Kingsmill Inquest Evidence
Statement 21 July 2023
REF No:
THE MATTER OF THE INQUEST
TOUCHING UPON THE DEATHS OF JOHN BRYANS, ROBERT CHAMBERS, REGINALD CHAPMAN,
WALTER CHAPMAN, ROBERT FREEBURN, JOSEPH LEMON, JAMES MCCONVILLE, JAMES MCWHIRTER,
ROBERT WALKER AND KENNETH WHARTON ON 5 JANUARY 1976.
BEFORE THE CORONER MR SHERRARD
WITNESS STATEMENT OF VINCENT
MCKENNA
I have been asked by the
coroner to give a statement in respect of the inquest into the deaths of John
Bryans, Robert Chambers, Reginald Chapman, Walter Chapman, Robert Freeburn,
Joseph Lemon, James McConville, James McWhirter, Robert Walker and Kenneth
Wharton on 5 January 1976.
I, Vincent McKenna, of an
address known to the coroner, will say as follows:
I became aware an inquest was
taking place into the Kingsmill murders through a Newsletter post on my Twitter
feed on 2 April, 2023. Shortly after reading the article, I made contact with
the Coroners Service NI as I felt I had information relevant to the inquest.
When the murders at Kingsmill
occurred, I would have been 12 years old. At that time, I was living in
Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, and I recall during this period a lot of sectarian
murders, including the murders of my cousins Marian Bowen, Marian’s unborn
baby, Marians brothers Michael and Seamus McKenna by The UVF at Dungannon.
Whilst in 1976 I would have been aware of the murders at Kingsmill I did not at
that time have any knowledge regarding what happened.
Before the murders at
Kingsmill in 1976 my cousin, Sean McKenna, had been the PIRA’s OC in Newry, however,
in order to get more action (Kills), Sean McKenna joined a PIRA Unit in south
Armagh that acted under the direct orders of the south Armagh Brigade of The
PIRA, who in turn acted under the direct orders of PIRA Northern Command. Sean
McKenna was arrested in March 1976 after he had been kidnapped by the SAS from
a safe house in Dundalk. Sean after his arrest was imprisoned at Long Kesh and
was on the first hunger strike in 1980.
In 1990 Sean McKenna had been
released from prison and came to live in Monaghan Town. I had been living in
Monaghan Town since 1980. Despite being eight years older than me I had always
been close to Sean. His family had moved to Newry in 1958 and my father regularly
took me to visit Sean’s family at O’Neil Avenue in Newry, Sean makes reference
to these visits in the three-tapes that I have provided to the coroner.
When Sean came to live in Monaghan
Town, he had been diagnosed with throat cancer. Due to his imprisonment and the
effects of his hunger strike he was in poor health. I did what I could to help
him and was able to get him a flat on The Hospital Hill, in Monaghan Town. At
that time, I was the foreman of the night-shift at Clonkeen Mushrooms and was
able to get Sean a job with me on the night shift. It meant I could keep an eye
on him, as at times, due to his health, he struggled with the work.
After Sean had settled in Monaghan
Town, he had begun to record his life story. I encouraged and helped him to do
so. I recall us sitting together and Sean talking about his life in the PIRA
whilst I recorded it onto cassette tapes and took notes. In total I believe
there were 5 tapes recorded by Sean. I promised Sean I would not publish his
life story until after his death. After a long battle Sean finally succumbed to
cancer in 2008 and I published his story on my website in 2013 to mark the
Hunger-strike Commemoration in Monaghan Town that year.
In 2013, I was back inside
Sinn Fein/PIRA in Dublin and helping to develop their IT Systems as I had just
graduated with an MSc (First Class) in Computing. I was in 2013, working
closely with Bobby Storey. Bobby Storey whom I had known for many years, was
satisfied that I had only campaigned publicly against Sinn Fein/PIRA,
1998-2000, because I had worked for so many years on the peace process and I
was angry about continued violence.
