Elderly Woman in Northern Ireland Dies After Attack

An elderly Roman Catholic woman collapsed and died after her home was attacked Sunday during renewed outbreaks of violence by Protestant opponents of an Anglo-Irish agreement, police said.

Meanwhile, two men claiming to be from the Protestant Action Force tried to bomb a police station in Belfast early Sunday, but army bomb disposal experts thwarted the attempt, police said.

The incidents came amid a wave of violence marking the first anniversary Saturday of the signing of the accord, which gives the Catholic Irish Republic a consultative role in running Northern Ireland, where Protestants outnumber Catholics 3 to 2. The Protestants say the pact makes them second-class British citizens subject to the will of the Irish Republic.

Police say that since Friday night, when anniversary violence erupted, two civilians have died, 44 police officers and 27 civilians were injured, 91 people were arrested and 35 shops were attacked.

Police said Alice Kelly, 66, and her husband were awakened early Sunday by the sound of objects being thrown through a window in their home in Carrickfergus north of Belfast. When they went downstairs to investigate, Mrs. Kelly collapsed and died, police said.

In Belfast, police said a taxi driver was called early Sunday to the Protestant Shankill Road area where two masked men claiming to be members of the Protestant Action Force placed a bomb in the vehicle. They ordered him to plant it outside a police station.

The driver went to a police station where he alerted officers. Army experts carried out three controlled explosions and no one was hurt, police said.