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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.