Kingsmill Victims families seek ICRIR investigation
Kingsmill massacre families urged ICRIR to investigate killings 49 years ago
Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, April 13th, 2025
THE families of victims of the Kingsmill massacre have asked a new Troubles truth recovery body to name the dead paramilitaries suspected of involvement in the attack.
Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW) said the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) had agreed to investigate the killings.
Ten Protestant men were shot dead outside the village of Kingsmill in Co Armagh in January 1976 when republican gunmen posing as British soldiers ordered them off a minibus on their way home from work.
The killers asked the occupants of the bus their religion before opening fire.
The only Catholic on board was ordered to run away before the sectarian shooting started.
Of the 11 Protestants who remained on the roadside, one man, Alan Black, survived despite being shot 18 times.
The bullet riddled minibus near Whitecross in South Armagh where 10 Protestant workmen were shot dead
No-one has ever been convicted of the murders.
A recent Police Ombudsman report identified a series of failings in the original police investigation of the IRA atrocity.
57 quesions submitted to ICRIR
The families have submitted 57 questions to the ICRIR, including concerns over the use of public interest immunity certificates during an inquest into the deaths.
The ICRIR was created by the legacy act. Bereaved families, victims and certain public authorities can request the commission carry out an investigation into Troubles incidents.
Colin Worton’s brother Kenneth was one of the Kingsmill victims.
Mr Worton said: “We have an opportunity here to get answers to events that surrounded the massacre.
“Forty-nine years on from these brutal slayings, we have been given some hope by this decision by the ICRIR to launch an investigation.
“Families can only expect limited closure, but naming those who gunned down our relatives would be a positive step.”
UHRW advocacy worker Jonathan Larner said: “The Irish government has been dragging its heels on Kingsmill as with all cross-border cases.
“Families want to see Dublin become fully engaged with the ICRIR and agree to open their files.
“The role of the gardaí deserves close scrutiny if we are to get to the truth and if suspicions of collusion are to be addressed.”
“The role of the gardaí deserves close scrutiny if we are to get to the truth and if suspicions of collusion are to be addressed”.
Jonathan Larner
He added: “This decision by the ICRIR is real progress and a significant advance for relatives.
“Kingsmill families have waited long enough for answers which merely served to retraumatise them and cause pain and anguish.
“They hope to learn why, for example, public interest immunity certificates were issued and what they were attempting to conceal.”
The ICRIR has been approached for comment.
Brown family met Tánaiste on 28th anniversary of killing
Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, May 13th, 2025
THE family of GAA official Sean Brown met Tánaiste Simon Harris on the 28th anniversary of his murder.
The meeting, which was also attended by GAA president Jarlath Burns and the family’s solicitor Niall Murphy, comes as the British government continues to stall on a public inquiry into Mr Brown’s murder.
An abandoned inquest last year revealed that a suspect in the murder was believed to be a serving member of the Royal Irish Regiment.
Another held a personal protection weapon and was regularly visited by a police officer at his home.
It is now known that an RUC surveillance operation on Mark ‘Swinger’ Fulton, a notorious Mid Ulster LVF member, was halted the night before the murder and picked up again the following morning.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn has refused to grant a public inquiry.
To date five high court judges, including one acting as a coroner, have backed a public inquiry.
The British government has sought leave to take the case to the Supreme Court despite an impassioned plea to Mr Benn from Bridie Brown to “do the right thing and please don’t have me going to London”.
Speaking after yesterday’s meeting, daughter Siobhan Brown said the family was deeply obliged to the Tánaiste for his time and understanding.
“Our meeting was in depth and extensive and we were able to bring him through the clear and explicit evidence which compels the British government to convene a public inquiry,” she said.
“The Tánaiste understands that the only mechanism which can discharge the state’s international legal obligations is a public inquiry. This is the irreducible minimum which we will accept.
“We are grateful that the Irish government will continue to advocate and apply political pressure on our behalf, on the British government to do the right thing and abide by the order of the court.”
‘Walk for Truth’
The meeting with Mr Harris came as GAA members were urged to take part in a ‘Walk for Truth’ in support of a public inquiry.
GAA president Jarlath Burns spoke to media in support of the family after the meeting
“Twenty-eight years we have been waiting to find out why, why he was singled out on the night of the May 12, 1997?” Ms Brown said.
“We are still waiting for answers in relation to that.”
Ms Brown said the planned walk is intended to “bring the community together”.
“Daddy was the chairman of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA and it was in the grounds of the clubhouse that he was abducted from,” she said.
“It’s very poignant that the GAA want to mark, first of all his anniversary, but demonstrate the fact we are still waiting 28 years later for answers for why he has been murdered.
