Milltown Cemetery attack

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The Milltown Cemetery attack was a gun and grenade attack in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery by Ulster Defence Association member Michael Stone, during the funerals of three Provisional IRA members. Three people died in the incident and over sixty were injured.

1 Background
2 Attack
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 External link
6 References

[edit] Background

On 16 March 1988, IRA members Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell, who had been killed by the SAS in Gibraltar, were due to be buried in the republican plot at Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast. In a change from normal security forces procedure the Royal Ulster Constabulary and British army had agreed to stay away from the funeral. The funeral service and requiem mass went ahead as planned and the cortege made its way to Milltown cemetery off the Falls Road.

[edit] Attack

As the coffins were being lowered into the ground, a burst of gunfire was heard and this was initially mistaken for the usual paramilitary firing party. Some people even applauded. However it was not a salute. A lone Ulster Defence Association member by the name of Michael Stone from east Belfast had infiltrated the crowd in an attempt to eliminate the republican leadership with several RGD-5 hand grenades and two automatic pistols. Stone killed three people, including IRA member Kevin Brady, who had attempted to disarm him. The whole event was recorded by television news cameras.

Stone made his escape towards the motorway chased by several members of the crowd, but continued firing his pistols and throwing hand grenades at his pursuers. Stone made it as far as the M1 motorway, but was caught by the crowd, who began beating him and shouting that they would kill him. He was eventually put in the back of a car and was being driven away to be shot by the IRA, when the car was intercepted by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, who arrested him and took him to Musgrave Park Hospital for treatment to his injuries. Michael Stone later confessed to the three killings at Milltown and a further three paramilitary killings committed beforehand. The final toll was three dead and upwards of sixty injured.

[edit] Aftermath

At his trial Stone received sentences totalling 682 years but was released after serving just 13 years as a result of the Good Friday Agreement. Apart from time on remand spent in Crumlin Road Prison, Stone spent all of his sentence in HM Prison Maze.

Shortly after the Milltown killings, one of Stone's victims, IRA man Kevin Brady, was being buried when two British army Corporals Derek Wood and David Howes drove into the funeral cortege — apparently by mistake.^[1] Scenes relayed on live television showed the two corporals being cornered by black taxis and dragged from their car before being taken away by republicans to be beaten, stripped, tortured and then shot.^[2]^[3]^[4] This event is often referred to as the Corporals killings.

In his autobiography, None Shall Divide Us, Stone claimed that he had received "special assistance" from RUC operatives in carrying out the cemetery attack. He also stated 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 who had tried to disarm him at the cemetery, John Murray and Kevin Brady, whom he shot. Stone said in the book "I didn't choose killing as a career - killing chose me." Stone claimed he had renounced violence, but remained in the UDA and in 2005 said he would fully support and take part in a campaign of violence if the UDA ended its ceasefire. On November 24 2006 at about 11.00 am, Stone was arrested for breaking into Stormont and scrawling graffiti on the Parliament building. Initial news reports indicated that he may have been carrying a "suspect device" and a gun was recovered at the scene. The resumption of talks about power sharing and electing a First Minister between the parties at Stormont, which had only just resumed, had to be abandoned.^[5] As Stone is out on licence, he is likely to go back to prison.

According to CNNcom, "he published his autobiography, 'None Shall Divide Us,' in 2004, and while he has, until today's incident at Stormont, steered clear of violent activism, he has refused to fully abjure his former militancy.

'If I was to say sorry, I believe it would fall on deaf ears,' he has said in an interview with the BBC. 'I would be called a hypocrite. Those operations were military operations. I do not regret any fatalities that have occurred.'"