UK fails to press Sinn Fein on Kingsmills Massacre inquest because no nationalist murders - Doug Beattie
The Government failed to ask Sinn Fein why it didn’t engage with the Kingsmills Massacre inquest because the atrocity is seen as "a lesser crime" than those committed against nationalists, it is claimed.
UUP justice spokesman Doug Beattie MLA was speaking after attending a commemoration, on Monday, for the 10 Protestant workmen, 50 years after they were shot dead by IRA gunmen.
The massacre took place near Kingsmills in south Armagh on January 5 1976 as they travelled home from work. Alan Black survived being shot 18 times.
The IRA never accepted responsibility for the attack and Sinn Fein has never accepted that the IRA was responsible either.
However the legacy inquest found ballistics records showed that weapons used had a long history of use by the IRA - and that no other group was capable of such an attack.
Mr Beattie told the News Letter that the Historical Enquiries Team found it had been planned long in advance – and was purely sectarian.
"There are also questions for Sinn Fein which have never been asked by the Northern Ireland Office or the UK Government, who provide them with funding,” he said.
The questions are, he said;-
:: “Why would they [Sinn Fein] not cooperate with the Kingsmill inquest?
:: “Why was it left to the inquest judge to criticise those who supported the Provisional IRA unit that conducted these murders and refused to cooperate with the inquest?”
Mr Beattie added: "It seems that the murder of ten men, returning from a day’s work, is viewed as a lesser crime than any committed against the nationalist community.”
In response, a Government spokesperson did not directly address Mr Beattie's complaints.
The Government spokesman said its "deepest sympathies" are with the families and Alan Black, and reiterated the coroners' findings that it was "a horrific sectarian terror attack, carried out by the IRA and been planned well in advance".
The spokesman added: "It has been confirmed that these killings are being investigated by the ICRIR, which is being reformed via the Troubles Bill to further enhance its ability to seek answers for families.
"As part of the Joint Framework agreed last year, the Irish Government has committed to facilitating the fullest possible cooperation of the Irish authorities with a reformed Legacy Commission."
In his summing up in 2024, the Kingsmills coroner singled out the political representatives of the IRA and the terror group itself – three times – for failing to make any disclosures to the inquest or even admit "the utter wrongness" of the attack.
Unlike other inquests which examined the actions of the state, he said, those responsible for Kingsmills “have not given an account either personally or through any organisation or any political party” despite “numerous calls to assist”.
Soon after, RTE asked Michelle O'Neill whether the IRA should have been more honest about its involvement and whether she now wished to apologise on behalf of the wider republican movement.
She was not reported as addressing either point directly. Instead she said she was “sorry for every loss of life during the conflict”.
In January 2018 Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd told the BBC the massacre was "shameful" and purely sectarian. However, he would not state that it was carried out by the IRA.
Sinn Fein was invited to comment.