First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said she is sorry for every life lost during the Troubles – including the Kingsmill atrocity.
Sinn Fein’s northern leader was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday during the opening of the McConnells' Distillery and visitor centre at Crumlin Road Gaol.
Her comments come after an inquest into the 1975 Kingsmill massacre found it was an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”.
The sole survivor of the attack, Alan Black, is now calling for a public inquiry into the murders.
Mr Black was shot 18 times and left for dead among 10 of his slain workmates on a Co Armagh roadside by IRA terrorists.
The men were ordered from a bus and shot at the roadside in Co Armagh “for no other reason than they were Protestant”, Coroner Brian Sherrard said, branding claims that the IRA were not involved as “a lie”.
No-one has ever been convicted in connection with the killings, which were admitted by a group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force.
When asked about the outcome of the inquest on Wednesday, Ms O’Neill said she was “sorry for every loss of life”.
“I think when we reflect on last week, it was a very bruising picture in terms of all the legacy cases that came to the fore whether that be Sean Brown’s family’s inquest or whether it be the Kingsmill inquest on Friday,” she said.
“Let me again be categorical, I am sorry for every loss of life throughout the conflict but my job as a political leader of today is to build towards the future and try to help to heal the wounds of the past.
“Doesn’t the Kingsmill judgment very much underline why we need to deal with the past properly? And why the legislation the British Government have brought forward is riding coach and horses through the desires and needs of all families?
“That includes the Kingsmill families, who deserve truth and justice, who deserve a public inquiry and who deserve answers.
“But for my job as a leader of today – I speak for Sinn Fein, I speak as First Minister in front of you today – I am sorry for every loss of life, including those in the Kingsmill disaster.”
by Ah_here_like
7 comments
We are all sorry. The troubles were almost together so unnecessary and nothing was achieved by violence. Of only the Unionists hadn’t stated it to try to hold civil rights back and catholics out of government
Took long enough, and I suspect no one really cares that she said it now
The man who was staff officer of the IRA south Armagh brigade at the time was captured and executed. They said it was because he tried to escape but supposedly he was the man behind it
The vast majority shared this sentiment when the troubles were going on. I suspect this announcement will convince precisely nobody.
Would you look at Michelle willing to do what the British government would never
An absolutely shameful and unforgivable act.
I don’t think there was ever any doubt by anyone that it was perpetrated by IRA members seeking bloody vengeance for the Reavey & O’Dowd massacres the night before, only that it wasn’t a sanctioned action by the organisation, but carried out by local IRA members with access to weaponry.
The provo leadership distanced itself from it from the very outset. I don’t know what actions they took internally.
It was a war crime at the very least, and the killers should indeed face some kind of real justice for it.
I actually don’t care for this apology but mostly because she has nothing to do with it. Seems like weird sackcloth and ashes shit. I get why she’s doing it but she’s apologising for shit that happened before she was born, when she was a child, etc. It’d make more sense for someone actually directly involved at the time with the Republican Movement to give out statements like these