Victims' campaigner calls for 'a major humbling of the minds' to give Kingsmill innocents justice

​The SEFF director made the comments after a memorial was held at the site in south Armagh yesterday, where 10 Protestant workers were shot dead in 1976.

The textile workers were shot when their minibus was ambushed outside the village of Kingsmills on their way home from work.

They were asked their religion, and the only Catholic was ordered to run away.

The killers, who had hidden in hedges, forced the 11 remaining men to line up outside the van before opening fire.

Alan Black was the sole survivor.

No-one has ever been convicted for the attack, which the Provisional IRA denied.

However, in April last year following a long-running inquest, a coroner ruled that the shooting dead of the 10 Protestant workmen was an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”.

After the memorial service, Mr Donaldson said: “We were privileged to join with Kingsmill bereaved families, FAIR representatives and the broader community to mark the 49th anniversary since the Kingsmilla massacre.

“Kingsmills was perpetrated by Provisional IRA terrorists in an action motivated by sectarian and ethnic hatred.

“The service was poignant and Rev Graham Middleton oversaw proceedings with a great deal of care and sensitivity.

“Standing at that site to remember is always a difficult experience given the gravity of evil perpetrated. How much more difficult must it be for the families to return there or lone survivor, Alan Black.

“For almost half a century the Kingsmills innocents have been denied justice and accountability, so many have gone to their graves without receiving any resolution to these issues.

“Even at this late stage there is the opportunity for these matters to be redressed. For this to happen there requires to be a major humbling of the minds and hearts of those directly involved, those who shielded them and others within the apparatus of the Irish and UK states who have acted as blockers for progress to be made for the families.

“We also have in mind the O'Dowd and Reavey family who were murdered 24 hours previously to those at Kingsmills; 16 innocents were slaughtered within that 24-hour period, and all were criminal murder and wrong.

"Kingsmill was not a response to the events of the previous day, the HET report of 2012 confirmed that it had been planned for a considerable period, Irish republicanism deployed the attack though at the most opportune time, seeking to claim the cover of legitimate and understandable retaliation - that was and is a lie.

“Terrorism has stolen so much from our people - the lives of loved ones and former colleagues and friends, the continued persecution of victims by terrorists and their political mouthpieces - but they cannot and will not ever stop innocents remembering.”