Alf McCreary: We should never forget the act of the utmost savagery of Kingsmills

In another attack some 15 miles away three members of the Catholic O’Dowd family died in another loyalist paramilitary attack.

Thus within a short period, sixteen innocent victims from both main communities died in a nightmarish outburst of killings which stunned the entire community in Northern Ireland and further afield, and these horrible examples of sectarian violence were rightly condemned on all sides.

There were many other examples of sectarian and other murders during the Troubles, but the Kingsmills massacre has stayed in my mind because it took place in South Armagh near my home village of Bessbrook and also because I knew some of the people who died, and also the sole survivor Alan Black.

I also remember that period vividly because I was sent down to Bessbrook the next day by my editor Roy Lilley to report for The Belfast Telegraph on the aftermath of the violence which by that stage was receiving national and international publicity.

I drove to Bessbrook that morning, not quite knowing where to start, so I began by speaking to Danny Chapman, whom I had known well during my earlier days in Bessbrook.

Danny had the awful task of identifying two of the victims, his nephews Walter and Reggie Chapman.

Danny, who was very distressed, said to me: “I went in to see them, and they were lying dead like dogs. You can print that in your paper.” Which I did.

I was also shaken because I had known Walter Chapman who had been with me in the local primary school, and had also delivered the Royal Mail with me at Christmas when I was earning a few pounds to help my meagre finances during my first year as a student at Queen’s.

Later that day I visited the home of Jimmy McWhirter, another of the victims.

When I was in the Boy Scouts years earlier, it was Jimmy who had driven our troop from Bessbrook to Belfast to catch a steamer for our annual camp in the Isle of Man.

At Jimmy’s wake I spoke to his widow and other members of the family but even as a man of words I had no sufficient words for such an occasion.

After conducting a few more interviews, and noticing that the village Christmas tree was drooping over badly as if in mourning, I filed my copy and drove back to Belfast.

The memories of that day have never left me, nor indeed the memories of the funerals in Bessbrook Presbyterian Church, where I had been a member of the Sunday School where I had first learned about God.

On the day of the funerals I wondered where God had been at Kingmills but it was the evil of men bent on carnage who had killed ten innocents and imploded their families.

Some months afterwards I was completing my first book on the Troubles, titled Survivors, and I returned to Bessbrook to interview Alan Black who had kindly agreed to talk.

Alan and I were both around the same age and had lived together in Bessbrook before I left for Queen’s when I was 18.

Alan talked to me in depth and told me what had happened at Kingsmills. It was an amazing story.

After the shooting he had been left for dead and shortly afterwards he was being taken by ambulance to Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry.

He had remarkable recall, and he remembered the medical people saying “ten black, one white”. He thought, “I am the only black” but then he realised “that’s their code -’black’ for ten dead. I am the only survivor.”

At the hospital the emergency medical teams were ready, but the only padre available at such short notice was a Catholic priest who took Alan’s hand and said: “Would you like me to say a prayer?”

Alan replied: “I am not of your flock but I could do with a prayer right now.” It was one of the most moving details imaginable - a Catholic priest praying for a Protestant who had been riddled with 18 bullets by Republican paramilitaries, some of whom were at least nominally Catholics.

Alan Black survived, against all the odds, and with the skilled medical and nursing care of those who were presumably from the Protestant and Catholic communities.

After our interview in Bessbrook some months later, Alan took me to the spot at Kingsmills and showed me where the shooting had taken place.

I was the first journalist to stand there, and I found it a chilling experience.

Since then I have followed Alan’s career closely, and I have admired greatly his dignity and courage as he has helped to lead the fight for justice for the families of those who died.

I also feel a great anger for those few people who still must know those responsible for the Kingsmills Massacre and have remained silent. The same applies to those responsible for the Enniskillen Cenotaph murders, and for the atrocities committed on all sides.

That is why we should never forget the anniversaries like Kingsmills, Enniskillen, Greysteel and all the rest. It is the least we can do to remember those who died and are still suffering.

l Alf McCreary’s latest book Keeping the Faith is published by Messenger at 12.95 and is available at local bookshops and from Amazon).