In March 1988 three unarmed members of an IRA active service unit were shot dead by SAS operatives in Gibraltar in a secret operation which became a political cause celebre. At the funeral for the dead men at the Milltown Cemetery in their native Belfast, Michael Stone threw grenades and fired into the crowd of mourners, killing three men and wounding several others. He was captured, interrogated and confessed to a list of killings which have put him in the Maze Prison under a life sentence.