Remains exhumed from cemetery in Disappeared search

The body set up to find the remains of the Disappeared has carried out an exhumation at a cemetery in County Monaghan.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) said it received information about suspicious activity during the 1970s at a grave in Annyalla cemetery.

"Both the timeframe and the location coincide with the disappearance of Joe Lynskey in 1972," an ICLVR statement said.

Mr Lynskey was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972.

The Disappeared are those who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Jon Hill, the lead investigator with the ICLVR, said Mr Lynskey's family were "cautiously optimistic".

"But you have to remember they have been down this road before," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"Sadly this happened back in 2010 when we were undertaking a search for Joe Lynskey and we actually recovered the remains of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee.

"They are cautious, as are we, and it is the right way to be, but of course they are hopeful."

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme, Mr Lynskey's niece Maria said she was "very nervous" but also "very optimistic" about the exhumation.

"These are long journeys for us, for all the families of the Disappeared that have had to go through this," Ms Lynskey said.

"I’ve been disappointed before so I’m hoping I’m not disappointed again."

Ms Lynskey said her father had been dead for 30 years and he would have loved to have known where his brother was.

"When people give information, they don’t realise how humble and how grateful we are that they have given information," she said.

"Whoever owns this grave, I thank them from the bottom of my heart that this has come out and hopefully it’s Joe, I hope to god it’s Joe and we can bring him home," she added.

"But we still have four more bodies, three men and one young woman that we need to bring home, too."

Describing her uncle, Ms Lynskey said: "He was quiet, he was quite gentle and shy in a way. He was the only uncle we had."

The exhumation at Annyalla cemetery, between Monaghan town and Castleblayney, took place on Tuesday and continued throughout the day with a forensic anthropologist on behalf of the ICLVR, Mr Hill said.

The ICLVR said the formal process to establish the identity of all of the remains found in the grave has begun.

Mr Hill said that how long the process will take "really depends on what we have recovered and we won't know for some days whilst that is examined by the anthropologist".

"I will be guided by them and the scientists on how long it will take," he said.

"It will take as long as it needs to take."

A former Cistercian monk from the Beechmount area of west Belfast, Mr Lynskey later joined the IRA.

Mr Lynskey went missing in 1972, and republicans have claimed he was "executed and buried" by the IRA.

The latest search for his remains was in 2018. It ended without success.

Last November, his niece said that his body "needs to be brought home".

So far, the remains of 13 of the Disappeared have been recovered.

The remaining four are Mr Lynskey, Columba McVeigh, Seamus Maguire and Robert Nairac.

The disappearance of Mr Maguire was taken on as a new case by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) in 2022.

The ICLVR was established by the UK and Irish governments in 1999.

The plight of the Disappeared has come to the fore again, following the release of the Disney+ series, Say Nothing.

The drama focuses on events during the Troubles including the disappearance of mother of 10 Jean McConville as well as Kevin McKee, Seamus Wright and Joe Lynskey.

However, Jon Hill said the exhumation "hasn't come as a result of that programme going out in the last weeks".

"This process has been going on for months now if not longer," he added.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin senior politician Pearse Doherty said the Lynskey family had "gone through a terrible injustice".

He said he hoped the remains are found of all the Disappeared.

Doherty called on anyone with information to come forward and give these families the right "that they should always have had, which is to bury their loved ones".

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, the WAVE Trauma Centre said their thoughts were with the Lynskey family as "they face a long wait".

Also speaking on Talkback, Anthony McIntyre - a former member of the IRA - said that the "disappearing" of people amounted to a war crime.

"It's a horrendous, horrendous series of actions," Mr McIntyre said.

"I don't think the IRA volunteers involved in it at the time appreciated that it was a war crime, but I think on reflection and looking back it very much was a war crime," he said.

"I think the IRA collectively has to accept responsibility that there's no place for us to hide and there's no one left for us to lie to. We need to admit our role in this."