'˜I'm not shocked by McElduff video '“ the IRA mocked my dead relatives'

Dianne Woods, whose uncle Thomas Bullock and his wife Emily were shot dead at their rural home in Aghalane, Co Fermanagh, in September 1972, recalled the taunting message her family received in the wake of the bloodshed.

She said that after the killings, someone had phoned a local abattoir and told them that “we’ve got two more Bullocks for you”.

The Enniskillen ex-UDR lance corporal said she had seen the video of Barry McElduff balancing a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head soon after he posted it, mere minutes into the anniversary of the Kingsmills massacre last Friday.

The video has sparked widespread anger, drawing condemnation from the Orange Order, Presbyterian church, and the public at large.

Mr McElduff is currently suspended for three months on full pay by Sinn Fein.

Ms Woods told the News Letter: “I was actually disgusted, but not surprised. Because I just think they have no moral code.

“What actually disgusted me just as much was the fact he got three months suspension.

“This line about he more or less saw it as a joke, and didn’t mean any hurt [to] the survivor or family members, that’s just an absolute insult to people’s intelligence.

“Do they really expect decent people for one minute that was just a pure coincidence that it was done on that date?

“That is just another punch below the belt. And I’m not surprised at all.

“I wouldn’t expect any better of Sinn Fein.”

According to the book ‘Lost Lives’, Mr Bullock was a 53-year-old farmer, who was in the UDR.

It goes on to quote a description of the killing from a book called ‘The Ulster Defence Regiment’: “Mrs Bullock was instantly shot in the chest at the front porch and the gunmen then stepped over her dead body and went inside where they shot her husband several times in the head and neck ...

“Later in the evening, a hostile crowd from a dancehall blocked the path of two hearses which were on their way to collect the bodies.”

Mr McElduff has apologised for causing offence, and said that he did not imagine his video of a Kingsmill loaf would be linked to the Kingsmills massacre in people’s minds.

Earlier this week, Noel Downey told the News Letter of how he had been taunted by republicans after a hidden bomb detonated under his car at a Fermanagh pub in 1990, costing him his left leg.

A sign appeared soon afterwards near the crime scene, saying that the pub was a good place “to get legless”.

In more recent times, the UDA mocked Danny McColgan, a 20-year-old Catholic father who worked for the Royal Mail, after shooting him to death in Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, in 2002.

The Guardian reported that graffiti appeared on the Shankill Road afterwards reading: ‘Harry Potter is dead’ – a reference to the victim’s extremely youthful looks and round-rimmed glasses.