Mass-goers to hear appeal over the ‘disappeared’

PRIESTS are to make new appeals at Masses across Ireland for help in finding the remains of all nine secretly buried IRA murder victims.

Catholic Primate Archbishop Sean Brady agreed full cooperation after being approached by the body heading up attempts to locate the so-called “Disappeared”.

From Sunday, churchgoers in every diocese will be urged to offer up any assistance that may end the agony for the families of those abducted and never seen alive again.

The appeal, which will last throughout January, comes after Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams called for all available information to be given to those trying to find the bodies.

Archbishop Brady said: “The families of the disappeared ask for nothing more than the return of the bodies of their loved ones so that they can bury them with dignity.

“I am happy to support the commission’s appeal on their behalf.”

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) wrote to him explaining how anyone who may be able assist can use a newly created confidential telephone number or PO box address.

The letter stressed how all details passed on will be treated as strictly confidential and may only be used to locate and identify the remains.

With its work strictly non-political, the commission said its sole purpose was to return the victims’ remains to their families so they can give them the Christian burial so far been denied.

“This current effort is a real opportunity to end the harrowing ordeal for the families and with this in mind, the commission appeal is to anyone who has any information on any of the cases to contact them now using the confidential telephone line or post office box,” the letter said.

Those who the IRA admitted to killing and burying in unknown locations were Seamus Wright, Kevin McKee, Jean McConville, Columba McVeigh, Brendan Megraw, John McClory, Brian McKinney, Danny McIlhone and Eamon Molloy.

On the morning the ICLVR was set up in May 1999, the remains of Mr Molloy were left in a coffin in a Co Louth graveyard.

The remains of Mr McKinney and Mr McClory were later recovered at a site in Co Monaghan.

And the family of Ms McConville, a mother of 10 who was seized from her Belfast home in 1972, endured 30 years of uncertainty before her remains were discovered on Shelling Hill beach in Co Louth in 2003.