Kingsmills Massacre suspects: Garda giving evidence in secret on IRA attack is 'akin to Soviet Russia and will block reconciliation'

The comments were made after the Kingsmills Massacre legacy inquest took evidence for the final time on Friday.

The IRA gunned down 10 Protestant workmen on their way home from work in 1976 at Kingsmills in south Armagh.

Most families walked away from inquest in 2020, in part due to the failure to name two deceased suspects.

Coroner Brian Sherrard has condemned the failure of the IRA or political republicanism to offer any information over almost ten years.

The families are also angry that the Garda only gave evidence in a secret court in Dublin last year. The testimony has never been published.

Kenny Donaldson, of the South East Fermanagh Foundation, said the massacre is "without doubt the most blatant mass murder in the Troubles based upon perceived religion".

He added: "The secret evidence session given by the Garda is akin to Soviet Russia; the Irish Government still practises wholesale amnesia around its role in the Troubles.

"There is no justification which should prevent the naming of the now dead terrorist suspects. But let us never forget that it was the IRA who - with a plan that was in place for several months - brutally assassinated 10 of their Protestant neighbours, a war crime by all International standards. The silence of Sinn Fein on all of this is deafening."

Commentator Alex Kane responded that legacy issues "cannot be dealt with in secrecy".

He added: "Everyone is entitled to know the truth, irrespective of who may be ‘embarrassed’. Governments and security forces cannot be afforded shelter, particularly when there are still relatives grieving over hurt and loss. Hurt and loss which is now compounded by the time it took to begin an inquest, how long the inquest has taken, the secrecy surrounding initial findings and the persistent unhelpfulness of those who must know the pain they are continuing to pile on the relatives and survivor.

"Reconciliation is not possible against a background when truth is suppressed, smothered or glossed over during the very inquest which was supposed to bring some comfort to those who have lived without details for decades."

Commentator Mick Fealty believes the secrecy was due to an unofficial amnesty by Dublin.

"It's clear that the Republic's government drew a heavy line across the past in 1998, treating all Troubles related crimes before then under an unspoken, de facto amnesty," he told the News Letter.

"It's apparent too that a Republican movement which seems keen on justice for some families will not help others if, as is very likely in the case of the sectarian massacre at Kingsmill, it would suffer severe reputational damage in the eyes of its own supporters, especially with regard to its growing electoral popularity in the south."

The Irish Department of Justice responded that it facilitated “very considerable co-operation” by the Garda through “unprecedented legal measures”. It passed the Criminal Justice (International Cooperation) Act 2019 - which governed the secret Dublin court - and passed Data Protection legislation to share Garda records with NI, he added.

Sinn Fein was invited to comment. A Coroner’s spokeswoman said he could not comment on a live case.