In these tapes and in the
hundreds of hours of conversation that Sean McKenna and I had, Sean McKenna told
how the order to carry out the murders at Kingsmill came directly to him from PIRA
Northern Command. In 1976 PIRA Northern Command would have included Gerry
Adams, Martin McGuinness and my cousin, Kevin McKenna (Chief of Staff 1983-1997
– replaced in 1997 by Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy – replaced by Brian Keenan).
The decision had been made to
carry out the murders in Kingsmill after a number of sectarian murders in 1975
by both The Provisional IRA and The UVF. The PIRA Northern Command believed
killing the 10 Protestants on their way home from work would bring matters to a
head and push Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war. This would push the
British government to commit to a time frame for a complete disengagement from
Northern Ireland. This disengagement had been previously discussed during talks
between the British Government and the PIRA leadership in 1975.
This reasoning for and
potential consequences of, the Kingsmill attack, was also stated by Michael
McKevitt and Colm Murphy when Sean McKenna and I, meet with them in Dundalk, in
a social setting in 1992. I am also aware that Colm Murphy, gave an interview
to The Irish News in 2016 in which he explained again, what he had explained to
me in 1992 about the Plan to Ethically Cleanse south Armagh. The same Colm
Murphy, whom with others, had sanctioned my murder in 1998, when I was on the front
page of The Sunday Times, explaining the campaign of Ethnic Cleansing as set
out by Colm Murphy in 1992.
Though the command for
Kingsmill had come direct from the PIRA Northern Command the murders would be
claimed by the South Armagh Republican Action Force, according
to Sean McKenna, South Armagh Republican Action Force was used as a proxy to allow
the PIRA Leadership to deny responsibility for these sectarian killings. Sinn
Fein/Provisional IRA funding from The USA in particular was dependent on the
conflict in Northern Ireland being presented as non-sectarian or the flow of
money and weapons would run dry.
The PIRA Leadership were also
in talks with the British, and The PIRA Leadership needed to be able to deny
responsibility for murderous actions that they were directing. Similar to The
PIRA Leadership arming The Real IRA in 1998 to use as proxies, while presenting
themselves as ‘peace-makers’. I know the latter, as my cousin Seamus McKenna
(Omagh Bomber) (Sean McKenna’s brother) told me so in 1998 and I went public.
Sean McKenna to ensure that
before and after at Kingsmill no one talked about their part in the murders, he
used experienced and reliable gunmen. Sean said he was personally involved
along with Peter Cleary, Raymond McCreesh, Colm Murphy and Michael McKevitt.
The vehicles used in Kingsmill were driven by Coburn and Cullen.
I have provided three tapes of
recordings of my cousin, Sean McKenna, as I helped him to tell his life story.
I have been told the only reference in the three tapes to the incident at
Kingsmill is the following:
“So…things went on…Christmas
past and the sectarian trouble started in South Armagh. And I think it was
February the ten Protestants were shot in Whitecross. Now looking back on it…At
that time, I thought it was the right thing to do. I’m not saying I had
anything to do with it, I hadn’t. Thank God. But...I agreed with it, I thought
it was the right thing to do. Because…I suppose we believed if we could bring
the thing to a head once and for all. And alright…there was going to be a lot
of people die but it was going to sort it out one way or the other. But anyway…that
was done I think in February, the ten Protestants were shot”.
As I have not heard the
three-tapes for 10-years and I have not heard the original 5-tapes that I gave
to Mo Mowlam and later the RUC, for 25-years, I am taking it on face value that
this is what Sean McKenna has said on the three-tapes about Kingsmill.
I find it difficult, to
explain to people outside of Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA how the Sinn Fein/PIRA
psyche works. I have since 1969 (a 6-year-old child) been associated with Sinn
Fein/PIRA, initially in my Uncle Sean’s kitchen in Newry when Sean was founding
Sinn Fein/PIRA after the split with Official IRA. Being part of the community
in Tyrone that had family murdered by The PIRA and UVF. Infiltrating
(16-years-old) Sinn Fein/PIRA in Monaghan Town in 1980 (as a Garda Agent) and
so forth.
