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The funeral service and
''
That evening, angry youths in republican districts burnt hijacked vehicles and attacked the RUC. Immediately after the attack, the two main loyalist paramilitary groups—the UDA and the
The Milltown Cemetery attack (also known as the Milltown Cemetery killings or Milltown massacre) took place on 16 March 1988 at
. Retrieved 12 March 2013. In a change from normal procedure, the security forces agreed to stay away from the funeral in exchange for guarantees that there would be no Milltown Cemetery
Milltown Cemetery ( ga, Reilig Bhaile an Mhuilinn) is a large cemetery in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. It lies within the townland of Ballymurphy, between Falls Road and the M1 motorway.
History
Milltown Cemetery opened in 1869 as part ...
in Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
, Northern Ireland. During the large funeral of three Provisional IRA
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...
members killed in Gibraltar, an Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and Timeline of Ulster Defence Association act ...
(UDA) member, Michael Stone, attacked the mourners with hand grenades and pistols. He had learned there would be no police or armed IRA members at the cemetery. As Stone then ran towards the nearby motorway, a large crowd chased him and he continued shooting and throwing grenades. Some of the crowd caught Stone and beat him, but he was rescued by the police and arrested. Three people had been killed and more than 60 wounded. The "unprecedented, one-man attack"McKittrick, David. ''Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles''. Mainstream Publishing, 1999. p. 1117. was filmed by television news crews and caused shock around the world.
Three days later, two British Army corporals drove into the funeral procession of one of the Milltown victims. The non-uniformed soldiers were dragged from their car by an angry crowd, beaten and then shot dead by the IRA, in what became known as the corporals killings
British Army corporals Derek Wood and David HowesTaylor, p. 284. were killed by the Provisional IRA on 19 March 1988 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in what became known as the corporals killings. The soldiers (wearing civilian clothes, both ...
.
Background
On 6 March 1988,Provisional IRA
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...
members Daniel McCann
Daniel McCann (30 November 1957 – 6 March 1988) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who was murdered by the British Army on 6 March 1988 whilst being accused of attempting to plant a car bomb in Gibraltar.
Early l ...
, Seán Savage
Seán Savage ( ga, Seán Sabhaois) (26 January 1965 – 6 March 1988) was a member of the Provisional IRA who was shot dead by the British Army whilst being accused attempting to plant a car bomb in Gibraltar.
Early life
Born into an Irish Re ...
and Mairéad Farrell
Mairéad Farrell ( ga, Máiréad Ní Fhearghail or ''Mairéad Ní Fhearail'') (3 March 1957 – 6 March 1988) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). She was shot dead by the British Army in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988.Pg 30 ...
were shot dead by the Special Air Service
The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...
(SAS) in Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
, in Operation Flavius. The three had allegedly been preparing a bomb attack on British military personnel there, but the deaths outraged republicans as the three were unarmed and shot without warning. Their bodies arrived in Belfast on 14 March and were taken to their family homes. Tensions were high as the security forces flooded the neighbourhoods where they had lived, to try to prevent public displays honouring the dead. The "Gilbraltar Three" were due to be buried in the republican plot
In Ireland, a republican plot is a cemetery plot where combatants or members of various Irish republican organisations are buried in a group of adjacent graves, rather than being buried with family members. These plots often hold the bodies of cas ...
at Milltown Cemetery on 16 March. For years, republicans had complained about heavy-handed policing of IRA funerals, which had led to violence.History – Troubles – Michael Stone kills three at IRA funeralsBBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...three-volley salute
The three-volley salute is a ceremonial act performed at military funerals and sometimes also police funerals. The custom originates from the European dynastic wars, in which the fighting ceased so that the dead and wounded could be removed. Af ...
by IRA gunmen. The British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
(RUC) would instead keep watch from the sidelines. This decision was not made public.
Michael Stone was a loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...
, a member of the Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and Timeline of Ulster Defence Association act ...
