On 16 March 1988, Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killed in Operation Flavius, at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland 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 were killed and more than 60 wounded.
The "unprecedented, one-man attack" 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.
Background
On 6 March 1988, Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell were shot dead by the Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar, in Operation Flavius. The three had allegedly been preparing a bomb attack on British military personnel there, but the deaths outraged Irish republicans as the three were unarmed and purportedly shot without warning. Their bodies arrived in Belfast on 14 March and were taken to their family homes. Tensions were high as British security forces increased their presence in the neighbourhoods where they had lived, to try to prevent public displays honouring the trio. The "Gibraltar Three" were due to be buried in the republican plot at Milltown Cemetery on 16 March. For years, republicans had complained about the heavy-handed policing of IRA funerals, which had frequently led to outbreaks of violence. In a change from normal procedure, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) agreed to stay away from the funeral in exchange for guarantees that there would be no three-volley salute by IRA gunmen. The security forces would instead keep watch from the sidelines. 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. and that he was given a Browning Hi-Power pistol, a Ruger Speed-Six revolver and seven RGD-5 grenades the night before the funeral. Stone then created a "kangaroo pouch" to hold the grenades by cutting the leg off a pair of jeans and running rope up it before sowing the narrow bottom closed. The pouch would then be slung over his chest and have the grenades with the shortest fuses placed in first. Afterwards, the funeral cortege made its way to Milltown Cemetery, located off the Falls Road, as two RUC helicopters hovered overhead. Stone claimed that he entered the graveyard through the front gate with the mourners and mingled with the large crowd, 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, but the driver allegedly "panicked and left". In March 1989, Stone was convicted of the three murders at Milltown, of three paramilitary murders before and of other offences, receiving sentences totalling 682 years. Many hardline loyalists saw him as a hero and he became a loyalist icon. 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.
Corporals killings
Three days later, during the funeral of one of Stone's victims, Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh, two British Army corporals, Derek Wood and David Howes, wearing civilian clothes and in a civilian Volkswagen Passat 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. 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.