Sinn Féin members urged to raise whereabouts of disappeared man with 'top table' 

Columba McVeigh who was murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1975.  Picture: Alan Lewis 

The brother of one of the disappeared made repeated appeals to Sinn Féin politicians on an Oireachtas committee to go to the highest levels of the party to get the information needed to locate the remains and allow for a Christian burial.

Oliver McVeigh, brother of Columba McVeigh, issued his appeals again and again during a three-hour meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement to Sinn Féin MP for West Tyrone Órlflaith Begley, Sinn Féin TD for Mayo Rose Conway Walsh and to Sinn Féin MP for West Belfast Paul Maskey.

Columba McVeigh was abducted by the IRA from Dublin in October 1975. It is believed he was brought to Braggan bog, Co Monaghan and despite searches there by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains he has not as yet been recovered.

His sister, Dympna Kerr said while she is totally non-political, Sinn Féin was the first to call the British government out for sweeping things under the carpet, but the party is doing the same thing.

Other families of the disappeared, attending the committee as part of the support group Wave Trauma Centre, echoed the call, as did members of the committee from other political parties, including the chairman Fergus O’Dowd, Fine Gael TD for Louth.

Mr McVeigh said neither Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald nor Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill had addressed the issue. He pressed the Sinn Féin representatives on the committee to personally raise the matter “to the top table”.

During an often emotional and painful meeting, Mr McVeigh said: “We are going through a 46-year wake.” He told the Sinn Féin representatives he had enough of talk and wanted to see them take action.

Of the Sinn Féin representatives, Mr Maskey engaged at length with Mr McVeigh and other families and opposition politicians and said he has previously spoken out on this issue, which was personal to him as he had a relative who was also disappeared.

He called on anyone with information to assist but when pressed would he raise it with relevant people internally he mentioned “ex-prisoners” as one relevant group he appealed to and said he would talk to any of the families after the meeting.

Pushed by Michael McConville, son of Jean McConville, did this include disappeared Robert Nirac, a British army officer, he said it did.

Jean McConville, a widow of 10 children. who was abducted by the IRA in December 1972 and murdered and secretly buried, was only located in 2003.

Mr McConville said that as a child and into his adulthood the IRA had “taken everything away from me” and robbed his own children of their grandmother.

Mr O’Dowd said he did accept Mr Maskey’s “genuineness of his personal efforts” but was critical of all the Sinn Féin representatives for not using all their allotted time to speak and ask and answer questions.

Sandra Peake, chief executive officer of Wave, said being disappeared was the "cruelest of acts" as it denied families a body, a Christian burial and a place to visit.

She implored the committee to help publicise their cause, including opposing proposals by the British government of an amnesty for legacy cases.