“And the only meaningful way forward is to call for a public inquiry into his murder.”
Ms Brown said the organisers are “calling on all Gaels across Ireland to support us in that call for a public inquiry”.
Gaelic clubs in Derry and further afield have been asked to join the “act of solidarity” – with those attending urged to wear their club colours.
The Walk for Truth will start from the carpark of St Mary’s Church to the grounds of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones,
After the meeting, Mr Harris said: “Today is the 28th anniversary of Seán Brown’s murder and a stark reminder that the Brown family have waited far too long for truth and accountability.
“I reiterated this point, as I have previously, to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland in a phone call with him last Friday. I say it again today and I will continue to use every channel available to me to pursue this matter. In the absence of an effective investigation into his death – which the UK government agrees has not yet taken place – the passage of time makes this increasingly pressing.
“Bridie Brown and her family have shown enormous strength in pursuing this case and I will continue to use my influence and that of the Irish government to bring about a resolution that is acceptable to the Brown family. They have waited too long.”
O’Neill ‘answerable for her own activities’ over Sands statue says Little-Pengelly
Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, May 13th, 2025
THERE is “no place” in Northern Ireland for the public glorification of terrorism, Emma Little-Pengelly has said.
Asked about recent actions by Michelle O’Neill, the deputy first minister said her colleague in the Executive Office was “answerable for her own activities”.
The DUP has criticised First Minister Ms O’Neill’s recent decision to attend the unveiling of a statue of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Mr Sands died aged 27 during the 1981 Hunger Strike, in which 10 republican paramilitary prisoners starved themselves to death.
The statue of the hunger striker and former MP was unveiled at the Republican Memorial Garden in Twinbrook earlier this month.
Speaking during ministerial question time, DUP MLA Paul Frew said: “Does the Deputy First Minister agree with me that the crass and hurtful glorification of terrorism by the first minister goes against the code of conduct for ministers, goes against the spirit of peace and reconciliation and makes a nonsense of the claim to be a first minister for all?”
Glorification of terrorism wrong
Ms Little-Pengelly said: “The First Minister, of course, is answerable for her own activities, but I can say very clearly to this place that I believe that any glorification of terrorism is wrong.
“Of course families may want to remember their loved one and can do so privately, of course that is understandable.
“But the public glorification of those that have been convicted of terrorist activities, in my view, is absolutely wrong. It has no part to play, it never had any part to play in Northern Ireland.
Emma Little-Pengelly was speaking after First Minister Michelle O’Neill attended the event for the IRA hunger striker before going on to a service to mark VE Day
“It certainly has no part to play in our future.
“I would like us all to be able to stand up absolutely united against paramilitarism, intimidation, threats and indeed any glorification of the same.”
First Minister for all
Ms O’Neill last week said that her attendance at the event demonstrated her pledge to be a “first minister for all” because she attended a VE Day event afterwards.
She told UTV: “Bobby Sands is a huge figure, a huge iconic figure in terms of republicans here in Ireland, but also in terms of the whole historical political journey that we have been on.
“The hunger strikes marked a pivotal time in our history. So I was very honoured to be there and to be part of the ceremony on Sunday.”
She said after attending the statue unveiling “I went on to attend the service at St Anne’s Cathedral to mark the end of the Second World War”.
Petition for military veterans of Troubles gets 30,000 signatures in three days
By Adam Kula, Belfast News Letter, May 12th, 2025.
An online petition calling on the government to protect Operation Banner veterans from prosecution has garnered around 30,000 signatures in three days.
If it reaches 100,000, then that triggers a debate on it in parliament.
The Veterans' Commissioner is among those encouraging the public to sign it.
It was started by former soldier Ian Robert Liles, and reads: "We think that the Government should not make any changes to legislation that would allow Northern Ireland veterans to be prosecuted for doing their duty in combating terrorism as part of 'Operation Banner' (1969-2007)."
At time of writing at 5pm on Monday, it had 28,349 signatures.
Commissioner David Johnstone told the News Letter that “it’s important people who are exercised by this use these means to highlight the issue of legacy and the demonisation and ongoing targeting of those that served by the republican movement”.
He added: “Anything that puts a spotlight on this injustice I think is important… terrorists were let out of jail. Terrorists had their record reduced effectively to two years. Terrorists were given on-the-run [letters] and royal pardons.
"And yet here we are 27 years on trying to put soldiers in the dock. It’s immoral.”
He said the re-instating the process of inquests into Troubles deaths would mean the actions of scores of formers soldiers would be put under scrutiny, with the likely result that files would be sent to the PPS to consider prosecuting them.
