Kingsmill massacre

The Kingsmill Massacre was a shooting that happened on January 5th, 1976 near Whitecross in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Gunmen from a breakaway group of the Provisional IRA stopped a minibus carrying Protestant workmen, lined them against the van and shot them dead. 11 men were shot, 10 of which died; 1 of the victims survived, despite being shot 18 times. One Catholic man on the minibus was allowed to leave without incident. A group called the South Armagh Republican Action Force (often shortened to simply Republican Action Force) claimed responsibility, saying that the massacre was revenge for the Reavey and O'Dowd killings by Loyalist gunmen the night before. The area the massacre happened in was known for frequent revenge murders during the Troubles.

A 2011 Historical Enquiries Team (HET) report concluded that members of the Provisional IRA committed the Kingsmill Massacre, despite the group being on ceasefire at that time. The workmen were targeted, partly because of the Loyalist murders the night before and partly because they were Protestants.

After the massacre, the British government declared County Armagh as a "Special Emergency Area". Hundreds of extra soldiers and armed police were deployed in the area. The SAS was also deployed into the county.

Background

In February of 1975, the IRA and British government entered a ceasefire and began to work peace negotiations. Despite both agreeing to stop attacks for the meantime, some on both sides refused to cooperate and continued to fight as dissenters. Particularly, Protestant terrorists ramped up the brutality of their murders of Catholic civilians in an attempt to anger the IRA and push them to retaliate, effectively breaking the peace process. Members of the IRA formed breakaway groups and often violently retaliated without the organisation's official order to do so, Kingsmill being just one such instance. Some in the British security forces were dismayed by the ceasefire, due to only recently have claimed to have the IRA on the run when it was called. The security forces greatly increased their intelligence offensive during the ceasefire, regularly infiltrating the IRA.

During the ceasefire, several paramilitary groups on both sides (namely the Glennane Gang of the Loyalist side and the South Armagh Republican Action Force of the Republican side) targeted civilians in the hopes it would break the ceasefire with mounting tension. IRA leadership reportedly criticised its South Armagh Brigade for being involved with sectarian killings during the ceasefire. Between the start of the ceasefire (10 February 1975) and Kingsmill (January 5th 1976), Loyalist groups killed 35 Catholics in and around County Armagh and Republican groups killed 16 Protestants, as well as an additional 17 members of security forces.

The 2011 HET report found that while the massacre at Kingsmill was in response to the Reavey and O'Dowd killings the night before, the attack was also planned beforehand. The killings are thought to have made the final push for the gunmen to act on the Kingsmill Massacre.

Massacre

On January 5th, 1976, 16 workmen boarded a red Ford Transit minibus after a day's work at the textile factory they worked in. 4 of the Catholic workmen were dropped off at Whitecross before carrying on a rural road towards Bessbrook. As the bus crossed a hill, they were stopped by a man flashing a torch. As they came to a stop, 11 masked men armed with semiautomatic rifles came out from the hedges nearby. A man "with a pronounced English accent" ordered the workers to get out of the van and line up faced against it. He then asked which man was Catholic. Only 1, Richard Hughes, was Catholic. His fellow workmen initially tried to prevent him from identifying himself, for fear that the men were Loyalists seeking to kill him. However, once Hughes stepped forward, the man ordered him to "Get down the road, and don't look back". Once done, the gunman gave the order and the others shot at the Protestant workmen. The men were struck with more than 100 rounds of ammunition in less than a minute. The gunmen reloaded their weapons and with an order of "Finish them off," fired at the heap of bodies again. One gunman fired an extra bullet into each man's head to make sure they were dead. Once done, the gunmen walked away calmly.

Memorial to the 10 victims killed in the Kingsmill Massacre

10 men died; John Bryans, Robert Chambers, Reginald and Walter Chapman, Robert Freeburn, Joseph Lemmon, John McConville, James McWhirter, Robert Walker and Kenneth Worton. The 11th victim, Alan Black, faked death and survived, despite being shot 18 times; the bullet to his head had only grazed him. A married couple later came across Black lying in a ditch. Black went to a hospital in Newry and eventually recovered. Richard Hughes got a ride to an RUC station and reported the murders.

Some of the Reavey family came across the bodies as they were driving to a local hospital to collect the dead bodies of their relatives killed the night before. This led to claims that the Reavey's themselves committed the massacre as revenge for their family member's deaths. Many Loyalists attempted to wrongly portray the Reavey's as murderers, specifically Eugene Reavey. Ian Paisley claimed in 1999 that Reavey was "A well known Republican" and "Set up the massacre". Parliamentary privilege meant he couldn't be prosecuted for his remarks. This caused outrage among both the Reavey's and other Republicans and Catholics in Ireland alike. Eugene Reavey called on Paisley to apologise many times, though he refused to do so right up until his death in 2014. Reavey has since called on Ian Paisley's son, Ian Paisley Jr. to apologise, though he has refused to comment any further.

Aftermath

The identities of the 11 gunmen have never been discovered. Suspects have arisen over the years, though none have been officially confirmed. The massacre is remembered as one of the most violent and petty of the 1970s period of the Troubles.

Alan Black went on to do much cross-community work after the massacre, for which he was awarded an MBE for in 2021. He accepted his MBE in memory of his 10 colleagues who died in the massacre. Richard Hughes died in 2008 and reportedly "never forgot that when the gunmen demanded that the Catholics step forward, the Chapman brothers, Reggie and Walter, on either side of him, each placed a hand on his arm to stop him from doing so."