Milltown Cemetery Attack (1988) (2 of 8)

[Part 2 of 8]
Broadcast (New Zealand): 17th March, 1988.

This playlist contains videos of the attack and the subsequent violence over the next few days.

The Milltown Cemetery attack (also known as the Milltown Massacre) took place on 16 March 1988 in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery. During a Provisional IRA funeral, Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member Michael Stone attacked the crowd with grenades and pistols, killing three and wounding over sixty.
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 from East Belfast named Michael Stone had infiltrated the crowd in an attempt to eliminate the republican leadership with several RGD-5 hand grenades and two handguns, a 9mm Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol and a .357 Magnum revolver. 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 handguns 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 of 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.