Northern Ireland

Kingsmill survivor says Barry McElduff video was 'depraved'

Kingsmill massacre survivor Alan Black. Picture by Hugh Russell
Kingsmill massacre survivor Alan Black. Picture by Hugh Russell Kingsmill massacre survivor Alan Black. Picture by Hugh Russell

THE only survivor of the Kingsmill massacre has described a video posted on social media by Sinn Féin MP Barry McElduff on the anniversary of the attack as "depraved".

Alan Black was among a group of Protestant textile workers taken off a bus, lined up and shot on a roadside in south Armagh in January 1976.

Ten men died. Mr Black suffered 18 gunshot wounds and survived.

Mr McElduff caused outrage when he posted a clip of himself in a shop with a Kingsmill loaf on his head. He later apologised and insisted the stunt was not a reference to the atrocity.

In an interview with RTÉ Radio, Mr Black said to have his murdered colleagues "disrespected the way that they were last week is very, very hard to take".

"To my mind it was depraved what he done. And it was dancing on their graves. He was seen to be celebrating their deaths."

Mr Black rejected the explanation by Mr McElduff, who was suspended from Sinn Féin for three months.

"He done it deliberately to cause hurt and he succeeded in spades in the hurt that he caused," he said.