JAN 5TH MARKS THE ANNIVERSY OF THE KINGSMILL MASSACRE
Joseph Lemmon 46yrs old married, 3 children
Reginald Chapman 25yrs married 2 children
Walter Chapman 23yrs single
Kenneth Worton 24yrs married 2 children
James McWhirter 58yrs married 3 children
Robert Chambers 19yrs single
John McConville 20yrs single
John Bryans 46yrs widower 2 children were left orphans
Robert Freeburn 50yrs married 2 children
Robert Walker 46 yrs
One man was hit 18 times but miraculously survived . Ten years late r he give an account to the Belfast News Letter in which he said:-
"The talk on the minibus that night was no different than normal. There had been talk earlier in the factory that day about the killing of the young Reavey brothers from Whitecross. It horrified us all. We passed through Whitecross village shortly after 5-30pm and when our minibus was stopped, a short distance up the road past Kingsmills crossroads, we thought it was the army.
"A group of about 12 armed men, who were unmasked but with their faces blackened and wearing combat jackets, surrounded the vehicle and ordered us all out onto the road. Even then few of us thought there was something amiss. One man, with a English accent, did all the talking and proceeded to ask each of us our religion. Our Roman Catholic works colleague was ordered to clear off and the shooting started
"It was all over within a minute and after the initial screams there was silence. I was semi-conscious and passed out several times with the deadly pain and the cold. A man appeared on the scene. He was in a terrible state and was praying loudly as he passed along the rows of bodies. He must have heard my groans nad came across to comfort me. I must have been lying at the roadside waiting on the ambulance for up to 30 minutes. It was like an eternity and I can remember someone moving my body from one side to the other to help ease the pain."
He added " I remained in the Bessbrook area for a time, but as I left my young daughter to school every morning I was confronted by the orphans of men murdered in the massacre. It brought it all back on a daily basis and I decided to move to Scotland. Two years in Scotland helped me to adjust but I knew I had to return home to Bessbrook.
Even now when I hear of a innocent person being killed the horror of the massacre all comes back and I can feel every bullet hitting me. Bessbrook lost its heart through that massacre. It was once a vibrant happy community full of life and enjoyment. What was done that night was a sheer waste, a futile exercise that advanced no cause."
When the funerals were held they took place in "Constant drizzle and a dank grey mist added to the almost tangible atmosphere of grief which envoloped the heart broken village. All shops closed today and the streets were almost deserted as the 2,000 villagers prepared to pay their final tribute to the men they had grown up with. Despair and sorrow were etched on the faces of the few villagers who ventured out of doors and many were red eyed from tears.
"Last nightthe nine coffins ofthe murdered men were carried from their homes through the village in an impressive public show of sorrow. They were taken at intervals along the village's broad main street. The coffins of the six Presbyterian victims lay beside each other in the Presbyterian church. The other three coffins lay in Christ Church Parish Church."
The British Government publicly declare after this tragic event that they were sending the SAS into South Armagh. Later a Armagh IRA man Peter Cleary was shot dead by the SAS, a tabloid paper linked him with the Kingsmill shooting.