I have never taken money or
sought favour for my work, I am simply motivated by the murder of my Uncle
Cyril McCaul by The PIRA in November, 1973, an innocent civilian, whose de-capitated
body I seen in the morgue in Dungannon Hospital when I was 9-years-old.
I have explained that Sean
McKenna was being ‘coy’ in his initial utterances about his role in Kingsmill,
Sean McKenna did not, for very obvious reasons want to go back to jail, and
certainly not for his role in Kingsmill.
“At that time, I thought it
was the right thing to do. I’m not saying I had anything to do with it, I
hadn’t. Thank God”.
Sean McKenna placed this
phrase in the tape, so that if the tapes ended up in the hands of the
authorities (Ivor Bell was charged in recent times, because of what he said on
tapes, that were not to become public until after his death), he could deny any
role in Kingsmill. Sean McKenna was a seasoned player, and this is clear from
the three tapes provided, he knew how to limit disclosure in order to minimise
the risks to himself.
For example, when arrested
(17-years-old) with his father on the morning of internment, he eventually
makes limited disclosures in order to be taken out of RUC Special Branch
custody, but Sean does not disclose the whereabouts of the ten rifles he had
hidden that morning, after a plan of mass murder failed to materialise.
Again, when arrested in 1976,
Sean makes limited disclosures in order to be taken out of RUC Special Branch
custody in Gough Barracks and remanded to Crumlin Road Jail.
Sean McKenna says, “I thought
it was the right thing to do”, he does not say, “I thought they done the right
thing”, I am satisfied that this is an admission of guilt, and this admission
of guilt was supported in the hundreds of hours I spent debriefing Sean McKenna.
Sean McKenna says, “I suppose
we believed if we could bring the thing to a head once and for all”, in this
passage, Sean McKenna clearly places himself within both the strategic and
tactical decision-making processes relating to Kingsmill. Sean McKenna, by his
own admission was operating with Peter Cleary, whom the Provisional IRA have
publicly stated was a staff officer on the south Armagh Brigade of The
Provisional IRA, there was and is no higher decision-making body in south
Armagh.
Sean McKenna continues, “And
alright…there was going to be a lot of people die but it was going to sort it
out one way or the other”. Again, Sean McKenna places himself at the strategic
and tactical decision-making process, because he is speaking with prior
knowledge, “there was going to be a lot of people die”, of the events
that were to unfold at Kingsmill
I spent hundreds of hours
‘debriefing’ Sean McKenna while he and I worked and socialised together while
he was living in Monaghan Town. My job as a State Agent, from 1980, was to
extract information from terrorists. My ability to memorise both the spoken and
written word was one of my key assets.
My encouragement to Sean
McKenna to tell his life story, was simply an opening gambit for me to extract
further and more detailed information, exactly as I done, and continue to do,
with many others.
Debriefing Sean McKenna,
1990-92, was only a small part of my intelligence work, my key focus was Michael
‘Pete’ Ryan and his Unit who were an active threat to life. When that threat
was extinguished in June, 1991, I was able to focus more on Sean McKenna and
historical crimes committed.
During my time with Sean
McKenna, An Garda Siochana, wanted information about certain terrorist attacks
in the Irish Republic that Sean may have had information about, although not
necessarily involved in. Gardai did not show any particular interest in
Kingsmill, mainly because it was planned and operationalised outside the state.
An Garda Siochana were
particularly interested in the murder of Garda Michael Clerkin from Monaghan
Town, by the Provisional IRA. Although Sean McKenna was in prison at the time
of Garda Michael Clerkin’s murder, Gardai believed that because of Sean
McKenna’s senior rank both inside and outside prison Sean may have the names of
those who murdered Garda Clerkin. An Garda Siochana were also interested in the
murder of Senator Billy Fox, who had been murdered by The Provisional IRA.
