Key Events & Deaths on this day in Northern Ireland Troubles

5^th November

Tuesday 5 November 1968

Civil Rights Campaign

Sunday 5 November 1972

Maire Drumm, then vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF), was arrested in the Republic of Ireland. There is a ministerial re-shuffle of posts at the Northern Ireland Office (NIO).

Friday 5 November 1982

In the United States of America (USA) a court acquitted five men of charges of conspiring to ship arms to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during 1981. The men used the defence that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had approved the shipment of arms although this was denied.

Tuesday 5 November 1991

At a football match at Windsor Park in Belfast, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name (pseudonym) used by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), threw a grenade at the supporters of the Cliftonville team.

[Supporters of Cliftonville are perceived as being mainly Catholic. The UFF said the attack was in retaliation for the bombing on 2 November 1991.]

Sunday 5 November 1995

Gerry Adams, then President of Sinn Féin (SF), said that the British government had subverted the peace process to the point where it no longer existed.

Tuesday 5 November 1996

Bill Clinton won the American presidential election to secure a second term in office.

Wednesday 5 November 1997

There was a gun attack on the headquarters of Sinn Féin (SF) on Andersontown Road, Belfast. No one was hurt during the attack.

[It was later claimed that Brendan Campbell, an alleged drug dealer had carried out the attack. Campbell was killed by Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD), which is considered to be a covername used by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), on 10 February 1998.]

Dick Spring, formerly the Tánaiste (deputy Irish Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs), resigned as leader of the Irish Labour Party.

[Spring had proved a successful leader of the Labour Party and was a key figure in recent initiatives in Northern Ireland. It was believed that one reason for his decision to resign was the poor result achieved by the Labour candidate in the Presidential election on 30 October 1997. Ruairi Quinn was elected as the new leader of the party on 13 November 1997.]

Friday 5 November 1999

The Parades Commission issued a determination which re-routed a planed parade by the Orange Order on Poppy Day. The Orange Order had applied to march through the mainly Nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, County Armagh. Seamus Mallon, then deputy leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), made a speech at the party’s annual conference in Belfast.

Monday 5 November 2001

A man and a youth were injured in separate paramilitary ‘punishment’ shootings. The man (19) was shot in both legs in an attack in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, at approximately 7.15pm (1915GMT). In the other attack a teenager (16) was shot in one leg at Cavehill Road, north Belfast, at around 9.30pm (2130GMT).

The Northern Ireland Assembly met to debate the motion on the election of David Trimble as First Minister and Mark Durkan as Deputy First Minister. The move followed a series of meetings over the weekend between pro-Agreement parties and John Reid, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

[There was a plan that some MLAs from the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) would redesignate from ‘Other’ to ‘Unionist’, for a period of 24 hours, and vote in favour of Trimble and Durkan for the two posts. However, anti-Agreement Unionists used a procedural device (a ‘petition of concern’) to postpone the vote on the two motions although the actual debates could go ahead. The voting on the two motions took place on Tuesday 6 November 2001.]

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) took legal action in Belfast High Court against John Reid’s decision not to call fresh elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The deadline for the election of a First Minister and a Deputy First Minister had been midnight on Saturday 3 November. The action was dismissed but the DUP returned to the High Court on Thursday 8 November 2001.

Loyalist protesters at the Holy Cross Girls’ Primary School said that they had reached an “understanding” with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) over the weekend. As a result of which the police were not wearing full riot gear when the protest took place. The residents had undertaken to stand back from police vehicles. A representative of Catholic parents on the Right to Education Group said: “The police should have sat down with both sides to talk about this”.

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Remembering all innocent victims of the Troubles

Today is the anniversary of the death of the following  people killed as a results of the conflict in Northern Ireland

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die

– Thomas Campbell

To the innocent on the list – Your memory will live  forever

– To  the Paramilitaries  –

There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, but nothing worth killing for.

3 People lost their lives on the 5th November between 1975 – 1983

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05 November 1975
Stanley Irwin,   (26)

Protestant
Status: Civilian (Civ),

Killed by: non-specific Republican group (REP)
Shot at his farm, Carrowbeg, Benburb, County Tyrone.

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05 November 1979

Thomas Gilhooley,   (25)

Protestant
Status: Prison Officer (PO),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Shot while leaving Crumlin Road Prison, Belfast.

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05 November 1983

 John McFadden,  (50)

Protestant
Status: Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC),

Killed by: Irish Republican Army (IRA)
Off duty. Shot outside his home, Bamford Park, Rasharkin, County Antrim.

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