12-05-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Families of Kingsmill massacre victims call for Provisional IRA perpetrators to be named
A legacy body set up to help victims uncover the truth is facing pressure from relatives of those killed in the Kingsmills massacre to name the deceased IRA suspects.
Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW), which is assisting some of the families, welcomed the decision of the Independent Commission of Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRAR) to investigate the atrocity.
Bereaved relatives have described the move as "real progress and a significant advance for relatives" with some demanding that the dead men suspected of carrying out the attack on a minibus full of textile workers as they travelled home from work near Kingsmills in south Armagh in 1976 be named.
Kenneth Worton, whose brother Colin was among those slain, wants real answers.
'We have an opportunity here to get answers to events that surrounded the massacre,' he said.
'Forty-nine years on from these brutal slayings, we have been given some hope by this decision by the ICRIR to launch an investigation.
'Families can only expect limited closure but naming those who gunned down our relatives would be a positive step.'
Watch: Kingsmill report finds failings in original probe and 'wholly insufficient' use of resources to catch IRA killers
The Kingsmill legacy inquest coroner ruled that approach out as part of the process.
Ten Protestant workmen were murdered in the IRA attack near Whitecross with the youngest victim aged only 18-years-old – he was Robert Chambers.
One worker, Richard Hughes, was prevented by his concerned colleagues from revealing his religious identify when one of the gunmen asked which one was Catholic.
When Hughes did reveal himself, he was instructed to 'Get down the road and don't look back' before his 11 colleagues were then shot.
Then 32-year-old Alan Black was the sole survivor.
Almost 50 years later, the ICRAR has formally accepted the request by two families to investigate the sectarian killings.
UHRW Advocacy worker, Jonathan Larner said the Irish government had been 'dragging its heels on Kingsmill as with all cross-border cases'.
'Families want to see Dublin become fully engaged with the ICRIR and agree to open their files,' he said.
'The role of the Gardaí deserves close scrutiny if we are to get to the truth and if suspicions of collusion are to be addressed.'
'This decision by the ICRIR is real progress and a significant advance for relatives.
'Kingsmill families have waited long enough for answers which merely served to retraumatise them and cause pain and anguish.
'They hope to learn why, for example, Public Interest Immunity Certificates were issued and what they were attempting to conceal.
'Also concerning are the reasons for the Irish 'closed court'. Why and what purpose did that serve?
'We're trying to shine a light into a dark corner and the hope has to be that the ICRIR unearths information that gives the families some closure and peace.'
'UHRW calls on the Republic of Ireland Government to effectively commit itself to co-operating fully and unreservedly with the ICRIR providing unfettered access to the information it holds in relation to this barbaric atrocity.'
The names of the 11 suspected perpetrators, who are now deceased, were not revealed by the Kingsmill massacre coroner back in April 2024.
Families have submitted 57 questions to the ICRAR.
John Bryans (46), Reginald Chapman (29), Walter Chapman (35), Robert Freeburn (50), Joseph Lemmon (46), John McConville (20), James McWhirter (58) and Robert Walker (46) were also among the victims.
