A recent inquest has ruled that the 1976 killing of 10 men in County Armagh was an overtly sectarian attack carried out by the IRA. The victims were Protestant workmen who were shot dead when a group ambushed their minibus near Kingsmills on 5th January 1976. The gunmen stopped the victims’ van and asked which of them was a Catholic. The men were ordered to leave the scene, and the remaining were shot. The families of the victims have demanded an official investigation into the murders; however, no-one has ever been held accountable.
The coroner, Judge Sherrard, confirmed that the attack was carried out by a group consisting of at least 12 members of the IRA who were posing as an army patrol. While loyalist and republican paramilitaries carried out tit-for-tat murders throughout The Troubles, they randomly killed people based on their religion. Shortly after the Kingsmills attack, the so-called South Armagh Republican Action Force took responsibility for the attack, but the coroner called that claim a lie.
The IRA had failed to co-operate with the inquest. Judge Sherrard also said that the Kingsmills attack was planned “well in advance”, ostensibly in direct response to attacks on the Reavey and O’Dowd families by loyalist terrorists. He confirmed that the attack was carried out by the IRA, acting with the authority of the Army Council.
Rumours have spread over the press that informers were allowed to continue their criminal activity after the massacre to protect them. The coroner declared that no evidence suggests that individuals were protected after the Kingsmills massacre to enable them to continue acting as informers. The killing had been a purely sectarian attack, and only one man, Alan Black, survived despite being shot 18 times. The IRA has never publicly accepted its involvement, although it was on a “ceasefire” at the time
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