Despite the ceasefires, there was no let up in the violence with sectarian attacks and murders taking place throughout the summer of 2002.
Alex Maskey had been Mayor for less than a month when 27-year-old Protestant William Morgan was knocked down and seriously injured by a stolen car in North Queen Street in Belfast.
The father-of-one, whose wife was pregnant with the couple's second child, died in hospital from head injuries five days later. The car used in the attack was later found burned out in the nationalist New Lodge area.
Two weeks later on the evening of Sunday July 21 violence erupted once more in north Belfast. Stone-throwing had continued throughout the day along the peace line separating the nationalist Ardoyne area from the loyalist Glenbryn housing estate.
The INLA was blamed for shooting a teenage Protestant in Glenbryn. An hour later two loyalist gunmen on a motorbike tried to shoot Catholic man Ryan Corbett as he stood outside a bar on the nearby Oldpark Road. The 19-year-old escaped with his life when the pillion passenger's weapon jammed.
Soon after a second nationalist, Jason O'Halloran, was shot in the upper thigh as he walked along the Oldpark Road. The 29-year-old later told how his life had been saved when the gunman's weapon again appeared to jam.
Sectarian gun attacks were also reported that night on the Old Cavehill Road and Ligoniel Road. Shortly after midnight, UFF gunmen spotted teenager Gerard Lawlor as he walked towards his home on the Whitewell Road.
The killers are believed to have identified the 19 year old as a Catholic by his clothes. The father of one was wearing a Glasgow Celtic football shirt – enough evidence to condemn him to death. Like the attack on Corbett earlier in the evening, the killers are believed to have used a motorbike to escape.
Gerard Lawlor died at the scene. He was killed three days before he was due to move into a new home with his girlfriend and 18-month-old son.
Ironically, one of the two Catholics who had escaped death hours before the killing had known Lawlor. Ryan Corbett said he and Gerard had played Gaelic football against each other for their local north Belfast clubs.
"We were good friends through Gaelic," the teenager revealed. Unconsciously referring to his friend in the present tense, he said: "We have been playing football together for years. There has been peace here for a couple of months. Now, we're going to have to look over our shoulders again."
Two days after Lawlor's murder, hundreds of people attended a vigil at the spot where he was killed. They heard parish priest Fr Dan Whyte question whether politicians were doing enough to safeguard the peace process.
Fr Whyte said many people felt that hopes of peace engendered by the signing of the Good Friday Agreement now appeared to have been thrown away by the inability of politicians to work together.
"Nationalist people are now becoming convinced that their opposite numbers only want peace on their own terms and that they can't handle equality. All this pressure for expelling Sinn Féin from government is being seen as a determination to get back to the old days of one-party government when nationalist people were effectively disenfranchised."
Alex Maskey joined more than 1,000 mourners following Gerard Lawlor's coffin on the journey from the family home to St Gerard's Church on the Antrim Road.
Afterwards, Maskey said Fr Whyte's speech had convinced him further that nationalist and unionist councillors in Belfast City Hall had an obligation to unite to attempt to bring the killing to an end.
Maskey had met with senior members of the northern branch of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) during his first weeks in office as part of his effort to establish an anti-sectarian working group within the council. Now, as he mingled with mourners at Lawlor's funeral, he was one of only a handful of people who were aware that trade union leaders, also present at the funeral, were due to meet UDA chiefs that evening.
The ICTU delegation did in fact meet UDA brigadiers Jackie McDonald, Mo Courtney, Andre Shoukri, John White and Johnny Adair in a secret location in north Belfast.
The day after Gerard Lawlor's murder the mayor met with Security Minister Jane Kennedy to discuss his concern at the ongoing violence. At a press conference afterwards, he reiterated his view that city hall politicians could do more to help bring the killing to an end. Maskey also travelled to Dublin to meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen in a bid to have the Irish government put pressure on their British counterparts to take decisive steps to stop the killing.
