MPs hear call for public inquiry into Kingsmill massacre

MPs have heard calls for a public inquiry into the Kingsmill Massacre, an attack described by DUP MP Jim Shannon “the pinnacle of evil intention”.

In an adjournment debate on the inquest findings into the killing of 10 Protestant workmen at Kingsmill in Co Armagh in 1976, Mr Shannon called for a “day of reckoning”.

The atrocity, which was one of the most notorious of the Troubles, saw the 10 workmen killed when their minibus was ambushed by a gang of at least 12 men posing as British soldiers outside the village of Kingsmill on their way home from a textiles factory.

In the inquest findings published last week, a coroner ruled the murders were an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”.

The Kingsmill shootings were seen as a retaliatory action in response to loyalist attacks against two Catholic families the day before in which six men were fatally injured.

Mr Shannon told the Commons: “The Kingsmill massacre families deserve more and I very, very humbly ask for that inquiry, that justice, that public inquiry, those questions to be answered for them.”

The Government’s Legacy Bill came into effect this week, meaning all new civil litigation and inquests into Troubles-related deaths which have not completed oral evidence were stopped.

Earlier in the debate Mr Shannon said that the continuation of some police ombudsman cases, despite the Legacy Bill halting other investigations, was “an anomaly”.

He said: “We in this party, and I believe all parties on this side of the chamber, opposed that Legacy Bill in its entirety and yet, not excluding the state bodies. My view was that Government was seeking to cease these cases and not see the furtherance of any police ombudsman cases.

“And I’m afraid that question really has to be answered because there is an anomaly, there is a disparity for those who lost loved ones at Kingsmill and elsewhere, have to have their questions answered.”

Describing the details of the Kingsmill massacre to the Commons, Mr Shannon became emotional saying, “it’s clear that those 10 men were murdered because they were Protestants.”

He said the coroner in the inquest should have named three now-deceased individuals believed to have been involved in perpetrating the attack.

He told MPs: “The coroner failed to name the three known IRA terrorists, individuals who are now deceased themselves and who carried out the killings.

“The corner should have done that; it was common knowledge, but for the purposes of the coroner’s report, they should have been named.”

The MP for Strangford also stated that the Irish police, An Garda Siochana, were not cooperative with investigations into the massacre.

He said: “The excuse within the findings that the Garda were not asked for information that they held at the time is completely, my goodness me, is untenable and further makes a mockery of the current legal proceedings against the Government Legacy legislation, when this clear evidence of their unwillingness then and now to help with investigations is so blatant.”

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker said the Kingsmill murders are an “appalling example of the pain and suffering inflicted on civilians during the troubles”.

He told the Commons: “I have not suffered the losses as (Mr Shannon) has suffered the losses, and I think it’s with great humility therefore that any of us who had any reason to consider the Troubles and what they meant, I think we all with great humility have to acknowledge the suffering of those who lost those they loved.

“And indeed we have to acknowledge the contribution of those who served to defend us from great evils.”

Mr Baker urged the Irish government to co-operate with the independent commission, he said: “The relationship between the UK and Ireland is fundamental, it is fundamental, I think for too long we failed to look West, we should’ve done.

“As it’s often said, one of the problems we face is that the Irish never forget their history and the English never remember, well I think we need to make the effort to remember, and I think we need to make the effort to go forward as friends in the spirit of co-operation.”

He added: “Where questions remain, I urge the families to make use of the powers of the new commission, in seeking answers to those questions.”