IRA aids search for victims

Regular contact between the IRA and forensic investigators is guiding searches for people abducted, murdered and secretly buried during the North’s Troubles, it emerged tonight.

Top scientific detective Geoff Knupfer, who is leading a painstaking quest to locate the remains of the so-called Disappeared, said recent and ongoing talks with the Provisionals has led to fresh digs.

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

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

Speaking after the inquest into the death of Disappeared IRA victim Danny McIlhone, whose remains were uncovered last year in the remote Wicklow Mountains in the Irish Republic, 27 years after he vanished, Mr Knupfer said there was slow progress being made on other searches.

“We are absolutely satisfied the Republican Movement is trying its utmost to assist us here,” he said.

“We have to remember the timescales involved – 25 to 30 years ago when these events took place – and the nature of the terrain, which were selected for their barrenness and anonymity, and now we are trying to locate those spots.

“So it is a very difficult job but we are getting tremendous support from the various organisations involved.”

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

Information to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR), set up by the Irish and British governments to locate the remains of the Disappeared, was previously being fed through intermediaries, he said.

Direct contact was now ongoing, added Mr Knupfer, the former Greater Manchester detective who helped find the bodies of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s child victims

However, security sources warned that direct talks do not automatically guarantee every remaining body will be found.

Searches near Rouen, France, for INLA victim Seamus Ruddy have so far ended without success while no site has yet been located for the remains of undercover British agent Robert Nairac.

So far, the remains of six victims have been recovered.

ICLVR commissioner Frank Murray said searches were long and painstaking and had been hampered by weather conditions.

“We have a very small dedicated team, working very actively in these areas,” he said.

“It’s a very long painstaking work, it doesn’t happen overnight and we’ve been bedevilled by bad weather this year and last year as well – which hasn’t helped things at all.”

Appealing for anyone with information to come forward, Mr Murray said there would be a “Chinese wall” around disclosures which would remain solely with the ICLVR.