EUGENE REAVEY, whose three brothers were murdered by the UVF in south Armagh in early January 1976, has called on former DUP leader Ian Paisley to “do the decent thing” and apologise for publicly linking him to sectarian killings.
He made his appeal to the former first minister after it was yesterday reported that the North’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET) had exonerated the Reavey family of any involvement in the Kingsmill massacre.
Dr Paisley in 1999 claimed under privilege in the House of Commons that Eugene Reavey was involved in the suspected IRA attack on January 5th, 1976, in which 10 Protestant workmen were singled out and murdered at Kingsmill in south Armagh.
The Kingsmill massacre was a reprisal for orchestrated separate attacks by the UVF the previous day in which three members of the Reavey family and three members of the O’Dowd family were murdered in south Armagh.
In 1999 Dr Paisley claimed in parliament that Mr Reavey and a number of other men were named in an RUC document as being involved in the Kingsmill killings. He said Eugene Reavey “set up the Kingsmill massacre”.
Now, a report has cleared Eugene Reavey of Dr Paisley’s allegation, UTV reported last night. The HET report said: “No member of the Reavey family had any verified links to any paramilitary group, contrary to later speculation.”
The new MP for North Antrim, Ian Paisley jnr, said his father would not be commenting.