Treatment of Veterans ‘fundamentally flawed’
It comes after the commissioner and other witnesses appeared in front of the NI Affairs Committee of the House of Commons last week to give evidence on the treatment of veterans.
The commissioner (a former Royal Irish Regiment officer who took up the post in January) had told MPs there is a "poignant" comparison between the recent praise heaped on WWII veterans for VE Day's 80th anniversary and "how veterans in Northern Ireland are treated".
"I think there's a huge contrast there, and a stark, marked difference" he said.
He recalled the case of Dennis Hutchings who died in 2021 while being prosecuted over the fatal shooting of an unarmed Catholic man with learning difficulties.
"I think there's something fundamentally flawed in terms of how we've approached legacy," said Mr Johnstone.
"I think there is a feeling that, irrespective of the views of veterans, the government has a line of trajectory that it's going down…
"I'm pretty confident the vast, vast majority of veterans in Northern Ireland would be totally opposed to the re-introduction of [Troubles] inquests.
"I do think what's very, very important for the committee to understand is that the reason for the opposition is not based around any fear of past actions. It's not based on any fear of justice, or the natural pursuit of justice where rules of engagement have been broken.
"The issue is around the fundamental unfairness of the inquest process. And that is absolutely key.
"If I can give one very quick tangible example: the Secretary of State recently met the sister of Patrick Kelly, who was the OC of the East Tyrone Brigade of the IRA.
"And the press reports indicated that the Secretarty of State assured Patrick Kelly's sister that there would be an inquest into Loughgall, where Patrick Kelly lost his life as he committed [an act] of terrorism…
"When it comes to the activities of the East Tyrone Brigade, where are the inquests into that?"
He added: "There's around 33 inquests that will reopen if the current government policy plays out. Of that, only two are for republican actions. And the rest are either state forces – around about 17, where a member of the security forces pulled a trigger in an incident - and the rest are by loyalists."
Decision on lawsuit over alleged PSNI sectarianism not 'dropped' but 'deferred' says solicitor
Newsroom, Belfast News Letter, May 12th, 2025
There is uncertainty over the future of a legal claim about alleged sectarian behaviour within the PSNI's Tactical Support Group (TSG).
Solicitor Kevin Winters of KRW Law has told the News Letter that any legal action seeking damages over the issue has merely been "deferred", and has not been "dropped".
It is the latest development in the saga of 'Sean' – a former member of the TSG who alleged that he encountered anti-Catholic sectarianism within the unit.
This has been strongly denied by scores of his former colleagues.
Sean (a pseudonym) is now retired. He made his accusations in The Belfast Telegraph in March.
Shortly afterwards, the paper reported that the PSNI was being "sued by four Catholic officers over sectarianism", with Mr Winters quoted as saying: "He [Sean] feels strongly enough about it to take a stand and in doing so hopefully contribute to making a culture change."
At the Policing Board last week, the chief constable Jon Boutcher had said that, having met Sean in person, “I've no concerns that the blacks [his TSG unit], the officers, his colleagues, acted in a sectarian way towards him". He added that Sean was a "thoroughly decent" man.
Mr Boutcher also said “there is no legal case or ongoing investigation” concerning the sectarianism claims - something which was interpreted by some as meaning that the legal claim had been dropped.
Last week, Mr Winters was quoted as saying that Sean stood by his allegations, but that “there was no evidence of any overt sectarianism ... Sean explained that it was very much nuanced and understated”.
Jon Burrows, the former head of PSNI disciple branch, told the News Letter that this was “puzzling” because Sean had alleged that the phrase “fenian b******s” was used – something which Mr Burrows described as “extremely blatant overt sectarianism”.
‘Nothing to retract’
Mr Winters has now told the News Letter: "Sean's narrative hasn't changed therefore there is nothing to retract.
"As a result of certain assurances given at a meeting with the chief constable any decision on taking a damages case has been deferred. As no case has ever been lodged it follows no case has been 'dropped'.
"The meeting with the Chief Constable was private and confidential therefore we are not at liberty to comment on what was discussed suffice to say that the engagement was productive and insightful on steps to be taken to address any allegations of discrimination generally."
The question of how there could have been no evidence of "overt sectarianism" if Sean was standing over his original claims was unaddressed.
In a letter in the News Letter in April, 43 former TSG officers voiced their “utter rejection” of the idea “that any sectarian or bullying behaviour occurred in our team”.
They said: “There was no sectarian culture in our team and we also fully supported Sean through personal and professional challenges.
"Our TSG was renowned across the PSNI for its professionalism, internal cohesion and community sensitivity… the attack on our collective integrity has been a serious one.
"It has caused untold hurt to us and undoubtedly our serving TSG colleagues; it has damaged the reputation and morale of the entire PSNI.”
