In 1981, Bobby Sands a native of Greater Belfast, was the first of ten Republican prisoners to die on hunger strike in pursuit of political status. The event provoked major rioting in nationalist areas of the city. During the 1980s, the most notorious series of incidents in the city took place within a week in 1988. Firstly, a Republican funeral was attacked by loyalist Michael Stone "(see Milltown Cemetery attack)", then, the following week at the funerals of Stone's victims, two off-duty soldiers were lynched in the "corporals killings".