'Disappeared' victim to be buried alongside parents

Murdered IRA victim Danny McIlhone will finally be laid to rest with his mother and father almost 30 years after his disappearance, his family said today.

The remains of the west Belfast teenager have been positively identified through DNA testing after they were dug up from a remote hillside in Co Wicklow.

His family said they were relieved and eternally grateful that their 27-year wait to find his body had finally come to a close.

"We as a family are now at peace and now have the opportunity to give our brother Danny a Christian burial and to lay him to rest with our beloved mother and father," they said in a statement.

"While we have now found peace our thoughts and prayers remain with and will always be with the families whose anguish and loss continues."

Mr McIlhone, 19, was one of the so-called 'Disappeared' who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried during the Troubles.

The IRA claimed he was being questioned about stealing weapons from an arms dump in 1981 when he was killed in a struggle with a gunman who was guarding him.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR), set up by the Irish and British governments to find the Disappeared, was passed information that his body was buried at Ballynultagh, near the village of Lacken in the Wicklow Mountains.

But despite two unsuccessful searches at the forest-surrounded bogland close to Blessington Lakes in 1999 and 2000, investigators using new techniques made a breakthrough on November 10.

Samples from the recovered remains were sent to a special DNA database in England that contains the genetic codes of families of all the Disappeared and were returned as positive to the Dublin coroner.

The McIlhone family will now work with the coroner to have the remains of their brother returned to them for burial with his parents.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank most sincerely the British and Irish governments for their assistance in our search," they said.

"In particular we would wish to thank the commissioners who have assisted us and been a constant support to us throughout the years in our search for Danny.

"We would also wish to thank members of the forensic team from England who eventually found Danny and who continue to search for the remains of the other Disappeared and to all those people who have helped us throughout the years in our efforts to find Danny."

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said he was very conscious of the long period of suffering endured by the McIlhone family.

"I hope it is some small comfort that they are now able to give him a proper burial, a privilege denied to them for almost 30 years," he said.

"Our thoughts are with them at this time."

The ICLVR said it was continuing to work at other sites to find the remaining Disappeared.

These include Seamus Wright, Kevin McKee, Columba McVeigh, Brendan Megraw - all of whom the IRA has admitted killing and dumping in unmarked graves.

Other cases, such as the 1977 murder of undercover British agent Robert Nairac, Charles Armstrong and Gerard Evans who vanished from Co Armagh, are also being examined.

Last year the ICLVR brought in Geoff Knupfer, the investigative scientist who helped find the bodies of the victims of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, to spearhead a new scientific approach.

This included the use of an archaeological "time-team", made up of geophysicists who used ground radar, scanners, probes and cadaver dogs that detect human remains.

These groundbreaking methods are already being rolled out at five more suspected burial locations in Counties Monaghan, Meath and Louth.

Alex Attwood, SDLP Assembly member for West Belfast, said the sympathy of everybody was with Mr McIlhone's family.

"His burial in the next few days will demonstrate the respect and dignity denied to Mr McIlhone and his family by those responsible for the killing," he said.

"There will also be deep sympathy for all the other families of the Disappeared. Their grief can only be more acute in this Christmas season."

Mr Attwood said the names of any IRA members not co-operating with the ICLVR should be handed to the commission to help identify where missing victims were buried.