Relatives wait anxiously on body identity

Bones have been found close to a beach where the IRA claim to have buried the body of a mother they shot dead 30 years ago, it emerged tonight.

Anxious relatives of Jean McConville rushed home after gardaí confirmed they sealed off an area about a quarter of a mile from Templetown beach, near Carlingford, Co Louth.

Mrs McConville, aged 37, vanished after being kidnapped in west Belfast in 1972 after the IRA alleged she was informing for the British army.

She was one of the nine so-called disappeared – all victims of the Provisionals.

Two searches of Templetown beach, one lasting 50 days, were carried out during the summer of 1999 and May last year. Nothing was found.

But tonight Mrs McConville’s daughter Helen McKendry said she hoped this latest news would end the family’s misery.

She said: “All these years waiting and not knowing anything but we have always had the feeling the body was there.”

Gardaí in Dundalk said today they received a report of possible human remains being discovered in an area known as Shelling Hill, about a quarter of a mile from the beach.

A spokesman said he could not speculate on the latest search, but it is believed a human skull is among the bones.

They were discovered by a man out walking with his children near the shores of Carlingford Lough.

The spokesman added: “We are treating it in the same way as the discovery of any other body.”

Mrs McKendry said she was praying the discovery would be confirmed as her mother’s remains.

“As soon as I got the call I just went to bits.

“I’m just hoping and praying it is so we can have an end to all this, but our hopes have been raised so many times.”

Her husband Seamus added: “We don’t know whether this is welcome or unwelcome.”

The bodies of three of the nine were recovered after the IRA eventually owned up and admitted their guilt. All had been shot in the head. They were:

:: Eamon Molloy, who disappeared from his home in the Ardoyne district of north Belfast in 1975. His remains were discovered in a cemetery at Faughert, near Dundalk. in May 1999.

:: Brian McKinney and John McClory, who were last seen together in west Belfast in 1978. Their remains were dug up in a bog in Co Monaghan in June 1999.

All three had also been accused of informing on the IRA, but the Provisionals have yet to produce definite proof the men were working for the police, Special Branch and military intelligence.

The plight of the families of the disappeared has been a huge embarrassment for the republican leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

Mr McGuinness has admitted being the IRA’s number two in Derry but Mr Adams, the Sinn Fein president, has always denied being a member.

He met the McConville family at least once to discuss her disappearance.

In October 2000 a special commission set up by the British and Irish governments announced compensation for the victims’ families.