The Milltown Cemetery attack

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 16 March 1988, loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone killed three mourners and injured 60 others attending a funeral for IRA members killed in Gibraltar.

The so-called Gibraltar Three had been shot dead by the British Army and brought home to Belfast to be buried in the city’s Catholic Milltown Cemetery.

American journalist Bill Buzenberg, who was covering the funeral for National Public Radio in the US, was knocked off his feet in the gun and grenade attack. He shares his memories with Maggie Ayre.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: People help a wounded person in Milltown Cemetery after the attack at the funeral for three IRA members. Credit: Bernard Bisson/Sygma via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Greg Jenner. I'm the host of Your Dead to Me, where the best names in comedy and history join me to learn about and laugh at the past.
0:08.7	You are a traitor. And in the new series, we'll meet Aristotle.
0:12.0	I think he might have been a time traveller. Someone who's like almost a glitch.
0:15.2	We'll dive into the causes of the British Civil Wars in the 1600s.
0:18.3	In England at this period, there's people can't get on the housing ladder.
0:21.4	This sounds familiar. And we'll discover the arts and crafts movement. I love the clothes. I love
0:26.4	the vibe. Yes, we're a comedy show that takes history seriously and then laughs at it. You're dead to me.
0:31.2	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:44.6	Hello, welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Maggie Eyre.
0:55.2	I'm taking you back to 1988, to the troubles in Northern Ireland, when violence between Protestant and Catholic paramilitary groups was a regular occurrence.
0:59.7	The bomb on the Cave Hill Road went off just outside about five to six shops.
1:05.5	Altogether, the army have recorded nearly 30 explosions in the province, more than 20 of them in Belfast.
1:09.1	The bus station blast was undoubtedly the worst and it came with no warning.
1:14.4	In the 1970s and 80s, a bloody war was waged between supporters of the IRA,
1:18.3	Irish Republican Army, fighting for an independent Ireland,
1:23.9	and pro-British loyalists determined Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK.
1:29.8	The Miletown Cemetery attack of 1988 was an especially shocking event.
1:38.8	On the morning of the 16th of March, thousands of mourners led by three coffins draped in the Irish tricola flag made their way along the Falls Road in Belfast towards the Catholic Milltown Cemetery.
1:46.8	The funeral was for three IRA members who'd been shot dead in Gibraltar 10 days earlier by the British Army,
1:54.1	who suspected them of being about to carry out a terrorist attack against their soldiers.
2:00.3	Journalist Bill Buesenberg was covering the funeral
2:03.2	for the American broadcaster National Public Radio,
	...

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