’24 hours of evil’: Kingsmill massacre survivor remembers events 50 years ago

By Rebecca Black and Bairbre Holmes (PA)

A series of killings 50 years ago has been remembered as “24 hours of evil”.

Alan Black, 82, who was the sole survivor of the Kingsmill massacre in south Armagh, described it as a “sin against humanity”.

He was speaking ahead of a roadside service to remember those killed in an ambush by republican terrorists outside the village of Whitecross on January 5 1976.

Ten Protestants were killed the day after six men from two Catholic families were murdered.

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 after the Reaveys were attacked the UVF gang burst in on a reunion of the O’Dowd family and killed brothers Barry, 24, and Declan, 19, and their uncle Joe, 61.

Mr Black said all the community in Bessbrook remained close despite the sectarian horror.

“That 24 hours was a sin against humanity, the evil that was perpetrated against the O’Dowds, the Reaveys, and then to us, the only way you can describe it is evil,” Mr Black told the BBC.

“But if they thought for one moment that it had the potential to destroy community relations here in Bessbrook – which were always excellent – the opposite became true.

“There were Catholic neighbours that rallied around me, rallied around the other families.

“So if the intention was to drive a rift between the people in Bessbrook, it just did not work and I’m so proud of that, I really am.

“In other scenarios it may have put a rift between the people, but it didn’t and that holds true to this day.”

Mr Black, who was shot 18 times at Kingsmill, recalled talking to Anthony Reavey in hospital as they were being treated for their injuries.

“Anthony was shot in the legs so he was in a wheelchair, he would wheel himself in and we would talk,” he said.

“We never talked about his brothers, we never talked about what happened at Kingsmill.

“I think it was too close to both of us, but I think we had an empathy that we were two of a kind.

“He was a lovely young lad, he had his whole life in front of him.”

He added that Anthony’s death weeks later felt like a “sledgehammer blow because we were two of a kind”.

The Kingsmills massacre came as the textile workers were returning from work.

Republican gunmen posing as British soldiers stopped their minibus and ordered them off.

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

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

Only Mr Black survived.

He said a religious service to remember the victims on Sunday had been very emotional.

“It’s a weird feeling, having all the relatives around me yesterday, and all being supportive of me, but I’m sure it has crossed their mind, why could that not have been my husband, or my son, or grandad, but they’ve been wonderful to me,” he said.

“It worried me at the beginning, I had to get away, I went to Scotland for a couple of years, me and my family, because my head was all over the place.

“And then when I come home, I was sort of worried about the reaction from the families, because I didn’t know whether they would resent me or not because I was still alive and their family member wasn’t.

“The opposite was true. Everyone welcomed me back to Bessbrook, they were so supportive of me down through the years.”

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 in 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.

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.