(UDA) who had been involved in several killings and other attacks, and who described himself as a "freelance loyalist paramilitary". Stone learned that there would be little security force presence at the funerals, and planned "to take out the Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
and IRA leadership at the graveside". He said his attack was retaliation for the Remembrance Day bombing
The Remembrance Day bombing (also known as the Enniskillen bombing or Poppy Day massacre) took place on 8 November 1987 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. A Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb exploded near County Ferm ...
four months earlier, when eleven Protestants had been killed by an IRA bomb at a Remembrance Sunday
Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...
ceremony. He later told journalist Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to:
Arts
* Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
* Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing
Politi ...
that "it was symbolic: the IRA had attacked a British cenotaph and he was taking revenge by attacking the IRA equivalent". Stone claimed that he and other UDA members considered planting bombs in the graveyard, but abandoned the plan because the bombs might miss the republican leaders. He instead decided to carry out a one-man attack with guns and grenades. Stone claimed that a "senior member of the UDA" had given him the organisation's official clearance for the attackWood, Ian S. ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA''. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. pp. 138–141 and that he was given a Browning Hi-Power
The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, semi-automatic pistol available in the 9×19mm Parabellum and .40 S&W calibers. It was based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at FN Herstal. ...
9 mm
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Arabic digit
In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
pistol, a Ruger Speed-Six .357 Magnum
The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...
revolver and seven RGD-5
The RGD-5 (''Ruchnaya Granata Distantsionnaya'', English "Hand Grenade Remote") is a post–World War II Soviet anti-personnel fragmentation grenade
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but ...
grenades the night before the funeral. Dillon, Martin. ''The Trigger Men: Assassins and Terror Bosses in the Ireland Conflict''. Random House, 2011. Chapter 10: Stone Cold Assassin. pp.207–208, These weapons were imported by loyalists from South Africa, with the help of Brian Nelson, an agent from the British Army's Force Research Unit
The Force Research Unit (FRU) was a covert military intelligence unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps. It was established in 1982 during the Troubles to obtain intelligence from terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland by recruiti ...
(see collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries).
Attack
The funeral service and requiem mass
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...
went ahead as planned, and the cortege made its way to Milltown Cemetery, off the Falls Road. Present were thousands of mourners and top members of the IRA and Sinn Féin, including Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams
Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020 ...
and Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness ( ga, Séamus Máirtín Pacelli Mag Aonghusa; 23 May 1950 – 21 March 2017) was an Irish republican politician and statesman from Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during ...
. Two RUC helicopters hovered overhead."3 Killed by Grenades at Belfast Funeral"''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 17 March 1988. Retrieved 13 March 2013. Stone claimed that he entered the graveyard through the front gate with the mourners and mingled with the large crowd, although one witness claimed to have seen him enter from the M1 motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...
with three other people.
As the third coffin was about to be lowered into the ground, Stone threw two grenades—which had a seven-second delay—toward the republican plot and began shooting. The first grenade exploded near the crowd and about from the grave. There was panic and confusion; people took cover behind gravestones. Stone began jogging toward the motorway, several hundred yards away, chased by dozens of men and youths. He periodically stopped to shoot and throw grenades at his pursuers. In the 19 March edition of the ''Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'', columnist Kevin Myers
Kevin Myers (born 30 March 1947) is an English-born Irish journalist and writer. He has contributed to the ''Irish Independent'', the Irish edition of ''The Sunday Times'', and ''The Irish Times''s column "An Irishman's Diary".
Myers is kn ...
, an opponent of republican paramilitary violence, wrote: "Unarmed young men charged against the man hurling grenades and firing an automatic pistol ..The young men stalking their quarry repeatedly came under fire; they were repeatedly bombed; they repeatedly advanced. Indeed this was not simply bravery; this was a heroism which in other circumstances, I have no doubt, would have won the highest military decorations".
