Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict by McKittrick David & David McVea

Author:McKittrick, David & David McVea [McKittrick, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780141952000
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2001-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

VIOLENCE 1988–90

The year 1988 brought no statistical rise in violence, but it included some terrible incidents which have remained in the memory of many who lived through them. One sequence in particular, in March of that year, will always be associated with one of the darkest and most traumatic periods of the troubles, when for a time violence seemed to be spiralling completely out of control. The sequence began not in Northern Ireland but in the British possession of Gibraltar. In the first week of March three IRA members, one of them a woman, were shot dead in disputed circumstances by the SAS in what came to be regarded as one of the most controversial incidents of the troubles. Although the IRA unit was intent on staging a bomb attack against British soldiers, the fact that they were unarmed when killed led to widespread criticism of the authorities. Controversy stemmed from claims by witnesses that the IRA members may have been attempting to surrender, and that they were shot while lying on the ground. The SAS members involved said the three had been given a chance to surrender but had failed to freeze immediately and had made suspicious movements.

The three shot dead were elevated to instant republican martyrdom. Hundreds gathered at Dublin airport as their bodies were flown to Ireland, thousands lining the route as the coffins were driven to Belfast. The killings not only sparked off intense international controversy but also led on to an unprecedented cycle of death and brutality. Many thousands more attended the funerals in west Belfast, but in Milltown cemetery mayhem broke out when to general amazement a lone loyalist gunman, Michael Stone, launched an attack on mourners. After much initial confusion Stone, a stockily built man with long hair and a moustache, was to be seen firing a handgun and throwing hand grenades towards the gravesides.

He then jogged towards a motorway several hundred yards away, pursued by hundreds of men and youths. On his way he periodically stopped, firing shots and throwing grenades to hold back his pursuers, killing three of them. He eventually reached the motorway, but by that stage had apparently exhausted his supply of grenades and ammunition. An incensed crowd overpowered him and beat him unconscious before police arrived and saved his life. Most of this extraordinary scene was televised.

More was to follow. One of those killed by Stone was a member of the IRA, and as his subsequent funeral made its way to Milltown a car carrying two British army corporals unaccountably drove into the cortège. Mourners besieged the car, assuming that its occupants were loyalists intent on a repeat attack. Dozens of them rushed forward, kicking the car and attempting to open its doors. Both the soldiers inside the car were armed, and one climbed partly out of a window, firing a shot in the air which briefly scattered the crowd. The crowd surged back, however, again attacking the vehicle, and the corporals were eventually pulled from the car and punched and kicked to the ground.

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