A confidential telephone number and address are to be set up to help locate the bodies of people abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA, it was announced today.

Gerry Adams is to be challenged in a new move to force the IRA to clear the name of Jean McConville, it emerged tonight.

A forensic expert has told the inquest into the death of Jean McConville that police on both sides of the border had uncovered no matches to the bullet removed from Ms McConville’s skull after her remains were discovered on a beach in Co Louth last August.

Forensic evidence found during the examination of the body of IRA “Disappeared” victim Jean McConville could still be used to convict her murderers, it emerged today.

JEAN McCONVILLE, the Belfast mother of 10 who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972, can finally be laid to rest after gardaí said yesterday that the remains found last August have been confirmed in DNA tests as hers.

Remains discovered in a shallow grace in Carlingford in August have been positively identified as those of IRA murder victim Jean McConville.

Gardaí have formally ended a two-week-long search of a mountainside bog near the Northern Ireland border for the remains of Columba McVeigh, who was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA as a teenager nearly 30 years ago.

Gardaí tonight formally ended a two-week-long search of a mountainside bog near the Northern Ireland border for the remains of Columba McVeigh, who was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA as a teenager nearly 30 years ago.

Gardaí were today expected to halt a two-week-long search of a mountainside bog for the remains of a man kidnapped and murdered by the IRA nearly 30 years ago.

A team of Gardaí is today involved in a third day of searching bogland near the border for teenager Columba McVeigh, one of Northern Ireland’s “disappeared“, kidnapped and murdered by the IRA nearly 30 years ago.

A SEARCH operation resumed yesterday for the remains of a teenager kidnapped and murdered by the IRA nearly 30 years ago.

THE Government’s proposed smoking ban and Ireland’s EU presidency next year will feature prominently tomorrow as the Cabinet meets for the first time since the Dáil broke for Summer recess.

EIGHT of Jean McConville’s children, from twins aged six and 16, were in the house in the dismal, trouble-torn Divis area of west Belfast when their mother was abducted in early December 1972.

INFORMATION on the location of nine people abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA was given to the Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains.

MICHAEL McCONVILLE vividly remembers the clothes his mother was wearing when she was dragged out the door of the family home more than three decades ago.

THIRTY-ONE years after their mother disappeared, the sons and daughters of Jean McConville were anxiously waiting last night for confirmation her body has been found.

Bones have been found close to a beach where the IRA claim to have buried the body of a mother they shot dead 30 years ago, it emerged tonight.