There was an air of desperation at Templetown beach in Co Louth yesterday.
It became the most notorious beach in Ireland in the summer of 1999 when the IRA said it was the burial place of Belfast woman Ms Jean McConville, one of the so-called "disappeared".
Yesterday some of her family returned there; not because the search for her grave was being resumed by gardai but because construction work has begun on reinstating the car-park that was dug up in the search two years ago.
"I feel that with the reconstruction of the car-park, it is probably the last time there will be any movement of earth of any description. . .
"I am here simply because I couldn't live with myself if I stayed at home knowing there was excavation going on," said her son-in-law, Mr Seamus McKendry.
Her family watched over the 10-week period in 1999 as gardai painstakingly sifted through thousands of tonnes of sand and rubble in search of her burial place.
Searches took place at locations in Louth, Monaghan, Meath and Wicklow, specified by the IRA as burial places for eight "disappeared".
The 1999 searches did uncover a double grave at Colgagh bog, in Co Monaghan containing the remains of John McClory (17) and Brian McKinney (21).
The day before searches began for Eamonn Molloy, his body was discovered in a coffin above the ground in a Louth cemetery.
To date the families of the remaining five victims wait in vain.
Mr McKendry still believes there could be additional information in the hands of the IRA, "I think there is always that little bit more that can be done . . . there is bound to be some little snippet of information that would help us establish exactly where the bodies lie."
The other "disappeared" people are: Danny McIlhone, Brendan Megraw, Kevin McKee, Seamus Wright and Columba McVeigh.
