Brother of murdered victim dismisses Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O'Neill's call for truth and justice for victims of IRA massacre at Kingsmills

Ten Protestant workmen were stopped and gunned down by the IRA at Kingsmills in south Armagh in 1976 as they travelled home from work in a minibus.

Unionist parties have called for a public inquiry into the murders and criticised Sinn Fein for its failure to engage with the Kingsmill inquest. It ran for ten years and closed last week, finding it had been an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”.

The atrocity was claimed under the name of the South Armagh Republican Action Force, however Coroner Brian Sherrard found that the IRA was responsible.

He heavily criticised the IRA and Sinn Fein for failing to engage with the inquest despite persistent appeals over ten years.

Mr Sherrard also said Kingsmills was the only legacy inquest where those responsible for deaths refused to give evidence.

The IRA has never admitted responsibility.

The sole survivor of the shooting, Alan Black, and relatives of one of the victims have called for a public inquiry into the attack, insisting the coronial proceedings had failed to answer their questions.

Ms O’Neill described last week – which also saw the inquest findings into the deaths of three IRA members at the hands of the army at Coagh, Co Tyrone, and also a challenge by government to an inquest into the death of GAA official Sean Brown – as “very bruising”.

“Let me be again categorical, I am sorry for every loss of life throughout the conflict, but my job as a political leader of today is to build towards the future, is to try and help to heal the wounds of the past,” she told the media at the official opening of a distillery at the former Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast today.

Ms O’Neill said the Kingsmill inquest “underlines why we need to deal with the past properly”, and criticised the UK government’s legacy Act as “driving a coach and horses through the desires, wishes and needs of all families”.

“That includes the Kingsmill families who deserve truth and justice, who deserve a public inquiry, who deserve answers, but for my job as leader of today, I speak for Sinn Fein, I speak as First Minister in front of you today, I am sorry for every lost life including those in the Kingsmill disaster,” she added.

But Mr Worton said the fact that Sinn Fein ignored persistent appeals from the coroner over ten years for information said much more that her brief comments yesterday.

"If Michelle O'Neill really believes what she says, why did they not contact the coroner's office to assist with the inquest over the ten year period?” he asked.

"It would have shown that they have moved on, but personally don't believe that they have. They are still the mouthpiece of an armed organisation that murdered my brother and his friends.

"They had ample time to engage with the inquest; it made public appeals for information repeatedly over ten years for those with information to come forward.”

Karen Armstrong, whose brother John McConville was murdered in the attack, expressed similar views after the inquest closed.

‘We are disappointed but not surprised that the PIRA would not participate in the inquest despite numerous pleas from the Coroner,” she said.

"They were not prepared or honourable enough to confront their barbaric actions in the court room. This represents the blatant disregard they have to truth recovery. We hope that this will be noted and considered by Sinn Féin.”

Presenting his findings on Friday, coroner Brian Sherrard singled out the political representatives of the IRA and the terror group itself for failing to make any disclosures to the inquest or even admit “the utter wrongness” of the attack.

“The glaring omission in the Inquest,” he said, “was the absence of any disclosure or evidence from those who caused the deaths. Unlike other ‘legacy’ inquests which have examined the actions of the state in directly causing death, those responsible for the deaths at Kingsmills have not given an account either personally or through any organisation or any political party.

“Numerous calls to assist and provide answers were met with silence. Accordingly the inquest did not receive disclosure from any individual concerned in the attack, nor their organisation nor their political representatives although expert evidence was given that records may well exist.”

He added: “There has been no recognition by any perpetrator or their organisation or political representatives as to the utter wrongness of the attack which served to end the lives of 10 men and to devastate the lives of untold others.”

TUV party chairman councillor Keith Ratcliffe also hit back against Ms O’Neill.

“The Jesuitical words from O’Neill about the Kingsmill inquest will cut no ice with those with any knowledge of the massacre,” he said.

“It is nauseatingly hypocritical for her to say that the families deserve truth and justice when the IRA who she continues to defend continue to maintain the fiction that they were not involved. To utter such words after a finding that Sinn Fein and the wider Republican movement had failed to cooperate with the inquest is reprehensible.”

The attack was ostensibly in response to the murderous loyalist attacks on the Reavey and O’Dowd families the day before Kingsmills, the coroner said.

However he said the Kingsmills attack “was not spontaneous but had been planned well in advance”.

He added: “The IRA failed to engage with the Inquest. There has been no acknowledgement by the IRA of the utter wrongness of the atrocity, its impact on those bereaved or the damage caused to the entire community. Kingsmill was an overtly sectarian attack by the IRA. It was mounted because the deceased men were Protestants and for no other reason.”

Sinn Fein was invited to respond.