SDLP Newry & Armagh MLA Justin McNulty has called on the Police Ombudsman to release the findings of its investigation into the Kingsmills massacre.
Speaking at a Stormont debate, Mr. McNulty said:
“The Kingsmills massacre, the murder of 10 innocent men on their way home from work on 5 January 1976, was a crime whose barbarity was matched only by its cowardice. In a disturbing reflection of the gruesome realities of the time, the hearses of two young men who had been murdered in Whitecross the night before, John Martin and Brian Reavey, had to be diverted on their way home because 10 men lay dead on the Kingsmill Road.
“It is also worth noting that those atrocities were followed by the murder of Majella O’Hare, just up the road in Ballymoyer, seven months later. It is hard to comprehend the sheer saturation of trauma in such a small rural area in such a short time, in Whitecross, Kingsmills and Ballymoyer.
“The Police Ombudsman’s office holds a report on the Kingsmills murders that it has so far failed to publish. It must do so without delay. At a time when so many families are struggling for truth and justice across the North, it is unacceptable that the Police Ombudsman is holding back the report on Kingsmills.
“Nothing can ever undo the horror of what happened at Kingsmills. Nothing can ever bring back or replace the fathers, brothers, sons and husbands who were so cruelly and needlessly ripped away from their families on that dark night in January. But the ombudsman must produce the unvarnished truth of the report, even if it is uncomfortable — especially if it is uncomfortable — because what an obscenity it would be for Alan Black to survive the Kingsmills massacre, to survive the spray of gunfire, but not to survive to see the findings of the ombudsman’s report.”
ENDS
CLANRYE NEWS 