI)
3 August, Sunday. Loyalists chanting "Up the UDA" and "Get the Fenian bastards out" used rocks to attack the home of a north Belfast Catholic mother of six, smashing her living room windows and causing her a serious head wound for which she later received five staples. PSNI officers told the woman that the motive for the attack was not sectarian. (NBN, CW)
4 August, Monday. In West Belfast, members of the cross-community Springfield Intercommunity Development Project (SICDP) condemned the NIO for demolishing a brick wall and erecting a temporary wooden "peace wall" at the Springfield Road interface. Local sources said the structure could easily be breached or burned down. (IN, CW, BT)
In the same neighbourhood loyalists threw a hoax bomb at the home of Sinn Fein councillor Paul Butler. (CW, AN, UTV)
6 August, Wednesday. On York Street in north Belfast, two Catholic schoolboys boys were attacked by a group of older loyalists, which included a grown man, who made them recite the alphabet (the pronunciation of the letter "h" is alleged to determine which community a person belongs to!). One of the loyalists put a cigarette in one of the boys' eyes. The boys were then instructed by the older man to shout "Orange Bastards". (NBN, CW)
On Cambria Street, off the Shankill Road in west Belfast, city councillor Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), said that a group of men, believed to be dissident republicans from the Ardoyne, had attempted to abduct him. While the PSNI said they were investigating an "alleged incident", republican sources in north Belfast were sceptical about the veracity of the claim. (UTV, IN, BBC, PSNI, CW)
7 August, Thursday. Nationalist youths threw petrol bombs at houses in the mainly Protestant Fountain estate in Derry. The devices fell on waste ground. (PSNI, CW, DJ, LS)
9 August, Saturday. A gang of loyalists armed with baseball bats and iron bars attacked two Catholic men in the Leckagh Drive area of Magherafelt. Five men were later arrested. (UTV)
In Derry, nationalist youths rioted ahead of an Apprentice Boys (loyalist) parade in the city. A contentious "feeder" parade went through mainly Catholics parts of Ardoyne in Belfast. A man and a juvenile would later appear in Derry magistrate's court, charged in connection with petrol bombing. (UTV, IN, DJ, DN)
10 August, Sunday. Arsonists petrol bombed a flat in Braeside Gardens, Killyleagh, Co Down. The motive for the attack is unclear. (UTV)
Youths hurled racist abuse, bottles and stones at a group of black British tourists in a Chinese restaurant in the mainly loyalist Donegall Pass area of south Belfast. One youth was arrested. (IN, BBC, UTV, SBN, PA)
12 August, Tuesday. Loyalist arsonists gutted the nearly completed new home of a Catholic family near Desertmartin, Co Derry. The PSNI said they were treating the incident as sectarian. It was the seventh attack on the property since construction began. (IN, UTV, PSNI, PA).
13 August, Wednesday. A 31 year old man was charged with planting a pipe bomb outside a pub in Larne. (IN, UTV)
16 August, Saturday. Up to 500 loyalist bandsmen attacked two busloads of Celtic supporters on the Ballyclare Road near Glengormley outside Belfast after they had taken a wrong turn. The buses were attacked with bottles, bricks and stones. A number of adult passengers were injured, some of them while trying to shield some of the many children on board. Passengers complained that PSNI officers who were present throughout the attack had failed to intervene. Tommy Kirkham of the UDA-aligned Ulster Political Research Group said "who would turn a Celtic bus into the middle of a parade?" (AN, IN, CW)
An hour later loyalists pipe bombed a Catholic owned home in nearby Newtownabbey. (IN, UTV, PSNI, CW)
18 August, Monday. In north Belfast, a car carrying nationalists wearing Celtic tops tried to run 16 year-old Protestant Stephen McDonald off his scooter, according to Tommy Kirkham of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG). Stephen McDonald's older brother Thomas (then 16) was killed in September 2001 in a road rage incident in which a 33 year-old Catholic woman ran him down after he had thrown a brick at the windscreen of her car. (See September 2001). (UTV, PA)
