Milltown Cemetery attack

Milltown Massacre
Part of the Troubles
The funerals, minutes before the attack
Location	Milltown Cemetery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Coordinates	54°35′0″N 5°58′38″W / 54.58333°N 5.97722°W / 54.58333; -5.97722Coordinates: 54°35′0″N 5°58′38″W / 54.58333°N 5.97722°W / 54.58333; -5.97722
Date	16 March 1988
Weapons	RGD-5 hand grenades; Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol; Ruger .357 magnum revolver
Deaths	3
Non-fatal injuries	60+
Perpetrator	Michael Stone

The Milltown Cemetery attack (also known as the Milltown Cemetery killings or Milltown Massacre) took place on 16 March 1988 in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery. During the funeral of three Provisional IRA volunteers killed in Gibraltar, an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) volunteer, Michael Stone, attacked the mourners with hand grenades and pistols. As Stone then ran towards the nearby motorway, a large crowd began chasing him and he continued shooting and throwing grenades. Some of them caught him and began beating 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" was filmed by television news crews and caused shock around the world.

On 6 March 1988, Provisional IRA members Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell were shot dead by the Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar. This caused outrage among Irish republicans and their supporters as the three were unarmed and allegedly shot without warning. They were due to be buried in the republican plot at Milltown Cemetery on 16 March. For years, republicans had complained about heavy-handed policing of IRA funerals, which had led to violence. In a change from normal procedure, the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) decided they would pull back from the funerals of the "Gibraltar Three" and keep watch from the sidelines. This followed negotiations with Catholic church leaders.

Michael Stone's self-professed mission was "to take out the Sinn Féin and IRA leadership at the graveside". He told journalist Peter Taylor that his attack was retaliation for the IRA's Remembrance Day bombing four months earlier. Taylor wrote, "He said it was symbolic: the IRA had attacked a British cenotaph and he was taking revenge by attacking the IRA equivalent". Stone claimed a "senior member of the UDA" had given him the organisation's "official" clearance for the attack and claimed he was given a Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol, a Ruger .357 Magnum revolver and seven RGD-5 grenades the night before the funeral.