Kingsmill massacre victims remembered on 50th anniversary

The 10 men killed in the Kingsmill massacre are to be remembered at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the tragedy.

The textile workers were shot when their minibus was ambushed outside the village of Kingsmill in Co Armagh on their way home from work on January 5 1976.

Republican gunmen posing as British soldiers ordered them off a minibus on their way home from work.

The killers asked the occupants of the bus what their religion was and the only Catholic was ordered to run away.

The killers, who had hidden in hedges, forced the 11 remaining men to line up outside the van before opening fire.

Only one man, Alan Black, survived, despite being shot 18 times.

No-one has ever been convicted over one of the most notorious incidents of the Troubles.

In 2024 a coroner described the massacre as an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA” but did not name individuals suspected of involvement.

A watchdog report April last year identified a series of failings in the original police investigation, including a “wholly insufficient” deployment of resources.

Monday’s service will be held at the Kingsmill Memorial Wall at the scene of the atrocity at the Kingsmill crossroads.

A religious service was held on Sunday at Bessbrook Town Hall.

The 10 men who died were Robert Chambers, 18, John Bryans, 50, Reginald Chapman, 29, Walter Chapman, 35, Robert Freeburn, 58, Joseph Lemmon, 49, John McConville, 20, James McWhirter, 63, Robert Walker, 46, and Kenneth Worton, 24.

The massacre came during a week of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

The shootings were seen as a retaliation to loyalist attacks the day before, in which six men from two Catholic families were killed.

On January 4 the UVF’s Glenanne Gang shot brothers John Martin Reavey, 24, and Brian Reavey, 22, who lived near Kingsmill.

A third brother, Anthony, 17, died several weeks later from his injuries.

Minutes later the gang burst in on a reunion of the O’Dowd family and killed brothers Barry, 24, and Declan, 19, and their uncle Joe, 61.