The World - News from March 23, 1988

A Protestant gunman was charged in a Belfast court in the killing of three mourners at a Roman Catholic funeral in Northern Ireland last week, an attack with grenades and gunfire that wounded 68 others. He told police that he “alone carried out this military operation in retaliation for the murder of innocents” by the outlawed Irish Republican Army. Michael Stone, 32, an unemployed construction worker, appeared in court still showing the effects of a beating by angry mourners and was charged with three other sectarian killings dating back to 1984. The funeral last week was for three IRA guerrillas slain as they allegedly were preparing a bombing attack in Gibraltar.