Delay of Kingsmill massacre files a ‘disgrace’

An ongoing failure by the gardaí to disclose its files on the massacre of 10 workmen in Armagh, despite a pledge by the Taoiseach, borderson disgraceful, Belfast Coroner’s Court has heard.

Lawyers for those bereaved by the Kingsmill murders in 1976 criticised officials in Dublin for not passing over the Garda documents over two months after Enda Kenny publicly committed to the handover.

The Protestant textile workers were gunned down after a masked gang stopped their minibus close to the Armagh village of Kingsmill as they were travelling home from work. They were forced to line up alongside the van and ordered to divulge their religion. The only Catholic worker was told to flee the scene while the 11 remaining workers were shot.

Fiona Doherty QC, who represents the sole survivor of the attack, Alan Black, was scathing in her assessment after the coroner’s court was told the State solicitor’s office had written to say it was not in a position to give a date for disclosure.

“This is a matter of deep regret. It is bordering on disgraceful that An Taoiseach’s commitments have been allowed to fall by the wayside,” she said, adding that Mr Kenny’s pledge had raised “considerable expectation” among the families. “Those expectations to date have been dashed.”

The murders, which were widely blamed on the IRA, although it never admitted responsibility, involved a cross-border element, with the vehicle used by the killers both stolen and then dumped in Louth.

Mr Kenny’s remarks seemed to end months of uncertainty over whether the new inquest would be able to access the potentially crucial Garda papers.

Barrister Neil Rafferty, acting for Beatrice Worton whose son Kenneth was killed, told coroner John Leckey that, without the Garda files, the inquest could only investigate “half of the story”.

“My clients and other families met An Taoiseach in March and face-to-face, eye-to-eye, were told this material would be looked at, it would receive full co-operation, and it would be with your office within two weeks,” said Mr Rafferty.

“Quite simply, my elderly clients can’t reconcile what someone like An Taoiseach says and the correspondence that your officials have received from the solicitors in Dublin.

“We can’t reconcile that at the highest political level we are told this will receive full co-operation yet when it gets to the official solicitor’s offices not one paper clip, not one sheet of paper, has made its way north.”

Mr Rafferty said his clients did not blame Mr Kenny. “There is the political will at the highest level to co-operate,” he said. “But at a lower level there seems to be an inexplicable delay in co-operating.”

Mr Leckey, the coroner, said Mr Kenny would not have made such comments lightly. “When the Taoiseach said what he said, it wouldn’t have been off-the-cuff remarks, they would have been considered,” he said.

The latest letter from lawyers in Dublin who are handling the disclosure said “outstanding issues” still had to be resolved before a date for handover could be fixed.

Mr Leckey told his legal representatives to request that the State solicitor’s office provide a firm timetable by the end of the month. He said if none was forthcoming, he would consider raising the issue with Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers in a bid to resolve it with dialogue between the two governments.

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