Three people were killed while pursuing Stone, Catholic civilians Thomas McErlean (20) and John Murray (26) and IRA member Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh (30), also known as Kevin Brady.: During the attack, about 60 people were wounded by bullets, grenade shrapnel and fragments of marble and stone from gravestones. Among those wounded was a pregnant mother of four, a 72-year-old grandmother and a ten-year-old boy. Some fellow loyalists said that Stone made the mistake of throwing his grenades too soon; the death toll would likely have been much higher had the grenades exploded in mid-air, "raining lethal shrapnel over a wide area".
A white van that had been parked on the hard shoulder
A shoulder, hard shoulder (British) or breakdown lane, is an emergency stopping lane by the verge of a road or motorway, on the right side in countries which drive on the right, and on the left side in countries which drive on the left. Many wid ...
of the motorway suddenly drove off as Stone fled from the angry crowd. There was speculation that the van was part of the attack, but the RUC said it was part of a police patrol, and that the officers sped off because they feared for their lives. Stone said he had arranged for a getaway car, driven by a UDA member, to pick him up on the hard shoulder of the motorway, Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack. ''UDA: Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terror''. Penguin Ireland, 2004. pp.148–149 but the driver allegedly "panicked and left". By the time Stone reached the motorway, he had seemingly run out of ammunition. He ran out onto the road and tried to stop cars, but was caught by the crowd, beaten, and bundled into a hijacked vehicle. Armed RUC officers in Land Rovers
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...
quickly arrived, "almost certainly saving his life". They arrested him and took him to Musgrave Park Hospital
Musgrave Park Hospital is a specialist hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in orthopaedics, rheumatology, sports medicine and rehabilitation of patients of all ages. These specialties are spread out across a large site in the ...
for treatment of his injuries. The whole event had been recorded by television news cameras.
Aftermath
That evening, angry youths in republican districts burnt hijacked vehicles and attacked the RUC. Immediately after the attack, the two main loyalist paramilitary groups—the UDA and the Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook an armed campaig ...
(UVF)—denied responsibility. The leader of the UDA West Belfast Brigade
The UDA West Belfast Brigade is the section of the Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), based in the western quarter of Belfast, in the Greater Shankill area. Initially a battalion, the West Belfast Brigade eme ...
, Tommy Lyttle
Tommy "Tucker" Lyttle (c. 1939 – 18 October 1995), was a high-ranking Ulster loyalist during the period of religious-political conflict in Northern Ireland known as "the Troubles". A member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) – the large ...
, said that Stone was a rogue loyalist acting without orders from the UDA, although he did not condemn the attack. Lyttle told other UDA leaders to keep to this line. UDA member Sammy Duddy
Andrew Samuel Duddy (25 August 1945 – 17 October 2007), known as Sammy, was a Northern Irish loyalist, having joined the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) shortly after its formation in 1971. He later became a leading member of the Ulster Poli ...
said: "After Milltown, two UDA brigadiers from two Belfast battalions telephoned the IRA to say they didn't know Michael Stone ..But Michael was UDA, he was a travelling gunman who went after the IRA and Republicans and he needed no authority for that because that was his job. Those two brigadiers were scared in case the IRA would retaliate against them or their areas ..so they disclaimed Michael, one of our best operators".
Sinn Féin and others "claimed that there must have been collusion with the security forces, because only a small number of people knew in advance of the reduced police presence at the funerals". Stone later claimed he had assurances that British soldiers and RUC officers would not be deployed in the graveyard. He also claimed to have had detailed information about British Army and RUC movements. Stone said that, the night before the attack, he was "given his pick of weapons from an Ulster Resistance
Ulster Resistance (UR), or the Ulster Resistance Movement (URM), is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist Ulster loyalism#Paramilitary and vigilante groups, paramilitary movement established by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Irela ...
cache at a secret location outside Belfast" and was "driven back into the city by a member of the RUC". According to journalist Martin Dillon
Martin Dillon (born 2 June 1949) is an Irish author, journalist, and broadcaster. He has won international acclaim for his investigative reporting and non-fiction works on The Troubles, including his bestselling trilogy, ''The Shankill Butcher ...
