Time Sinn Féin helped to heal pain

Another family is living in hope today that the gardaí will uncover the remains of a young victim of the IRA’s murderous campaign of attrition they waged almost three decades ago.

A Monaghan bog may release Mrs Vera McVeigh from nearly 30 years’ heartbreak after her 17-year-old son Columba was abducted and coldly murdered by the IRA because they decided he was spying for the British Army.

Twice already in the last five years her hope of finally giving her son a decent burial were cruelly dashed when previous excavations at the same spot proved futile. Yesterday, the gardaí began their third dig at the bog, following information from the IRA that had been conveyed through an intermediary to the Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains.