FRESH DIG FOR DISAPPEARED IRA MAN JOE LYNSKEY

'Disappeaared' IRA murder victim Joe Lynskey

‘Disappeaared’ IRA murder victim Joe Lynskey

A search for one of the six Disappeared is due to resume today in bogland in Co Meath. 

In February 2010 Joe Lynskey was added to the official list of The Disappeared.

He was a member of the Provisional IRA in west Belfast.

Lynskey went missing from his west Belfast home during the summer of 1972;.

But his body has never been recovered.

Lynskey was a former Cistercian monk from the Beechmount area of west Belfast.

Now the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR) will resume a dig for him later today at Coghalstown.

ICLVR have narrowed their search down to around 15 acres.

It has today appealed for anyone with information about Mr Lynskey’s whereabouts to contact them.

The remaining ‘Disappeared’

Columba McVeigh disappeared on 1 November 1975 and his body has never been recovered. He was from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone. He had been working as a painter in Dublin and had only returned to Northern Ireland a few days earlier. Although extensive searches, based on information received, have been carried out at Braggan Bog in Co Monaghan, his remains were not found.

Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright disappeared on 2 October 1972. The two of them were from Belfast – Seamus Wright worked as an asphalt layer.  He was aged 25 and married when he went missing. It is thought they were both members of the IRA and were suspected of passing on information to the security forces. The Commission has carried out extensive but unsuccessful searches in the Coghalstown area of Co Meath for the remains of the men.

Robert Nairac disappeared in 1977.  He was an officer with the British Army’s Grenadier Guards on a tour of duty in Northern Ireland when he went missing.  It is thought he was on an intelligence-gathering operation and was singing republican songs in a pub in South Armagh on the night of his abduction.  He was 29-years-old.  A man was convicted of his murder in 1977 and served a prison sentence. Captain Nairac received a posthumous George Cross.

Seamus Ruddy disappeared in Paris on 9 May 1985. A native of Newry, he had links to the INLA and its political wing, the IRSP.  He was involved in negotiations on behalf of INLA prisoners in the MAZE during the 1981 Hunger Strikes and helped to carry the coffin of hunger striker, Michael Devine, at his funeral in Derry.  In May 1985 he was working as an English teacher in Paris.  It is thought he got into a dispute with INLA members who were attempting to procure weapons in France. . In December 1995 the INLA admitted responsibility for his death. In February 1999 information emerged to suggest that his body was buried in Rouen, France, but despite searches having been carried out his remains have not yet been recovered.

Remains Recovered

Brendan Megraw was 23-years-old when he was taken from his flat in Twinbrook, west Belfast by the IRA in April 1978.  His wife was expecting their first child at the time. His remains were recovered at Oristown Bog, near Kells in Co Meath in autumn 2014.

Peter Wilson was 21 when he went missing in west Belfast in 1973.  Described as a vulnerable person with learning difficulties, his remains were located at Waterfoot beach in Co Antrim in November 2010.

Gerard Evans was last seen hitch-hiking in Co Monaghan in March 1979. In March 2008 his aunt received a map, claiming to identify the location of his remains.  They were eventually recovered from the site in County Louth in October 2010.

Charlie Armstrong was a 54-year-old father of five who had no connections with paramilitary organisations.  He went missing one Sunday morning in 1981 when he left his Crossmaglen home to collect a neighbour for mass.  His remains were located in a Co Monaghan bog in 2010, 29 years after his abduction.

Danny McIlhone went missing from his West Belfast home in 1981.  His remains were found in the Wicklow mountains in November 2008 – two earier, unsuccessful searches were carried out in the area.

Jean McConville was a widowed mother of ten, she was taken from her Belfast flat by the IRA in 1972.  A man out walking on Shelling Beach in Co Louth found her remains in August 2003.

Eamon Molloy was abducted from his home in North Belfast in 1975, his body was discovered in a coffin left in Faughart graveyard, near Dundalk in 1999.

Brian McKinney was aged 22 when he went missing in Belfast in 1978. His remains were located in a Co Monaghan bog in 1999.

John McClory was aged 17 when he went missing with his friend, Brian McKinney in Belfast in 1978. Their remains were found in the same area of Co Monaghan bogland 21 years later.

Eugene Simons was a 26 year old who went missing form his home near Castlewellan in Co Down in January 1981.  His body was discovered by chance in May 1984 in a bog near Dundalk, Co Louth.

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