Loyalists had been protesting against the decision to ban the Orange Order from marching through the town's mainly Catholic and Irish nationalist quarter (see Drumcree conflict).
[1] She had represented alleged Irish republican paramilitaries, the family of Robert Hamill, and the Garvaghy Road Residents Association.
[4] It has been alleged that the name "Red Hand Defenders" is merely a covername for members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) so the organizations can claim on the surface to have honoured their ceasefire agreements.
[10] LVF members were aware that any breach of the ceasefire could result in the return to jail for those paramilitary prisoners freed as part of the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998.
[5] Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald have argued that the RHD and the Orange Volunteers are both overseen by a Christian fundamentalist preacher they identify only as the Pastor.
The Pastor, a former associate of William McGrath, John McKeague and George Seawright and a long-established British intelligence agent, is said by the authors to provide his own form of fundamentalist, anti-Catholic Protestantism to the two groups' fluid membership of young men, most of whom are also UDA or LVF members.
[5] In essence, (mostly) Irish Catholic nationalists aspire to be part of the Republic of Ireland, while (mostly) Protestant unionists wish to remain united with Great Britain.
[11] She had represented alleged Irish republican paramilitaries, the family of Robert Hamill, and the Garvaghy Road Residents Association.
[9] The RHD also claimed responsibility for the murder of a journalist named Martin O’Hagan in September 2001, who was shot dead while walking home from a pub with his wife.
[9] O’Hagan had previously been threatened by Ulster Volunteer Force brigadier Billy Wright, who became the leader of the LVF and was subsequently killed in the Maze Prison.
[9] The attack may have stemmed from the journalist's report on alleged collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and security forces in Northern Ireland.
[7] On 16 January 2002, the RHD allegedly made a statement agreeing to "stand down" at the request of the UDA/UFF after threatening Catholic postal workers and teachers.