Ahern hopes victim’s remains can be found for family’s closure

JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern has said “the best way” for the family of IRA disappeared victim Gerry Evans to have closure, “is if his remains are found”.

He was speaking as the next stage of the search for Mr Evans’s secret grave began on isolated bogland near Hackballscross in Co Louth.

The 24-year-old from South Armagh was abducted and shot by the IRA as he hitched a lift home from a disco in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, in March 1979.

While the IRA leadership has denied involvement, a purported member of its south Armagh brigade told a Sunday newspaper he was part of a 12-member team who carried out the killing.

It is believed he was kept alive for three days before being shot in the back of the head.

The revelation sparked a geophysical survey and drainage of the land near Hackballscross, part of which was under water.

The area has been divided into grids and an archaeological “time-team” headed by top scientific detective Geoff Knupfer are excavating particular areas based on the results of the survey.

But an ICLVR spokesman cautioned against hopes of an immediate breakthrough, pointing out that investigators were onsite in the Wicklow Mountains for 18 months before recovering the remains of disappeared victim Danny McIlhone last year.

“There won’t be large scale excavation but there will be clearance of some soil,” he said.

“We’ll be there for as long as it takes but we expect to be there for a considerable period.”

Raising hopes for the families of victims whose remains have yet to be recovered, Mr Knupfer last month said direct contact with the IRA led to a breakthrough in finding Mr McIlhone’s remains, at bogland on the side of Wicklow’s second highest peak, Mullaghcleevaun.

Mr Ahern said: “Although it is 30 years since Mr Evans was last seen alive, the best way for the healing process to advance and for closure for the family to happen is if his remains are found.”

“This is a very difficult and traumatic time for the family and relatives of Mr Evans. I hope the search is successful and we can close another sad chapter on our troubled past,” he added.

Meanwhile, new legislation allowing the families of the IRA disappeared to have death certificates for their missing relatives came into existence in the North yesterday.

The Presumption of Death Bill will allow the courts to recognise the death and the families to be given a death certificate and subsequently settle their legal affairs if a person has been missing for more than seven years.

It is 10 years since the list of the disappeared and the locations of their graves were provided by the IRA.

Excavations and surveys are also being carried out at Colgagh, Co Monaghan, for the remains of Charlie Armstrong; at Coghalstown, Co Meath, for Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee; and at Oristown, Co Meath, for Brendan Megraw.

It is understood a search for IRA victim Columba McVeigh at Bragan, Co Monaghan, is nearing an end.