placenamesKingmills
Muilte Ching
The locality’s modern history is inseparable from the attack on textile workers on the Kingsmill Road in 1976.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Muilte Ching · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Kingmills · English · main form
Place & story
The attack on the workers’ minibus
On 5 January 1976, gunmen stopped a minibus carrying workers home from Glenanne Mill to Bessbrook. Richard Hughes, the only Catholic among the twelve men then aboard, was ordered away. The remaining eleven were shot; ten died and Alan Black survived. The killings became known as the Kingsmill massacre. [2]
The findings of the 2024 inquest
Coroner Brian Sherrard’s findings, delivered on 12 April 2024, attributed the attack to the IRA operating under its Army Council’s authority. He found that the men were targeted because they were Protestants and that the operation had been planned in advance. The findings also recorded that the available evidence had not established individual criminal responsibility. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Armagh
- Barony
- Orior Upper
- Civil parish
- Loughgilly
- Within
- Drumharriff
- Within
- Lisadian
- Coordinates
- 54.21627, -6.46285
- Logainm ID
- 124039 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kingmills. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Inquests into the Kingsmill deaths, [2024] NICoroner 21, paragraphs 315–318 · His Honour Judge Sherrard, Coroners Court for Northern Ireland
- Kingsmill Road approaching the memorial near Kingmills, as photographed in 2017 illustration: based on a Approaching the site of the infamous Kingsmills Massacre from the East by Eric Jones. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-07-15. How this page was prepared.