Republicans ‘must do more’ to end families’ suffering

REPUBLICANS must do more to end the suffering of families whose loved ones mysteriously vanished during Northern Ireland’s Troubles, the SDLP said yesterday.

Following Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams’s appeal for information about the disappearance of Armagh men Gerard Evans and Charlie Armstrong, SDLP Assembly member Dominic Bradley said it was not good enough for Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Socialist Party to simply say the abduction, murder and secret burials of people were wrong.

He called on the Provisional IRA and INLA to do more to end the suffering of families of the disappeared.

“The Armstrong family have suffered for 25 years while the Evans family have waited 27 years for the bodies of their loved ones to be returned.

“No one can underestimate the torment these families and all the families of the disappeared have had to endure. No organisation has the right to deny any family a proper Christian burial for their loved one.

“Paramilitaries took their lives, they took their bodies and now they must not continue to take away the right for Christian burials for the disappeared.

“It is not enough for Sinn Féin or the IRSP to say this was wrong — they have to do what is necessary to put right their wrongs.”

Following a meeting with the families of Charlie Armstrong, Mr Adams appealed for anyone with information on the father-of-five’s disappearance or that of Gerard Evans to pass it onto him.

The IRA has insisted it had no involvement in the disappearance of both men.

Mr Armstrong was last seen in August 1981 leaving his home to collect a pensioner to take her to Mass.

Mr Evans was last seen in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, in March 1979, hitching a lift to Armagh.

Five bodies of people the IRA admits kidnapping, murdering and burying have yet to be returned to their families. They are Columba McVeigh, Kevin Mckee, Seamus Wright, Danny McIlhone and Brendan Megraw.

No group has claimed a role in the disappearance of IRSP activist Seamus Ruddy in France in 1985 and SAS Captain Robert Nairac in Armagh in May 1977.

The INLA, which is allied to the party Mr Ruddy was a member of, is believed to have been responsible.