Ten murders at Kingsmill an ‘overtly sectarian attack by IRA’, coroner rules
The shooting dead of 10 Protestant workmen at Kingsmill in Co Armagh in 1976 was an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”, a coroner has ruled.
The atrocity at Kingsmill, which was one of the most notorious of the Troubles, was claimed by a little-known paramilitary group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force.
It was long seen as a front for the IRA, which was supposedly on ceasefire at the time of the sectarian massacre.
Delivering his findings in the long-running inquest, coroner Brian Sherrard heavily criticised the IRA, and its political representatives, for failing to engage with the proceedings.
In remarks that took over four hours to read to Belfast Coroner’s Court, Mr Sherrard also dismissed as “utter fantasy” Captain Robert Nairac infiltrated the IRA and was involved in the Kingsmill massacre.
