All Content Copyright emyvale.net
The Disappeared
REWARD OFFERED IN SEARCH FOR COLUMBA MCVEIGH
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains has
said a $60,000 (€54,000) reward is being offered through an anonymous
donor for information leading to the location of the final three
'Disappeared' victims, including Columba McVeigh. The Commission
suspended a new search for the remains of Mr McVeigh at Bragan bog
near Carrickroe last November. The Archbishop of Armagh Eamon
Martin met the family, including Mr McVeigh’s brother and sister, Eugene
and Dympna, at the site where he blessed the ground with holy water.
The 19-year-old from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, was abducted by the IRA,
shot and secretly buried in November 1975.
The Disappeared is a group of 16 victims who were abducted, murdered
and secretly buried by republicans during the troubles in the North.
So far, 13 of the 16 Disappeared victims have been recovered but the
remains of Columba McVeigh and two other men – former Cistercian monk Joe Lynskey and
British army captain Robert Nairac – are unaccounted for.
The ICLVR has said a reward of $20,000 will be paid for information on each of the three
outstanding Disappeared cases if it results in the location and recovery of the remains of any or
all of them. This is because it will have helped “close a chapter of a terrible story in the lives of
families who have suffered decades of torment not knowing where their loved ones were buried”.
Cpt Robert Nairac: went missing in 1977.ICLVR lead investigator Geoff Knupfer explained that
through the CrimeStoppers charity an anonymous donor had offered the rewards. Mr Knupfer
said: “Neither CrimeStoppers nor the ICLVR know the identity of the donor."“A reward of $20,000
in each of the three outstanding cases is substantial and whether or not it helps bring forward
information that we haven’t had to date and which results in the location and recovery of the
remains we’ll have to wait to see.”
Mr Knupfer said if new information comes to light this would be “a hugely significant
breakthrough. We should never lose sight of the fact that the whole issue of the Disappeared is
fundamentally a humanitarian one,” he said.
“There are three families who have suffered so much and are still waiting for their loved ones to
be brought home for Christian burial. That is the sole remit of the ICLVR.”
He emphasised that any information that went to CrimeStoppers would be passed only to the
ICLVR and to no one else and that all information would be treated in the strictest confidence.
“We are entirely information-driven. We can give a cast-iron guarantee which has been borne out
over the twenty years that the ICLVR has been in operation that any information received can
only be used by the ICLVR to locate and recover the remains. It will never be shared with any
other State body for any other purpose."
“If information comes forward as a result of this reward, it will be treated in exactly the same
way,” he added.
If you have any information on the location of Columba McVeigh, Joe Lynskey or Robert Nairac,
you can call the confidential phone number:
Ireland and Britain:
00800 - 55585500
International: +353 1 602 8655
E-mail: secretary@iclvr.ie
Confidential Post Box:
ICLVR, PO BOX 10827, Dublin 2.
Surely someone out there has information that would help recover the remains of some of these
three missing persons. As it says above - this is a humanitarian request for knowledge of the
locations where these three have been buried.