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PA Archive/Press Association Images
Kingsmill massacre
Over 40 years later, arrest made over sectarian massacre of 10 Protestant workers
One man survived the hail of bullets.
A MAN HAS been arrested on suspicion of the murder of 10 people in the notorious Kingsmill massacre in Co Armagh in 1976.
The infamous massacre saw a group of textile workers pulled over by men disguised as British soldiers. The workers were lined up and asked their religion before the gunmen opened fire.
Nobody has ever been charged over the massacre but a police inquiry reopened in May of this year.
Today, PSNI officers have confirmed that a 59-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the murder of the 10 men and the attempted murder of another.
The man was arrested in the Newry area and is currently being questioned.
On the night of the massacre one man was allowed to flee when he said he was a Catholic while the remaining 11 men were shot.
All but one of the men were killed in the hail of bullets except Alan Black, who survived despite being hit 18 times.
A 2011 inquiry found that the attackers were members of the Provisional IRA who were acting under the name the “South Armagh Republican Action Force”.
The Provisional IRA was on ceasefire at time and it has been claimed that the incident wasn’t sanctioned by the IRA’s Army Council. In the 2011 inquiry, the PSNI’s now-defunct Historical Enquiries Team determined that the IRA were responsible.
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