"I think the general public out there must rightly expect the local government here to take direct responsibility. We have six parties in the council and surely we can get together to come up with some kind of programme which will at least help to alleviate these depressing problems that are facing us as a community."
One of Maskey's main priorities when he was elected mayor was to establish an anti-sectarian campaign group within City Hall. Amazingly, he said, Belfast City Council had no strategy for the promotion of positive relations between Catholics and Protestants. The council had withdrawn from a statutory programme in the early 1990s and had never rejoined.
Maskey was scathing in his condemnation of this lack of engagement to deal with such an important ongoing issue.
He revealed that £300,000 funding had been available for the implementation of a policy to improve relations but the council had decided not to use the money. Maskey said he was determined to ensure that a new committee was established and, more importantly, was seen to be working.
"If I achieved one thing during my year in office," he says, "it was the fact that a group was established which continued after I left office and remained accountable to public scrutiny. The committee is now pledged to holding public meetings in different parts of the city to show people exactly what city hall is doing to improve community relations and to seek further opinions and support. We were the only council in the north not to have a community relations strategy. To me, that was an absolute disgrace."
But the public image which city hall had engendered over the years meant that not everyone believed councillors were capable of working together on this issue. Maskey said he was met with a lukewarm response when he initially invited trade union groups, Church leaders and other civic and statutory bodies to become involved in the new group. Many felt that the political parties in city hall would not be able to agree when it came to building bridges between the differing peoples of the city. Some argued that the council itself was sectarian.
"Some in the trade unions and other bodies more or less said to me they wouldn't touch city hall with a barge pole when it came to community relations because the parties would not agree with each other.
"Eventually I convinced people to work with me because this was too important to be allowed to fail. People were dying and we were arguing amongst each other in city hall. It just wasn't acceptable."
Five days after Gerard Lawlor's murder, Maskey called a special council meeting to seek condemnation of the recent killings and to call for public support for a demonstration against the violence.
Crucially, it was agreed that an anti-sectarian group would be established, comprising the parties within city hall, Church leaders, trade unions and other civic bodies.
All parties except the DUP supported a motion condemning the killings.
Ironically, it was the DUP's Nelson McCausland who eventually became vice-chairman of the anti-sectarian working group. However, despite five of the six parties calling for an end to the violence, there were serious disturbances in south Belfast that weekend when loyalists clashed with police in the Sandy Row area. Cars, shops and fire crews were attacked during two nights of violence.
On Wednesday July 31 the British government held talks with nationalists and unionists to discuss ways in which the killing could be stopped. All parties, except the DUP, attended.
At the beginning of August, 51-year-old Protestant civilian worker David Caldwell was killed when a booby-trap device inside a lunchbox exploded at a Territorial Army base on the Limavady Road in Derry. The breakaway Real IRA claimed responsibility for the murder.
The following day Alex Maskey addressed thousands of people at an anti-sectarian rally outside city hall. Also present were UUP minister Michael McGimpsey, SDLP leader Mark Durkan, Gerry Adams, the four main Church leaders, trade unionists and business leaders. Once again all the main political parties, except the DUP, attended.
"Homes are being wrecked and people are being killed," Maskey stated. "Stop now."
The mayor told the rally that Belfast city councillors had decided that "to do nothing" was no longer an option.
"This is a day," he said,"when we say to those engaged in sectarianism, please, please, stop!"
What Alex Maskey did not reveal until later was that, on the morning of the rally, he had received a death threat from the loyalist extremist Orange Volunteers. For added emphasis, the group had included a 9mm bullet with the message.
Behind the scenes, Maskey had become involved in another initiative aimed at convincing loyalist paramilitaries to bring the killing to an end. Liam Maskey was five years younger than his brother, the mayor. The two men had been interned together in the cages of Long Kesh.
In late 1997 Liam and the trade unionist Brendan Mackin acted as conduits between the INLA and the British government during discussions that ended with the republican group announcing a ceasefire.
