Serious rioting flared in Lurgan's nationalist Kilwilkie estate yesterday as the RUC carried out a series of search operations. Police moved into the estate during the night in what was described as part of an ongoing RUC operation in this area of Co Armagh.
Throughout the morning a number of homes in the estate were searched. Some rounds of ammunition and a small amount of Semtex explosive were discovered at the rear of premises in Ennis Close. Later in the morning a British army bomb disposal team was called in to examine a suspicious object. Shortly afterwards the RUC found 10 coffee jars and a warhead for a rocket-launcher.
By mid-afternoon, as the search continued, a number of youths began stoning the RUC. Masked youths threw some 50 petrol bombs at the police and their vehicles. A tense stand-off developed until after 6 p.m., when the security forces began to withdraw. At this time a car was hijacked and set alight.
In Portadown, shortly after the announcement of the rerouteing of the Drumcree Orange parade, a gang of youths attacked a local council refuse collection vehicle in loyalist Rectory Park. It is believed that some of the vehicle's crew were Catholic council employees. In April a Catholic council worker, Mr Adrian Lamph, was murdered in Portadown. Five men yesterday pleaded guilty to charges of riotous behaviour on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in July last year.
Each defendant was fined £200 at a special sitting of Craigavon Magistrates Court and ordered to keep the peace and be of good behaviour in the sum of £200 for 12 months.
They were Donald Joseph Mercer, of Gavaghy Park; Desmond Eamon Rafferty, of Pinebank, Craigavon; Vincent McAlinden, of Parkside, Portadown; and Sean Michael O'Neill and Declan Jarleth Mallon, both of Ballyoran Park, Portadown.
Resident magistrate Daniel Magill said he took into account the fact that the defendants had pleaded guilty. He said there was very little to distinguish between the five cases.