, the weapons he used were given to him on the orders of UDA intelligence chief Brian Nelson, who was later revealed to be an undercover agent of the British Army's Force Research Unit
The Force Research Unit (FRU) was a covert military intelligence unit of the British Army's Intelligence Corps. It was established in 1982 during the Troubles to obtain intelligence from terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland by recruiti ...
(FRU).
Three days later, during the funeral of one of Stone's victims, Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh, two British Army corporals (Derek Wood and David Howes) in civilian clothes and in a civilian car drove into the path of the funeral cortège, apparently by mistake. Many of those present believed the soldiers were loyalists intent on repeating Stone's attack. An angry crowd surrounded and attacked their car. Corporal Wood drew his service pistol and fired a shot in the air. The two men were then dragged from the car before being taken away, beaten and shot dead by the IRA. The incident is often referred to as the corporals killings
British Army corporals Derek Wood and David HowesTaylor, p. 284. were killed by the Provisional IRA on 19 March 1988 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in what became known as the corporals killings. The soldiers (wearing civilian clothes, both ...
and, like the attack at Milltown, much of it was filmed by television news cameras.
The Browning pistol Stone used was seized on the day of the attack and was eventually used by an IRA unit to ambush a combined RUC–Army patrol in Belfast on 13 October 1990. A constable was shot dead and another badly injured. In March 1989, Stone was convicted for the three murders at Milltown, for three paramilitary murders before and for other offences, receiving sentences totalling 682 years. Many hardline loyalists saw him as a hero and he became a loyalist icon. After his conviction, an issue of the UDA magazine ''Ulster'' was devoted to Stone, stating that he "stood bravely in the middle of rebel scum and let them have it". Apart from time on remand spent in Crumlin Road Prison
HMP Belfast, also known as Crumlin Road Gaol, is a former prison situated on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since 1996 it is the only remaining Victorian era former prison in Northern Ireland. It is colloquially known as ' ...
, Stone spent all of his sentence in HM Prison Maze
Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to Sept ...
. Stone was released under the Good Friday Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...
after serving 13 years. Author and journalist Martin Dillon interviewed Stone in prison and published a book about him in 1992, ''Stone Cold: The True Story of Michael Stone and the Milltown Massacre''.
Stone later published an autobiography, ''None Shall Divide Us'', which included an account of the attack, in which he wrote that he deeply regretted the hurt he had caused the families of those he killed and paid tribute to the bravery of two of the men killed while pursuing him at the cemetery (Murray, Mac Brádaigh). Stone wrote "I didn't choose killing as a career, killing chose me".Stone later alleged that while being held in police custody after the attack, a young RUC officer asked him to sign a copy of the RUC's in-house magazine ''Police Beat'' that had Chief Constable John Hermon's face on the cover. In November 2006, Stone was charged with attempted murder of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, having been arrested attempting to enter the parliament buildings at Stormont while armed. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to a further 16 years' imprisonment. Stone was released on parole in 2021.
See also
*Timeline of Ulster Defence Association actions
This is a timeline of actions by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group formed in 1971. Most of these actions took place during the conflict known as "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland. The UDA's declared goal was to d ...
*List of massacres in Great Britain
Inclusion Criteria
This is a list of massacres that have occurred in the purely geographical definition of Great Britain, being in the countries of England, Scotland and Wales and ''excludes'' Northern Ireland and massacres in Ireland before i ...
References
{{Ulster Defence Association 1988 in Northern Ireland 1988 mass shootings in Europe 1988 murders in the United Kingdom 1980s in County Antrim 1980s mass shootings in the United Kingdom Cemeteries in Northern Ireland Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland Explosions in Belfast Filmed killings March 1988 crimes March 1988 events in the United Kingdom Mass shootings in Belfast Murder in Belfast People killed by the Ulster Defence Association Terrorist incidents in Belfast Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1988 1980s murders in Northern Ireland 1988 crimes in Ireland The Troubles in Belfast Ulster Defence Association actions