Throughout 1997 and the first eight months of 1998, the two men carried a succession of messages between the INLA and the British.
On August 22 1998 the INLA announced a complete cessation of operations and offered a "sincere heartfelt and genuine apology" for the "faults and grievous errors in our prosecution of the war", including the killing and injuring of innocent people.
In 2002, however, nearly four years later, people were still being killed on the streets of Belfast and many were predicting that more would die during that summer. In mid-May that year, UFF leader Johnny Adair was released from Maghaberry prison.
Adair (had) unwittingly contributed to his own downfall in 1994 when, during a series of casual conversations in the street with RUC officers, he admitted taking part in numerous gun attacks.
On September 6 1995, when Adair was jailed for 16 years for directing terrorism, the RUC held a special press conference to highlight the fact that they had taken one of the north's most dangerous killers off the streets. As Alex and Liz Maskey watched the press conference on television at home that evening, they were shocked when a police inspector produced an assault rifle and informed journalists that it was the weapon that Adair had used to shoot up the Maskey home.
It was the first time the couple had learned that Adair had been involved in the January 1994 attack during which 30 shots had been fired at their house. More was to follow. During questioning in Castlereagh, Adair provided a detailed account of the 1993 attack in which Alan Lundy was killed (outside Maskey's house).
Adair's release from prison in May 2002 came just five weeks before Alex Maskey was due to be elected Mayor. Nationalists feared that the Shankill loyalist would quickly return to killing Catholics, but behind the scenes efforts were already being made to engage Adair in talks to end interface violence.
As a community worker in north Belfast, Liam Maskey had built up contacts with various loyalist leaders since the ceasefires of 1994. One of the loyalists he had initiated talks with was Adair's close associate John White.
By the late 1990s... White was privately indicating to journalists and nationalist politicians that he was fed up with the violence. Few believed the notorious killer. Liam felt obliged to explore White's assertion that he wanted to bring an end to the carnage.
In the autumn of 2001, Liam says, he began to meet White in secret. When Liam privately consulted his older brother he was told to be careful.
"Alex warned me of the dangers that I would be putting myself in," Liam recalls.
"While he warned me of the dangers to myself and our family, he said he supported me and would do everything he could to help."
Ironically, in view of what would happen later, the first meeting between Liam and John White was in a cafe beside Belfast City Hall. The two held more talks in January and again in February 2002 when White warned that the main obstacles to peace were the hardliners on the UFF's ruling inner council who were opposed to the Good Friday Agreement. Amongst these, White highlighted John Gregg as the most vociferous and dangerous opponent of the peace process.
Despite Gregg's notorious reputation for hating Catholics, Liam told White he wanted to meet the loyalist hard man for face-to-face talks.
Senior figures within the PUP were approached and they agreed to make contact with Gregg to arrange the meeting with Liam. Less than 24 hours before the meeting was due to take place, Liam was contacted by a reliable figure within the establishment and warned not to travel to meet Gregg.
"A particular person telephoned me on the Saturday morning and said he knew who I was due to meet the next day. His exact words were 'Liam, don't go to the meeting, because if you do, you won't be coming back'. "
Liam heeded the warning... Two days later he was in contact again with White and informed him that he had been warned that Gregg had planned to kill him. "I honestly don't believe White knew anything about it," he says. "He seemed as shocked as myself. White then said, 'Okay, then we'll just have to deal with Johnny Adair'."
Liam admits to having had serious reservations at the impromptu offer to come face to face with the man who had tried to kill his brother and had been responsible for the murder of a number of his friends.
Within a fortnight of Adair's release from Maghaberry prison, a meeting was arranged between the nationalist community worker and the UFF killer.
The encounter took place that afternoon in an upstairs room of a disused house in Boundary Way that Adair used as his base to run the UFF. Johnny Adair made his entrance unannounced and, without preamble, immediately planted himself down opposite the pair. Liam Maskey spoke first, telling the UFF leader that his brother had sent a message to say he hoped that something useful could come out of the talks.
