‘The pain doesn’t cease. I think of Mary every day’

The mother of Mary Boyle, who has been missing for 35 years this weekend, said she still thinks of the missing six-year-old every day and the pain never goes away.

Mary will be remembered by members of her family, including her mother Ann Boyle, and identical twin sister, also Ann, at a special Mass tomorrow to mark her disappearance in 1977.

Mary Boyle vanished on Mar 18 while visiting her grandparents for St Patrick’s Day at their home in Cashelard, Co Donegal. She has been missing for the longest period of time for any person in the country.

For Mary’s mother, the 35th anniversary is as heart-aching as any of the previous annual commemorations.

“The Mass will be where it always is — at St Mary’s Church in Kincasslagh. There is a lovely little grotto in commemoration of Mary there.

“We used to have the Mass on the actual anniversary, the 18th, but in the last number of years, we started holding it on St Patrick’s Day.

“If anybody told me when Mary disappeared that I would still be looking for her 35 years later, I would never have believed it.

“I now do accept that she has passed away, She was a too intelligent child not to know her own way back home. But the pain doesn’t cease. I think of her every day.

“I just pray to God that he will give me what I want before I die. That’s to find out exactly what happened to my Mary.”

Ann added that Mary’s twin, now Ann Doherty, who lives in Co Offaly, often talks to her about her sister.

“The two of them were very close. Ann will be here on Friday evening for the Mass next day. She always comes for the anniversary.”

Ann Doherty has four children and one of them was named Mary after her missing sister. The woman, now Mary Duffy, is 24 and lives not far away from her granny in Burtonport with her own four beautiful young daughters.

The youngest, Niamh, is just over two weeks old and was born on Mar 1. The second youngest is also still under one year, Kayla, who was born on Mar 22 last year. Her two older girls are six-year-old Charlie, named after her grandfather who died in a fishing accident almost seven years ago, and five-year-old Leah.

Charlie’s mother and singers Daniel and Margo O’Donnell’s mother were first cousins and Margo remains a close friend of Ann Boyle.

Margo has organised searches as recently as last year in the boggy fields where Mary vanished.

“I will always go on searching for Mary. Every time I have an opportunity I get up to Cashelard to have a look. I knew her and she was a lovely wee girl.

“I have spoken to retired Garda Sergeant Martin Collins, who was the first on the scene when Mary disappeared. He is convinced Mary’s body is somewhere around Cashelard.

“I am convinced of that too. Something simple but at the same time awful happened to Mary. I know that someday we will find her.”

What precisely happened to Mary remains a mystery.

At one stage convicted child killer Robert Black, a predatory paedophile with a history of abusing young girls, was a suspect as he travelled from Britain to Ireland on deliveries. But Mary’s family do not believe he was linked to her disappearance.

Gardaí in Ballyshannon, who have charge of the inquiry, said the search for Mary Boyle remains “a live investigation”.