When Mary Boyle went missing from near her grandparents’ home in Cashelard, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, on March 18, 1977, she was one of the country’s youngest ever disappeared.

A man has been arrested by gardaí today in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a six-year-old girl in 1977.

The arrest today of a man in connection with the alleged kidnapping of six-year-old Mary Boyle in 1977 has brought the case of Ireland’s youngest ever disappeared back into the public spotlight. Stephen Rogers chronicles the background to the case.