McConville family await identification of body

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.

Forensic and possibly DNA tests will have to be carried out to confirm the remains found on the beach in Co Louth are that of the Belfast 37-year-old mother-of-10, abducted and then murdered by the IRA in 1972.

Her daughter Helen McKendry said: “I’m just hoping and praying it is, so we can have an end to all this, but our hopes have been raised so many times.”

While gardaí were reluctant to speculate, there is a quiet belief it is Mrs McConville’s body.

The skeletal remains were in a shallow grave on a beach just half a mile from the site of two mammoth digs in 1999 and 2000.

The entrance to Shelling Hill beach near Carlingford is also similar to nearby Templeton, where the IRA said the body was buried. In addition, initial examination of items of clothing found close to the body indicate that it is the body of a woman. Garda forensic experts yesterday carefully excavated the shallow grave following the lunchtime discovery of the buried bones by a man walking his dog. It is understood the remains, in a secluded part of the beach, surrounded by high banks and well above the high-tide line, were exposed by the dog digging in the sand.

The remains were removed around 9pm to Louth County Hospital in Dundalk. A post mortem is expected to take place at noon today and this will confirm if the body is that of a woman. Mrs McConville’s son Michael, speaking at the scene, said it would be great from the family’s point of view to get closure.

Mrs McKendry, who travelled down last night, said: “As soon as I got the call I just went to bits. All these years waiting and not knowing anything, but we have always had the feeling the body was there.”

Her husband Seamus said he got a call yesterday from the intermediary appointed by the IRA to liaise with the Irish Government on the issue of the “disappeared”. Mr McKendry suspects the body was found “accidentally by design”.

He speculated that members of the IRA have known for some months where the body was buried and that “sand might have been moved” to make it easier for the remains to be discovered. Superintendent Pat Magee said: “What looks like human remains were found not far from the scene of the dig and are now being removed for tests. It is impossible to say whether it is or is not those of Mrs McConville. But for the sake of her family, it would be better if they are.” Mrs McConville, from west Belfast, was kidnapped and shot dead by the IRA after the organisation accused her of passing information to British soldiers. However, her family maintain she was killed for tending a wounded soldier in the street.

It is thought that she was interrogated in Belfast before being taken to south Armagh, where she was shot in the head and her body dumped at night across the Border. In 1999, after intense pressure, the IRA passed on information about where it believed nine of the “disappeared” were buried. After extensive searches, the bodies of three of its victims were found.

Two searches of Templeton beach, one lasting 50 days, were carried out during the summer of 1999 and in 2000. During the first search, 60,000 tonnes of sand and rubble were dug up.

Many of Mrs McConville’s children watched daily as gardaí carried on the dig for their mother’s remains. They were heartbroken when it was halted.