19 August, Tuesday. Loyalists set fire to the stand at St Enda's GAA stadium in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. (IN, UTV, BBC)
20 August, Wednesday. Irish Travellers have reported over 200 cases to the Equality Commission since the Northern Ireland Race Relations Order in 1997, according to the Traveller Movement. (UTV, PA)
21 August, Thursday. The PSNI arrested a man in connection with the south Belfast sectarian attack on three Catholics, a man and two teenagers, on July 21, 2003. The three were attacked by a gang of up to 15 men armed with baseball bats, iron bars and a gun who shouted UDA slogans as they carried out the attack. (PA, UTV, SBN, PSNI)
23 August, Saturday. A group of loyalists attacked two Catholic youths on the Deerpark Road in north Belfast. Later in the same area the house of a Catholic woman came under attack (see August 30). (IN, CW, NBN)
PSNI in Downpatrick said they were treating as arson a fire in a flat on English Street. (UTV, PSNI)
24 August, Sunday. Vandals caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to St Andrew's Church of Ireland (Episcopalian) Church on Maghery Road in Portadown. (UTV, PA, BBC)
25 August, Monday. In Castlederg Co Tyrone, loyalist youths shouting anti-Catholic abuse attacked ambulance workers injuring one of them millimetres above her right eye. (IN, UTV, BBC)
Loyalist prisoners in Maghaberry Prison, Co Antrim, used a handgun to threaten republican prisoners whom they had assaulted during an attack in the prison. (UTV, BBC)
26 August, Tuesday. Arsonists set fire to the Dergview football club in Castlederg Co Tyrone. (UTV)
27 August, Wednesday. Loyalists were blamed for daubing the words "All Taigs our [sic] targets" at the entrance to the cross-community Colin Valley Golf Club in west Belfast. (AN, CW)
28 August, Thursday. Anne Brolly, the Sinn Fein Mayor of Limavady, Co Derry, backed party colleague Mitchell McLaughlin's calls for a public inquiry into the IRA's July 1972 triple bombing in Claudy, Co Derry, in which 9 people were killed. (UTV, BBC, IN)
A woman was treated for smoke inhalation after arsonists set fire to her Dunclug Gardens flat in Ballymena Co Antrim, for the third time in two weeks. (UTV, PA, PSNI)
29 August, Friday. A gang of up to 30 loyalist youths targeted several Catholic homes on the Deerpark Road in north Belfast, smashing their windows and driving their occupants out. At the same time another gang of loyalists attacked Catholic homes close to Alliance Avenue, daubing sectarian slogans and smashing windows. The houses were opposite a wall daubed with anti-protestant sectarian graffiti, which read: "Kill all Huns. The only good Hun is a dead 1. Ardoyne IRA" (AN, NBN, CW)
30 August, Saturday. The North Belfast News reported that a Catholic woman, whose Deerpark Road home had been the subject of successive UDA attacks, had finally moved out. The attacks included death threats, anti-Catholic graffiti on the walls of the house, windows and cars being smashed and the family cat having all four of its paws being cut off and being left to die. The woman said that neighbours pretended to know nothing of the attacks and that the PSNI had not responded appropriately to her calls for help. (NBN, CW)
In Lurgan, loyalists attacked cars carrying Co Armagh GAA fans home from the football semi-final in Dublin. A number of the cars were carrying children. (UTV, BBC, IN)
Sources:
AN: Andersonstown News
BT: Belfast Telegraph
BBC: BBC radio and television news, BBC online, Radio Foyle
CW: Local community workers
DJ: Derry Journal
DN: Derry News
G: Guardian
IE: Irish Examiner
IN: Irish News
IT: Irish Times
ITN: Independent Television News
LI: London Independent
LS: Londonderry Sentinel
NBN: North Belfast News
NL: Newsletter
NoW: News of the World
OB: Observer
PA: Press Association
PFC: Pat Finucane Centre
RM: RM Distribution
PSNI: Police Service of Northern Ireland (RUC) press office.
SBP: Sunday Business Post
SBN: South Belfast News
ST: Sunday Tribune
UPMJ: Ulster Protestant Movement For Justice website
UTV: Ulster Television