"Adair looked at me and said, 'I respect that bastard, he has balls to burn. I have always said that about him. Tell Alex I hope that some day we can sit down face-to-face across a table to talk about peace for everyone'."
The first meeting with Adair... included discussions about establishing a telephone network between nationalist and loyalist community leaders to be used to defuse tensions along the interfaces.
A few days later, a follow-up meeting took place, again in the lower Shankill, with further discussions about tensions between the two sides. While relationships were strengthening, Liam was aware that he, as a community worker, could not bring the killing to an end.
Liam approached his brother to determine if he would be prepared to meet representatives of the UDA.
Maskey did not hesitate. He said he would meet anyone if it helped stop the killing. But he made it clear that he would have to consult the party.
On the morning of the anti-sectarian rally on August 2, Liam received a telephone call from a senior UDA man close to Adair and White to say that he had a message that needed to be delivered in person. Conscious that he had been within hours of being murdered at the Gregg appointment, Liam asked a Belfast-based official from a foreign government to accompany him to receive the message. He knew that the UDA man would immediately recognise the foreigner accompanying him as an influential figure.
At the allotted time, the UDA man met Liam Maskey and his "friend".
"We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and then he just said, 'Liam, that's okay for the meeting', and he walked away."
With those simple words, preparations were made for Alex Maskey to meet representatives of the organisation whose members had been trying to kill him for the past 15 years. Although the UDA men had agreed to talk to Maskey, they still harboured fears that hardliners within their ranks would exploit the meeting to further fracture loyalism.
The loyalists Adair sent to meet Maskey were John White, Davy Mahood and Shankill councillor Frank McCoubrey.
Maskey recalls the lengths to which he had to go to meet the loyalists in city hall in August.
"They didn't want to be seen to be meeting me on their own, so I had to invite a number of other groups and arrange it so that I spent 10 minutes with each group. In reality the whole thing was arranged to meet them. They were paranoid that the meeting would be used against them by their own side."
While Maskey was prepared to meet the loyalists, he left them in no doubt that he would hold them accountable for the continuing violence.
"I told them that if they were serious about bringing peace to the interfaces, then I would do everything I could to help that. But I also told them that if the UDA were behind continued interface violence, I would publicly condemn them each and every time. They argued that they wanted an end to interface violence and, to be fair, they seemed to be looking for help in finding ways to improve their community infrastructure and I committed my office to supporting them."
While White accused mainstream politicians of snubbing the UDA's political representatives, he praised Maskey's efforts, saying: "We are encouraged that this initiative has been established and although we are political opponents, it appeared to us that Alex Maskey is working hard to make it a success. It is a cross-party initiative and it is up to all those parties and groups in our society who want to see an end to sectarianism to support it and ensure that it succeeds."
But hopes were cut short by tensions within the UDA. White and Adair appeared willing to engage in discussions with Sinn Féin in the guise of the Lord Mayor, but as feared, anti-agreement hard-liners within the UDA used the meeting to attack the White-Adair faction.
The brigadiers who formed the UDA's inner council met two days later amid bitter recriminations over White's discussions with Maskey.
An added complication was that beneath the opposition to the talks lay a power struggle for overall control of the UDA.
Just weeks after the Maskey meeting, White and Adair were expelled from the organisation. Any hopes of further talks appeared to have gone.
By one of the vagaries of northern politics Alex Maskey found that he could, with relative ease, hold peace talks with loyalists who had repeatedly tried to kill him, yet he could not find a unionist councillor who would agree to work alongside him as deputy mayor.
At his election in June unionists had refused to nominate anyone from their benches to take the position.
The decision to snub Maskey's year in office appeared to have been taken at leadership level in the Ulster Unionist Party as at least one councillor had previously stated publicly that he would be prepared to fill the position.
Maskey had to face the political reality that unionists would not appoint a deputy for the duration of his year in office, but he insists that they squandered a valuable opportunity to rebuild relationships between the two communities.