My initial Garda contact in
Monaghan Town, Garda Detective, Christy McNamee, who was retired in 1990, and
working as a private detective, was interested in establishing any facts about
the murder of Garda Gary Sheehan by the PIRA in December, 1983, as Garda Gary
Sheehan was the son of Detective McNamee’s former colleague, Garda Sheehan, in
Clontibret, Monaghan.
Garda Detective, Christy
McNamee, was the Garda Officer, who rescued me (11-years-old) in June 1975,
when rioting erupted in Clara graveyard, in north Monaghan, as my Uncle Sean
McKenna (Hooded-man) was being buried and my cousin Sean McKenna
(Hunger-striker) was preparing to fire a volley of shots over his father’s
coffin, with his father’s personal pearl-handled revolver. In April 1980, as I
prepared to leave school in June 1980, I cycled to Monaghan Town to seek out
the Garda who had rescued me in 1975. I was introduced to Garda Detective
Christy McNamee by Garda Sean Casey. I volunteered for and was recruited as a
State Agent to infiltrate Sinn Fein/PIRA.
For my part, I wanted to know
if Sean McKenna made any correlation between his actions at Tullyvallen
Orange Hall in 1975 (Sean McKenna made the bomb for Tullyvallen) and Kingsmill
in 1976, and the murders of our cousins Marian Bowen, Marian’s unborn baby,
Marian’s brother’s Michael and Seamus McKenna by the Glenanne Gang/UVF at
Dungannon in 1975, by means of a booby-trap bomb.
I am satisfied that Sean
McKenna told me that he was one of the shooters at Kingsmill, I would not say
that, if Sean did not say it, and Sean would not have admitted it, if it were
not true, it was no badge of honour for anyone claiming to be ‘republican’.
I eventually encouraged Sean
McKenna to detail his role and the role of others at Kingsmill, with the
promise that I would not publish his story until after his death, he believed
in 1992 that he would die from cancer of the throat, Sean then moved to County
Kerry. Sean McKenna said that The Kingsmill attack had been sanctioned in
December, 1975, however, it took time to get the logistics in place. Sean
McKenna, Michael McKevitt and Colm Murphy supplied the weapons.
Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy and his
brother Patrick Murphy (PIRA Finance), raised concerns about the impact the
attack on Kingsmill could have on fund-raising (Smuggling – Sinn Fein/PIRA and
a small number of Protestant smugglers were inter-dependent on each other’s
discretion) but in the end Tom and Patrick did not dissent.
While the Reavey and O’Dowd
murders made it easier to ‘Justify’ Kingsmill, the attack on Kingsmill was
going to take place anyway, it was pure coincidence that it happened in such
close proximity to the Reavey and O’Dowd murders.
By Sean McKenna’s own
admission on the tapes, by March, 1976, when it became clear to the good people
of south Armagh, that The Provisional IRA had sanctioned and carried out The
Kingsmill murders, traditionally safe-houses for PIRA members in south Armagh,
shut their doors in the faces of PIRA members.
I am satisfied that the quotes
from the Sean McKenna tapes as set-out above, are admissions by Sean McKenna of
his role in the strategic and tactical planning of the operation at Kingsmill
and the logic and thinking behind such an attack and its anticipated outcome. I
am satisfied that the quotes from the tapes provided, my own debriefing of Sean
McKenna and Sean McKenna’s admissions to me, identify Sean McKenna as one of
the planners, organisers and shooters at Kingsmill. I am not sure what the
missing tapes contain, but I am certain, that in them, Sean McKenna admits to
murders, for which he was not convicted.
