The Funeral Murders TV - This Week: Death on the Rock TV -
This is the story of a dramatic and deadly series of events that took place at two funerals in Belfast in March 1988. The Funeral Murders, BBC 2018
The Gibraltar 3 were unarmed when they were killed … The coffins were driven 100 miles north across the border to Belfast. ibid.
A sense of nervousness about how the funeral would be policed. ibid.
This triple republican funeral was a major event in west Belfast with thousands of people lining the route. ibid.
‘There was a loud boom’ … ‘And then people were sort of in a panic’ … ‘There were more explosions’ … ‘I seen this fellow, ended up Michael Stone, having this handgun’ … ‘Then he pulled out a grenade’ … The crowd of mourners caught up with him and successfully overpowered him. ibid.
He [Stone] attacked the mourners indiscriminately injuring 60 people and killing 3 of the young men. ibid.
Just 72 hours after the funeral of the Gibraltar 3, republicans prepared for another funeral … IRA volunteer Michael Brady who’d been killed by Michael Stone three days earlier. ibid.
British soldiers who had been travelling in an unmarked vehicle. ibid.
‘No warning, nothing said, no screams, nothing, just the shots.’ This Week: Death on the Rock, witness, Thames TV 1988
‘From a distance of about four feet and that the firing was continuous.’ ibid.
The killing by the SAS of 3 IRA terrorists in Gibraltar has provoked intense debate. ibid.
Did the SAS men have the law on their side? ibid.
Were they operating what’s become known as a Shoot to Kill policy? ibid.