This year was to bring a continuation of violence but also, eventually, a restoration of the IRA ceasefire. Both republicans and loyalists remained active, an IRA sniper in south Armagh killing the last soldier to die in the 1990s, Bombardier Stephen Restorick. In the run-up to the Westminster general election in May, the IRA used small bombs and hoaxes to cause major disruption which included a last-minute abandonment of the Grand National steeplechase.
1997