In July, 2023, as I was going
through some old files, I found some notes on the back of an old contract from
1990 (copy given to coroner’s office), in which Sean McKenna stated that the
shot-gun he had at Kingsmill, is the same shot-gun that he had in his
possession when taken into custody by The SAS in March, 1976. Perhaps with new
developments in technology this could be tested. In the tapes Sean McKenna
says, “I had the shot-gun” he does not say, “I had a shot-gun”.
Those notes also show that
Sean McKenna admitted emptying a sub-machine gun into a woman in south Armagh
when she refused to hand over her car at a PIRA Check-point and she died at the
scene. The latter is also disclosed on one of the original 5-tapes.
Sean McKenna also stated that
Gerry Adams wrote both the Press Release relating to Kingsmill and the claim of
responsibility for the Kingsmill attack by South Armagh Republican Action
Force, however, both the Press Release and the claim of responsibility were
delivered by Brian Keenan, I did not establish exactly what the latter meant.
For example, did Brian Keenan deliver the text for the claim of responsibility
to Sean McKenna or did Brian phone it through himself.
Sean McKenna said that both
south Armagh Brigade of The Provisional IRA and Northern Command of the PIRA
supported by Seamus Twomey (PIRA Chief of Staff, replaced by Gerry Adams as
Chief of Staff in 1977) and others had sanctioned the Kingsmill murders, just
as they had sanctioned the killings of three British soldiers in the weeks
before Kingsmill, killings in which some of the Kingsmill murderers were
involved, including Raymond McCreesh, Peter Cleary and Sean McKenna and any
suggestion that attacks in south Armagh were not being sanctioned by The
Provisional IRA Army Council during this period was nonsense.
While Gerry Adams has
consistently denied being a member of The Provisional IRA, I can say with 100%
certainty that Gerry Adams was a member of The Provisional IRA.
On the 13 July, 1983, PIRA
Army Council member, Joe Cahill, told me, in general conversation, at Sinn Fein
HQ, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin, that he (Joe) had sworn Gerry Adams into The
PIRA. When I left 44 Parnell Square, 13 July, 1983, I was followed by Garda
Special Branch, arrested at a PIRA safe-house and held under Section 30
Offences Against the State Act at the Bridewell Garda Station. In 1984, I meet
Gerry Adams in his role as a senior member of The PIRA at 21 Dublin Street,
Monaghan Town. I have spoken to senior PIRA members such as Jock Davidson and Joseph
‘Joe’ Haughey who took their orders directly from Gerry Adams.
Sean McKenna claimed that he had
been chosen for the first Hunger-strike in 1980 by Brendan Hughes (Gerry Adams
right-hand man) and Raymond McCreesh had been chosen for the
second hunger-strike in 1981 due to their service in south Armagh during the
1975-76 period in particular. They would not have been chosen for such a
prestigious appointment (Republican Martyrdom) if they had acted outside of the
chain of command at any time, remembering that each Hunger-striker had to be
rubber-stamped by Northern Command and in particular The Belfast Leadership.
I was on the inside of these
conversations in Monaghan Town in 1980, with Kevin McKenna, JB O’Hagan,
Bernadette McAliskey and so forth. I was again on the inside of these
conversations in Monaghan Town in 1981 before the second hunger-strike, and
when in The Swan Lake Hotel, we voted to run Bobby Sands, Kieran Doherty and so
forth as H-Block candidates, in up coming elections, rather than Sinn Fein candidates
as we believed only small numbers would vote for Sinn Fein candidates at that
time.
On the 30 June, 1999, I
travelled to the House of Commons to attend Northern Ireland Question Time, in
the Distinguished Strangers Gallery, by invitation from a cross party group of
MPs, I have provided the coroner’s office with a copy of the official
invitation.
Mo Mowlam was Secretary of
State for Northern Ireland and she spoke during Northern Ireland Question Time,
30 June, 1999, it was Mowlam who had sought the issue of a special invitation
to me, as we knew each other in Northern Ireland.
