A permanent monument to the Kingsmill victims that was unveiled at the site of the atrocity last year
The identity of IRA members who butchered 10 Protestant workmen in one of the most brutal sectarian attacks of the Troubles may be revealed shortly by ‘cold case’ detectives.
One, nicknamed ‘the Major’, lived in the Dundalk area and is expected to be named, along with other IRA men during the inquest into the 1976 Kingsmill atrocity, which begins in just over a week’s time.
The Kingsmill victims were Joseph Lemmon (46), Reginald Chapman (25) and his 23-year-old brother Walter Chapman, Kenneth Worton (24), James McWhirter (58), Robert Chambers (19), John McConville (20), John Bryans (46), Robert Freeburn (50), and Robert Walker (46).
The Kingsmill massacre took place on 5th January 1976 near the village of Kingsmill in south County Armagh. Gunmen stopped 11 Protestant workmen travelling on a minibus, lined them up beside it and shot them. A Catholic workman was unharmed. One of the shot men survived, despite having been shot 18 times. A group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force claimed responsibility and said the attack was retaliation for the killing of six Catholics the night before.
