The Five Demands

Monument unveiled to victim’s of the IRA’s Kingsmills massacre (NewsLetter)

The Protestant community of south Armagh expressed a deep groan of anguish and betrayal last night as they unveiled a new monument to mark one of Northern Ireland’s worst atrocities.

Ten innocent Protestant workmen were ambushed by the IRA as they drove home from work in a minibus in 1976 in what became known as the Kingsmills massacre.

Last night relatives of those murdered and their representatives expressed a deep sense of betrayal by politicians and police and said they felt any hope of justice had been sacrificed for “political expediency”.

An estimated 800 people attended the unveiling of the memorial wall on the minor road near Bessbrook, with people coming from across Northern Ireland to attend.

Elected representatives from all unionist parties attended, although only clergymen, a representative of the Orange Order and victims campaigner Willie Frazer addressed the crowd.

Two young girls also came forward to say a few words of tribute to the grandfather that they never met – Kenneth Worton, who was gunned down at the age of 24.

However, one of the young girls became too emotional to speak and was led away in tears.

The Rev Frank Gibson, from Kingsmills Presbyterian Church, said: “We know political expediency has almost destroyed the idea of a victim but the Lord knows and we leave these matters in His hands and we trust the Lord God Almighty will indeed perfect His will in these matters.”

He added: “There seems to be no will to track down those responsible. No determination to bring to justice those who perpetrated such cruelty in our midst in this lovely part of God’s earth.”

The event was interwoven with old time hymns, a Scottish piper and a bugler playing The Last Post.

Pastor Barrie Halliday recounted how the 10 men were called out of their minibus by what they thought was an army patrol, before being lined up against their minibus and cut down in “a mighty burst of gunfire”.

Those who died were Joseph Lemmon, Reginald Chapman, his younger brother Walter Chapman, Kenneth Worton, James McWhirter, Robert Chambers, John McConville, John Bryans, Robert Freeburn and Robert Walker.

Mr Halliday protested that the Kingsmills families “aren’t allowed to grieve without mentioning other tragedies”, at which point he paid tribute to Mrs [Sadie] Reavey, who had three sons murdered by the UVF in south Armagh the day before Kingsmills.

However, he pointed out that the Historical Enquiries Team found that the IRA operation had taken at least six months in planning and could not have been in retaliation.

He asked: “Do you understand how bad a situation we are in?”

He protested that history is being “rewritten” to allow a children’s playground in Newry to be named after “rotten filthy murderers like Raymond McCreesh”, whom he pointed out was convicted of IRA offences after being captured with one of the weapons used at Kingsmills.

He also said the Chief Constable had said recently that he “really can’t afford” to reinvestigate the Kingsmills massacre and added: “There is not another Chief Constable in the world who would say that.”

Mr Halliday told those present: “I hope you don’t look to Stormont – there is no help coming from the big house.”

Former UUP MP Rev Martin Smyth told those gathered that the 10 men were not murdered because they were bad neighbours.

“But because they were looked on as aliens in a land in which they were born.”

He closed citing scripture: “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord”, adding that the killers will be accountable “if not to the law of the land then to the law of God”.

County Grand Master of the Orange Order Denis Watson got the first and loudest applause of the night with an appeal to all of the MLAs present – Willie Irwin of the DUP, Danny Kennedy of the UUP and Jim Allister of the TUV.

“I would challenge each and every one of you to work tirelessly to ensure we do not see the establishment of any shrine at the Maze,” he said.

Victims’ campaigner Willie Frazer said he remembered politicians had told people along the border during the Troubles: “If the border goes, the rest of the country goes.”

He added that the border battle against terrorism had been fought at a “very, very high price”.

Some men who received Victoria Crosses had done less than what some of the men walking modestly around south Armagh had done during the Troubles, he said.

He too protested strongly against the possibility of “a shrine” at the Maze.

Some Catholic neighbours said they would like to have attended last night’s event, but they did not dare being seen there, he said.

And he likened calls from Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly for a truth commission to “asking the devil to tell the truth”.

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• Monument unveiled to victim’s of the IRA’s Kingsmills massacre (newsletter.co.uk)
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