Following Northern Ireland
Question Time, I was brought to an office/room (had leather couches – more like
a sitting room) where Mo Mowlam met with me. I had asked to speak with Mo
Mowlam and someone associated with Harry Barnes MP had organised the meeting.
At this meeting, 30 June,
1999, which only lasted about five-minutes, as Mo was running off to an
official meeting, I asked Mo Mowlam not to issue Comfort Letters to PIRA
Terrorists. In order to support my position, I gave Mo Mowlam a copy of the
five-4-track Sean McKenna tapes, to demonstrate to Mowlam that closure could
yet be brought to many terrorist victims, once we had the correct process in
place. I believe that I mentioned the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that
had been established in south Africa.
It was not unusual for
‘fixers’ to arrange meetings for me at Westminster. On the 27 January, 1999, a
‘fixer’ associated with Harry Barnes MP, arranged for Sean O’Callaghan
(MI5/Garda Special Branch, Agent) to meet with me for lunch in Westminster.
Also at the lunch table were Harry Barnes MP, Gary Kent (Fixer) and Ruth Dudley
Edwards (Journalist).
This lunch meeting, 27
January, 1999, with Sean O’Callaghan and I, ended abruptly, when Sean
O’Callaghan received a friendly phone call from Martin McGuinness (alleged MI6
Agent) to advise Sean O’Callaghan that Eamon Collins (RUC Super-grass –
retracted his evidence – was allowed to return to Barcroft Park Newry by PIRA
Leadership including Gerry Adams) had just been murdered in Newry by The PIRA,
as Eamon had given evidence against Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy in The Sunday Times
libel trial in Dublin. Sean O’Callaghan and I, were also witnesses in this
trial.
Fixers had also arranged
meetings for me at Westminster on various dates with Lord Cranbourne, William
Hague, Newspaper Editors and so forth. These meetings all relating to my work
in Northern Ireland and my specific knowledge both practical and academic (A
Fairly Secret Army, 1996) of terrorist groups.
Following my return from
London 30 June, 1999
During my time with Families
Against Intimidation and Terror (FAIT) I had established a working relationship
with Michael Wright, an RUC Special Branch officer. I felt I could place trust
in him as he had family connections with Aughnacloy where I had grown up. In
1999 just off the Ormeau Road I meet Michael Wright and another RUC Special
Branch Officer and gave him copies of the 5 tapes I had recorded with Sean
McKenna, and given to Mo Mowlam 30 June, 1999.
I would conclude by saying
that in 1999, when I gave RUC Special Branch Officer, Michael Wright the 5-tapes
relating to Sean McKenna, our priority concern in 1999 was active terrorist
threats, not Historical Inquiries. Our work prevented numerous terrorist
attacks, notably, the interception of the 500lb bomb destined for the residence
of The Secretary of State, Peter Mandelson. The prevention of the murders of
senior Sinn Fein/PIRA personnel and the prevention of no warning bomb attacks
in The Irish Republic.
Statement of Truth
I believe that the facts
stated in this statement are true.
Signed…………………………………………………………………………..
STATEMENT OF WITNESS: VINCENT
MCKENNA
Dated: 21 July 2023
Person Taking Statement ………………………Graham
Reilly
Background
South Armagh Republican Action
Force, January, 1976, “Kingsmill was retaliation for the Reavey–O'Dowd killings
the night before Kingsmill and there will be no further action on our
part if loyalists stop their attacks. We have no connection with the PIRA”.
The Provisional IRA Leadership
in Belfast stated, January, 1976:
“The Irish Republican Army ‘has never initiated sectarian killings’, and sectarianism of any kind is abhorrent to the Republican Movement. If the loyalist elements responsible for over 300 sectarian assassinations in the past four years stop such killing now, then the question of retaliation from whatever source will not arise”.
Other Top Stories
Comfort Letters
The South Armagh Republican Action Force
Kingsmill Massacre
