VETERAN republican Colm Murphy claims the IRA intended to 'ethnically cleanse' all unionists out of South Armagh if there was any retaliation for the Kingsmill massacre.

The plot to kill every high profile unionist living close to the border, was filtered down to IRA volunteers on the ground and was only abandoned after it was discussed at Army Council level in Belfast and vetoed by the then Chief of Staff of the IRA.

The building contractor, who was identified by the Irish News on Saturday as owning the palm print recently identified on a van linked to the 1976 IRA attack, said it was one of many embarrassing details that could come out during an inquest into the murders of ten Protestant workmen.

The men were shot dead in the gun attack which was claimed by the Republican Action Force, a cover name for the IRA.

One man Alan Black survived despite being shot 18 times. A Catholic work colleague was separated from the group and spared.

A week after an inquest into the killings got underway the coroner was told that a potential new suspect had been identified.

Police said a fingerprint expert asked could he re-examine the palm print, alleged to have been discovered in a van recovered in Co Louth shortly after the killings, against the police fingerprint database and a match was made.

Families of those killed expressed surprise that this evidence was overlooked for over 40 years despite a Historical Enquiries Team investigation and several reviews of the case.

However, Murphy (63), who was convicted and later clear on appeal of involvement in the Omagh bomb, claims he is being used to scupper the inquest and save details emerging that could damage the peace process and embarrass Sinn Féin.

He claims he has been arrested upward of 30 times and fingerprinted more than 40 times, including in the North, since 1976 and questions why the palm print is only now being linked to him.

Murphy claims he is being used as a "scapegoat" to save the peace process.

"There was an expectation at the time that there would be retaliation (following Kingsmill), and if there was then the area was to be cleared of all unionists," he said.

"The plan was to rid the area of unionists by targetting high profile people and burning them out, that would have been well known at the time."

Asked if this meant essential 'ethnically cleansing' the area, he said "yes."

"It was called off after the man whose idea it was went up the road to Belfast and was told that if they did that in South Armagh then small Catholic communities in places like Antrim would be at risk and there'd be no way of protecting them," Murphy continued.

"You know that was the times we were living in, it sounds incredible now 40-years on but that's what was being talked about at that time.

"Basically driving every single unionist out, clearing them all out, now there are people don't want that kind of detail being made public.

"People who are now in government with unionists and don't want reminded of the past.

"That's why you have to ask why this is being linked to me all of a sudden, much easier to deflect onto me than allow uncomfortable truth's to come spilling out", he added.

:: In tomorrow's Irish News we reveal the details of secret RUC Special Branch briefing papers that named alleged republicans police suspected of involvement in the Kingsmill atrocity. Copies of the same documents were controversially used by former DUP leader Ian Paisley to name people he claimed to be leading members of the IRA in 1999 using parliamentary privilege.

Read the Irish News editorial on the importance of press freedom