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19 March 1998 Edition

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Back issue: RUC/Loyalist Collusion

The solemn hush which filled Belfast's Milltown Cemetery on Wednesday during the burial of three IRA Volunteers was violently shattered by a loyalist assassin who indiscriminately threw grenades and fired into the densely packed ring of people surrounding the republican plot.

The smoke of the grenades evaporated into the air long before the screams of terrified people died out. Three young men lay dead from gunshot wounds while over 60 people were injured by shrapnel or gunshot wounds.

One of those shot was a ten year old boy who was hit in the back as he tried to take cover. Another of the injured, a young woman, is seriously ill in intensive care. Six people are still in hospital - three of them are described as stable and two as comfortable. Those in hospital include a grandmother. Peggy Gough, who has three stomach wounds and Mary Hamill, a mother of four who is three months pregnant. She has injuries to her head and arms.

The dead were named as Thomas McErlean (20) from Masserene path in the Divis Flats complex, John Murray (26) a father of two small children from Palistine street in the Ormeau Road, and Kevin Brady (30) from Moreland Park, Andersonstown.

An Phoblacht 17 March 1988


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