The Disappeared - Tragic Chapter

ON Saturday it will be 20 years since Ireland, north and south, heaved a collective sigh of relief as the IRA declared its ceasefire, followed two months later by loyalist paramilitaries.

What a fitting commemoration it would be if that landmark event coincided with the recovery of the remains of Brendan Megraw, abducted in 1978 from his home in west Belfast.

Murdered by the IRA, he was only 23. If a "geophysical survey" of a bog in Oristown near Kells proves successful, he would be the 10th victim recovered from among the 16 people known as the ‘Disappeared’.

Sadly, nobody is under any allusion because the painstaking searches by the Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, including a number at this bog, are tortuously slow.

Yet, hope is kept alive as new information has come to light since the last search there four years ago.

Above all other considerations, it would bring a great sense of relief to his long suffering family and friends if this tragic chapter that has ruined their lives was finally brought to a close.