Republicans demand truth and justice, but ignore IRA's shameful silence on Kingsmill

Suzanne Breen, Sunday Life, January 5th, 2025

ALAN Black woke up this morning and their faces were in front of him. It's almost half a century now, but he can still see each and every one of them as if it were yesterday. The 10 workmates with whom he travelled on the minibus from Glenanne textile factory until a man in military clothing with a torch waved them down at Kingsmill.

Approaching the anniversary is the worst time of year for Alan. He's been on a countdown since Christmas. How many days have his friends left to live?

And today, he counts the hours and then the minutes. At 5.20pm, they are all dead.

Alan can hear the chatter on that journey on January 5 1976 — whether Liverpool could hold off Manchester United to win the English First Division.

And then he hears the voice of the man who was carrying the torch. He's speaking in an English accent, ordering them all off the minibus. Other men with combat jackets and blackened faces appear, but he's the only one who talks.

He instructs the workers to line up around the vehicle and place their hands on top of it. The one Catholic on the minibus was allowed to go free. And then the shooting starts. It was deafening — Alan had never heard noise like it.

For years, he lied in order to protect the bereaved. He said it was all over quickly and nobody suffered, but it wasn't like that. He eventually disclosed the full horror to the Historical Enquiries Team (HET).

The first round of shots was waist-high, to bring the men down. They lay on the ground moaning before the gunmen walked round methodically shooting each one in the head.

Alan was hit 18 times but, somehow, he lived.

This afternoon, the bereaved families will attend a service at the scene of the atrocity. Alan won't be there. “I don't go,” he says. “Families might see me and think, 'Why is he alive and my father, my husband or my brother isn't?' They're going to mourn their loved ones. They don't need to look at me. I'd feel uncomfortable — it's survivor's guilt.”

There are many people who should feel ashamed and guilty over Kingsmill — Alan Black isn't one of them.

Republicans, who rightly demand truth and transparency about State and loyalist killings, maintain a wall of silence on Kingsmill. The IRA refuses to even admit responsibility for the attack.

It followed the horrific murder of six Catholics in the previous 24 hours. The perpetrators were just as vile as the UVF's Glenanne gang.

Their victims weren't combatants. They were innocent workers massacred just because they were Protestants.

The families feel hugely let down by the State. They believe agents are being protected.

Alan had pinned all his hopes on an inquest which concluded last April after eight years. It raised more questions than it provided answers.

Along with bereaved relatives, he walked out over its failure to name IRA men suspected of involvement in the attack. The families went to the Police Ombudsman in 2013. They have been hugely critical over the office's delay in publishing its report.

Alan has used savings he had set aside to pay for his funeral in legal action to try to speed up the process.

urgency

“I am 81 years old, and I need answers before I die,” he says. “I owe it to the boys. I promised that I'd get the truth for them. I don't want to go to my grave without keeping my word.”

Alan says he has been told the Ombudsman's report is completed and will be released at the end of March.

He has asked that it be published immediately due to his ill health. He is justifiably angry at the refusal to meet his request.

Alan almost died in the summer. During his four weeks in Daisy Hill Hospital, he was distressed that he would pass away without keeping his pledge to his friends.

He rang his solicitor Barry O'Donnell from his hospital bed asking him to promise to “keep up the fight” if he died.

In October, Alan stood in Stormont's Great Hall with the assistance of a rollator — an oxygen tank attached — and appealed for political support.

The following month the Assembly unanimously passed a resolution deploring the Ombudsman's failure to disclose the findings of its office's investigation “within a reasonable timeframe”.

MLAs noted “the urgency of this matter given Mr Black's health” and called for publication “without further delay”.

The Ombudsman has proved tone deaf and stone-hearted to the appeal. Alan is the epitome of decency and dignity. He is one of the most remarkable human beings I've met. He deserves far, far better.