Exhumed body does not belong to ‘Disappeared’ teen

A BODY exhumed from a cemetery in Monaghan in the long-running search for a suspected teenage IRA victim who vanished in 1975 is not one of the so-called Disappeared.

Forensic tests revealed that skeletal remains taken from a graveyard beside Urbleshanny Church, near Scotstown in Co Monaghan, are not those of Columba McVeigh, who disappeared aged 17.

A family plot was opened in June after a tip-off from a priest that there may have been a secret burial in the grave.

Relatives of Columba McVeigh had hoped that the latest dig would bring an end to their near 36-year search for answers over his killing and disappearance.

Frank Murray and Ken Bloomfield, both commissioners of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR), said DNA tests showed the remains are not linked to any of the Disappeared.

Fifteen men and one woman were murdered and secretly buried by Republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.

Nine bodies have since been recovered. One of the dead, Eugene Simons, was found in 1984, three years after his murder, while eight others have been recovered since the commission was set up in 1999.

Mr McVeigh was from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone. He was abducted by the IRA in Dublin in October 1975.

Despite extensive searches in Co Monaghan, the whereabouts of his body remains a mystery. His mother had campaigned tirelessly on her son’s behalf up until her death in 2007.

The ICLVR commissioners added: “Nothing suspicious or that requires further Garda or ICLVR investigation was discovered during the exhumation or subsequent forensic examination.

“The remains removed will be re-interred in due course.”

Fr Joe McVeigh, who has no relation to the murdered teen, had told authorities a year and a half ago a man had given him information about a secret burial in the graveyard beside Urbleshanny church.

It had been alleged the secret was discovered in 1980 when the plot was opened for the official burial of a family member who had died in England.

In 1999, the IRA admitted it had killed and secretly buried nine of the 16 Disappeared, while the republican Irish National Liberation Army has been linked to one of the deaths.