Families appeal to TDs to set up better database to help find their missing loved ones 

Claire Clarke Keane, whose sister Priscilla Clarke went missing in 1988, will be among a group meeting Oireachtas members to lobby for an improved database of missing persons. File picture: Ciara Wilkinson

The families of missing people will meet politicians at Leinster House on Wednesday to lobby for improvements in procedures, saying at present families feel “frozen out”.

The meeting is being organised by Claire Clarke Keane, the sister of missing woman Priscilla Clarke, and Senator John McGahon. 

Priscilla Clarke disappeared without trace in 1988 while out horseriding with her employer, Lynda Kavanagh. Ms Kavanagh’s body was recovered  two days later but Ms Clarke has never been found.

Priscilla Clarke went missing while horseriding with her employer, Lynda Kavanagh, in Wicklow in 1988. Ms Kavanagh’s body was recovered from the River Dargle two days later but Ms Clarke has never been found.

A cold case review of her disappearance was opened in 2008 but no progress has been made in finding her.

Her sister Claire will lead a delegation of families of missing people during meetings with TDs and senators on Wednesday.

She said: “We want, when the election comes around, that every party’s manifesto will include making improvements to the system and having a committee that involves family representatives. At the moment, families feel frozen out.”

Claire Clarke-Keane, whose sister Priscilla Clarke  went missing at the Dargle river close to Enniskerry, Co Wicklow in 1988, speaking during Missing Persons Day 2022 at Croke Park, Dublin. File picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

She said that the group will highlight shortcomings in the human remains database during meetings on Wednesday.

A spreadsheet of details of 44 unidentified remains across the State was published by the Department of Justice in May.

The details of the 44 human remains — including location and date of discovery, and any distinctive aspects such as clothing or tattoos — have been inputted into a database which can be accessed online.

However, the spreadsheet does not include any images, unlike its equivalent in the UK.

Claire Clarke Keane has raised concerns recently that the Irish spreadsheet does not go far enough.

Denis Walsh Snr's son, Denis, went missing in 1996. A month later, Denis Jnr's remains washed up on Inis Mór — but it was not until 2021 that this family discovered his fate. See below. Picture: Brian Arthur

She told the Irish Examiner: “We are looking for the database as well — a proper one. And support for families who have people missing overseas and in Ireland.”

Ms Clarke Keane first came up with the idea of a database of unidentified remains across Ireland almost 20 years ago, three years before the opening of a cold-case review of her sister’s disappearance.

Priscilla Clarke is one of more than 800 people who remain “missing” in Ireland.

Ms Clarke Keane says the current database is a start but it needs to have visuals of distinguishing clothing, jewellery, or any other items found with or on unidentified remains.

In Limerick, the family of Denis Walsh is planning to sue the State after they discovered in February 2021 that their son’s remains had been lying in a communal grave in Galway unknown to them. 

He had disappeared 25 years earlier and his remains washed up on a beach on Inis Mór a month after his disappearance.

Although his body lay in a morgue in Galway for 18 years before being buried in a communal grave, efforts by his parents Denis Senior and Mary to find their son failed.