Remains 'not one of the disappeared'

A body exhumed from a cemetery in the long-running search for a teenage IRA victim murdered without trace in 1975 is not one of the so-called "disappeared".

Gardaí, a team of scientists and an anthropologist exhumed a body at a graveyard in Co Monaghan in June an attempt to establish the identity of the body. Forensic tests revealed the exhumerd skeletal remains are not those of Columba McVeigh.

An exhumation order was sought from the Minister for Justice after gardaí and the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains received information regarding the identity of the body in the grave at Urbleshanny Church just outside Scotstown.

Several digs have taken place in the region in the search for Columba McVeigh, a 17-year-old from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in October 1975.

Last December, Fermanagh-based priest Fr Joe McVeigh called on the commission and the Department of Justice to investigate a secret burial at the graveyard.

Fr McVeigh said he had been given information that a body was buried in a shallow grave. He said the grave was discovered in 1980 when the remains of a person who had died in England were being legitimately buried in the plot.

Frank Murray and Sir Ken Bloomfield, commissioners of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR), said DNA tests showed the remains are not linked to any of the disappeared.

Sixteen people are categorised as having ‘disappeared’ during the Troubles and nine bodies have been recovered to date.

The Provisional IRA admitted responsibility for killing 11 of the 16 and one death was admitted by the INLA. It is not known who killed the remaining four.

The ICLVR commissioners added: “Nothing suspicious or that requires further Garda or ICLVR investigation was discovered during the exhumation or subsequent forensic examination.

“The remains removed will be re-interred in due course.” Father Joe McVeigh, no relation to the murdered teen, had told authorities a year and a half ago that a man had given him information about a secret burial in the graveyard beside Urbleshanny.

Additional reporting: PA