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The sole survivor of the the IRA’s Kingsmill massacre has accused the Irish Government of hypocrisy and of “speaking out of both sides of its mouth” over its attitude to the legacy of the conflict in the North. Alan Black said the Government had spoken out last month against the British government’s decision to “draw a line” under the past by halting all investigations, yet it had itself failed to co-operate with the inquest into the 1976 sectarian atrocity that nearly cost him his life. Ten men died in a hail of gunfire after the IRA ambushed their work minibus along a South Armagh roadside. No one was ever convicted of their murders.

“It would suit the Irish Government down to the ground if the British go ahead with this,” he told me. Mr Black said he had been forced to conclude that the authorities on both sides of the Border must be protecting security force agents and that they “can’t allow their dirty tricks to be found out”. These are shocking allegations and the Government must address them, coming as they do from a man of integrity.

They come hard on the heels of a ruling in Belfast’s high court that there was plausible evidence that the 1998 Omagh bombing carried out by the Real IRA could have been prevented. Mr Justice Mark Horner recommended that both the Irish and British governments should undertake human rights-compliant investigations into that atrocity, in which 29 people died, given “the consideration of terrorist activity on both sides of the Border”. Several republican gunmen are believed to have been involved in both of the massacres, spanning 22 years, as well as in dozens of other killings. They include Michael McKevitt who was a senior figure in the IRA and then, having rejected the peace process, went on to found the Real IRA. He died earlier this year.

Riddled with bullets

Black is 77 now and says that he knows he cannot have many more years to live. Riddled with bullets, he almost died at Kingsmill among the bodies of the 10 other factory workers. He remembers having decided to give up and die in hospital and being pulled back from the brink by the voice of a nurse who asked him to think of his two-year-old daughter. Now 47, his daughter would like him to step back from campaigning. But having survived, he has an acute sense of loyalty to “the boys” as he calls his fellow workers. He owes it to them, he said, to get some measure of truth and justice, though he wavers between determination and despair.

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Having survived, he has an acute sense of loyalty to "the boys" as he calls his fellow workers. He owes it to them, he says, to get some measure of truth and justice

After immense delays, an inquest into the Kingsmill massacre got under way in 2014, opening formally in 2016 and expected to last for five weeks. It has still not concluded and is currently stalled. Of the 40 or so people suspected of having been involved in planning and carrying out the attack, about three-quarters are believed to have been living in the Republic. Of those still alive, many have never been questioned. There are crime scenes in southern Border counties. Several vehicles used by the killers were hijacked or stolen in Co Monaghan, and the getaway vehicle was found in Co Louth. Weapons used at Kingsmill and in other murders were also recovered in the Republic.

Tears of frustration

In 2015, the then taoiseach, Enda Kenny, met with Black and with family members of the victims of the atrocity and promised them his government would do all it could to support them. Yet according to Black’s solicitor, Barry O’Donnell, the files subsequently provided by the gardaí contained very little hard information. In 2020, the Kingsmill relatives walked out of the inquest in protest at the coroner’s decision not to name key suspects. Black told me it had been harrowing to watch elderly people in tears of frustration as they walked down the steps of the courthouse. At the request of relatives of one of the dead, he later returned to the resumed inquest. Once again a request was made for more co-operation from the gardaí. According to O’Donnell, this has still not been forthcoming. He believes gardaí are withholding evidence and that informers who may have worked for security agencies on either or both sides of the Border are being protected. The gardaí say they are committed to assisting the northern authorities with historical investigations.

He believes gardaí are withholding evidence and that informers who may have worked for security agencies on either or both sides of the Border are being protected

What is certain is that with the British amnesty legislation looming, time is running out. Alan Black said he understood that during the Troubles “young men got caught up and did vile and evil things”. But it was now obvious that “other people were playing God” and allowing atrocities to happen. The experience of trying to get justice had been exhausting.

“All we need is a bit of decency and humanity. We have had nothing but obstacles. I might put up brave words but it has knocked the heart out of me,” he said. “How can a civilised country behave like this? That is not how a country goes forward.” He was speaking about both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland: “The one’s as bad as the other.”