The Funeral Murders TV - This Week: Death on the Rock TV - Death on the Rock: IRA in Gibraltar 2023 - Mairead: The Life and Death of an IRA Martyr aka Death of a Terrorist, 1989 -
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 three of the young men. ibid.
Just 72 hours after the funeral of the Gibraltar three 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 three 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.
British security forces who had been surveilling the terrorists believed this car already contained a bomb. The car was never intercepted … Members of the SAS lying in wait. Death on the Rock: IRA in Gibraltar, The History Explorer, Youtube 9.48, 2023
The Rock of Gibraltar: the last outpost for the British empire … In 1987 British Intelligence learned that the Irish Republican Army, the IRA, was planning a terrorist attack on the parade. Its target – the band. Its weapon – Semtex explosives. Its method – a car bomb. Army spotters had observed an IRA woman mingling with the crowd on several occasions. By early 1988 the British authorities were ready and waiting. On March 6th a suspicious car had been parked. Mairead: The Life and Death of an IRA Martyr aka Death of a Terrorist, 1989
The three members of this active service unit were passing a gas station on Winston Churchill Avenue when the British made their move. ibid.
The last body to be driven away was that of the young woman called Mairead Farrell … The story of her life is the story of Northern Ireland’s twenty years of violence. And of the political and moral dilemmas posed to Britain. ibid.
In 1971 the Army began rounding up some 10,000 alleged Republicans. ibid.