Kingsmills Massacre suspects: Sole survivor Alan Black says failure of Garda to open crime file into IRA atrocity 'collusion'

The Kingsmills Massacre took place in south Armagh in 1976 when the IRA gunned down ten Protestant workmen as they travelled home from work.

At the last hearing of the legacy inquest into the atrocity on Friday, Fiona Doherty KC, acting for relatives, criticised how Garda handled their investigation.

She noted that "no crime file was opened in the Republic of Ireland in relation to Kingsmills", despite, she noted, the IRA getaway minibus having been hijacked and dumped in Co Louth.

If Garda had done so, she added, they could have matched the palm print found on the inside passenger door of the getaway minibus to suspect S54 - as Garda already held his palm print on file.

She added that the palm print should have been shared with the Northern Ireland authorities.

It was not until the NI legacy inquest was well underway in 2016 that the PSNI actually matched the palm print to the suspect – defending themselves on the basis that Garda only gave it to them in 2010.

The PPS later said they could not prosecute S54 due to a lack of records about how the van was forensically handled after being found outside Dundalk in 1976.

Sir John (now Lord) Stevens defined collusion in NI as ranging from "the wilful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence and evidence, through to the extreme of agents being involved in murder".

Alan Black said that if police in NI had failed to open a crime file on such an atrocity, people would have labelled it as collusion with terrorists.

"They definitely would have done," he said.

The fact that the Irish government drafted special legislation in 2019 to ensure Garda would only give evidence to his inquest in a secret Dublin hearing also doesn't look good for the Garda, he said.

"It looks terrible on them. The collusion goes all the way to the top... no one knows who was there when they gave evidence in Dublin, or what was asked and what the answers were."

UUP leader Doug Beattie MC MLA said: “The manner in which the families of those who were brutally murdered at Kingsmill have been treated by the Irish Government and Garda has been deplorable.

“The failure to investigate fully, or even open a file into the atrocity, as well as a delay of 8 years in giving evidence shows a complete disregard for the suffering of these families.

“Why are the families forbidden from disclosing what the Garda divulged at the inquest? Is it a case that a failure to investigate fully is being hidden by the authorities and if so why? This inquest has now kicked up more questions than answers.”

The Garda responded that it does not comment on matters before inquests.