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Presunti resti di un Disappeared trovati “sotto una bara”

Suspected disappeared remains ‘under another coffin’

The Fermanagh priest who received a tip-off that remains of one of the disappeared may have been buried in a graveyard in Co Monaghan said he reported the claims two years ago.

Disappeared: Silent Walk, StormontA body has been exhumed from in the graveyard of Urbleshanny Church near Scotstown, in the same area as previous excavations for Co Tyrone teen Columba McVeigh, who was just 17 when he was abducted and murdered in 1975.

Father Joe McVeigh said he received a phone call in 2009:

“It was from a man I knew 20 years back, who called out of the blue to say he’d heard talk about a burial in Urbleshanny graveyard,” he said.

“He was going on news from another man that this might be one of the disappeared. He said a gravedigger had discovered this makeshift coffin in a grave in Urbleshanny when he was digging a grave for a deceased member of the parish and nothing was done at the time.

“They buried the remains further down in the grave and placed the new remains on top of that and there was still talk of it in the parish.

“I contacted the Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, who made inquiries in the area, but said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it was one of the disappeared.”

After a year, Fr McVeigh gave details of the call to the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Justice, who then re-investigated the reports.

An Garda Síochana confirmed that the Irish Justice Minister granted permission for the exhumation from a named grave, due to information received by gardaí and the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains.

Local coroner Dr Martin Watters, who then authorised the exhumation, added: “In the recent past I gave the go ahead for an exhumation to identify the remains within that grave.

“It was an official grave with the graveyard.”

Columba McVeigh’s brother, Oliver told UTV: “until the DNA is done you can’t really build up any hopes.”

“It would be great if it was Columba and we could give him a Christian burial, but I haven’t been given any indications at this stage.”

The State Pathologist and a forensic anthropologist are at the scene, along with gardaí, Commission staff and scientists.

It is anticipated that the subsequent examination of the remains will take some time.

Sixteen people were murdered and “disappeared” by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but only nine bodies have so far been recovered from secret burial sites.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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