A former IRA member, the passenger in a car that careered out of control striking and killing three children after coming under fire from the British Army, has died.
John Chillingworth was the passenger in the Ford Cortina that went out of control on Finaghy Road North after the driver, Danny Lennon, was fatally wounded by an army patrol in 1976
Two Maguire children, six-week-old Andrew and Joanne (8) died at the scene, Two-year-old brother John passed away in hospital two days later following the crash in August of that year.
Their deaths led directly to the setting up of the Peace People movement, which brought many thousands of people on to the streets to demand an end to violence. The children’s mother, Annie, took her own life four years after the tragedy.
Republicans this week remembered Sean-Glas Chillingworth as “a volunteer formerly of B (Upper Andersonstown) Company, 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade, Óglaigh na hÉireann and H5 Blanketman 1977-81”.
A death notice described the deceased as a beloved husband, loved father to two children and a late son and a grandfather. He is due to be buried in Crumlin following requiem mass at Holy Trinity Church on Thursday.
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Following the crash, an ArmaLite was reportedly found in the vehicle. This was confirmed by republican sources but with the claim it was not operable.
There appear to be no substantiated reports the patrol, members of the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment, were fired on as the Cortina was chased.
Danny Lennon’s family has previously campaigned for an inquest into the IRA’s man death, and into those of the Maguire children.
John Chillingworth, injured in the terrible incident, was treated at the Royal Victoria Hospital before being transferred to Musgrave
Park, reportedly to the military wing.
One contemporary news report said he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for attempted murder.
