Kingsmill Massacre 1976
The Kingsmill Massacre occurred in southern County Armagh on January 5, 1976 during the Northern Ireland conflict . Ten Protestant men were shot dead by members of the Provisional IRA . The incident occurred during a truce and was considered the culmination of a series of killings and retaliatory attacks between Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries in the region known as "tit-for-tat". The Kingsmill massacre was one of the most casualty, firearm crimes of the Northern Ireland conflict.
prehistory
The south of County Armagh was due to the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional IRA (PIRA) operating here as a no-go area for British security forces and was also referred to by them as "Bandit Country". The strength of the IRA in this area was due, among other things, to the high level of support from the predominantly Catholic population and the location of the county on the border with Ireland , in which many sympathizers and supporters lived. In addition, the neighboring country could also be used as a retreat and base of operations, as British troops were not allowed to cross the border. Attacks from Irish territory were not uncommon.
However, Protestant groups such as the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Glenanne gang , which also included soldiers from the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR) and police officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), also operated in Armagh . From December 1974 talks took place between the conflicting parties, which led to an armistice from February 1975. The IRA wanted to stop its attacks against British security forces, while the latter reduced their search activities in return.
Some Provisionals saw the talks with the British as a violation of IRA principles and feared that their organization would be weakened and infiltrated during peacetime. Loyalist dissidents, on the other hand, wanted to prevent a British troop withdrawal from Northern Ireland and the associated considerable loss of influence. Some military already saw the IRA on the defensive and had to cease their operations, which raised fears that the "Provos" could recover and make up lost ground.
As a result, a number of violent crimes, labeled sectarian, were committed to undermine the peace process. The most famous incidents were the "Miami Showband killings" in July 1975 of members of an Irish rock band, the attack on the Protestant Tullyvallan Orange Hall in September 1975 by a self-proclaimed South Armagh Republican Action Force, and the "Reavey and O '" perpetrated against Catholics by Protestants. Dowd killings ”from January 1976, just one day before the Kingsmill massacre.
Course of the massacre
The massacre occurred on January 5, 1976 at around 5:30 p.m. on Kingsmill Road between Whitecross and Bessbrook, when a Ford Transit minibus was stopped at a difficult-to-see place by a uniformed man who, due to his appearance and dialect, was stopped for a British soldier was held. Shortly afterwards, more gunmen appeared from the bushes in the area. The van had five Catholic and ten Protestant workers from a Glenanne textile factory on board, with four of the Catholics already disembarking in Whitecross. Whitecross was the scene of the murder of members of the Catholic Reavey family the day before. The Protestant workers and the remaining Catholic were from Bessbrook, the driver of the minibus was a Protestant from Mountnorris.
The occupants of the bus had to get out and stand in a row, with the only Catholic being singled out and allowed to walk along the street. At the command of the spokesman, the eleven Protestants were struck down by fire from semi-automatic and fully automatic rifles. One of the Protestants survived with 18 injuries and was later able to provide information about the course of the crime. Other survivors lying on the ground are said to have been executed at close range. An escape vehicle of the perpetrators was later found in County Louth, Ireland .
consequences
The ten fatalities were between 19 and 58 years old and left behind 14 children. The South Armagh Republican Action Force , which first appeared in September 1975 and is said to have operated outside the authority of the IRA leadership, assumed responsibility for the attack . Since the IRA never confessed to the massacre, none of the perpetrators could be traced and two survivors reported that a spokesman for the perpetrators spoke in an English accent, some sources suspect British involvement in the crime.
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the deployment of the Special Air Service (SAS) to South Armagh in response to the escalating violence, officially confirming the presence of this special unit in Northern Ireland for the first time.
Around 150 cartridge cases, projectiles and fragments that could be linked to eleven firearms were found at the scene. Ballistic comparisons revealed that these weapons were used in 37 murders and 22 attempted murders, among others.
In June 1976, IRA member Raymond McCreesh was arrested while attacking a British Army post in South Armagh. He was carrying an assault rifle, which was identified as one of Kingsmill's murder weapons. Since weapons of the IRA were administered by a quartermaster and given to different people depending on the project and purpose, McCreesh's involvement in the Kingsmill massacre could not be proven. He died in 1981 while on hunger strike in Maze Prison .
In June 2011, the Historical Inquiries Team (HET) of the Northern Irish Police came to the conclusion that the perpetrators came from the ranks of the Provisional IRA and that the victims were murdered because of their religious affiliation. In 2013, Attorney General John Larkin commissioned an investigation into the massacre. A handprint seized on the getaway vehicle in Ireland could only be linked to a 59-year-old man from County Armagh in 2016, who had a previous conviction for IRA activities. In February 2017, North's Public Prosecution Service announced that the evidence was inadequate to convict him and announced the end of the criminal prosecution.
A memorial in Kingsmill commemorates the massacre.
literature
- Wasted Years, Wasted Lives by Ken Wharton