Joe Biden 'should be told about Disappeared' on visit to NI

A woman whose brother was murdered and secretly buried by the IRA has said US President Joe Biden should be told about the "horrible limbo" facing the families of the so-called Disappeared.

Mr Biden is due to visit Northern Ireland this month to mark 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement.

Dympna Kerr said he had to know about what she described as the "unfinished business" of the peace process.

Her brother Columba McVeigh is one of the four remaining Disappeared cases.

The 19-year-old, from Donaghmore in County Tyrone, was abducted and murdered by the IRA in November 1975. His body has never been found.

The search for his remains resumed on Monday at Bragan Bog in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.

His sister said that her family hoped he would be found this time.

But she added: "Those hopes have been dashed so many times before that there still is that gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Please make it this time."

Speaking at Bragan Bog on Monday, Ms Kerr said she has "great memories" of her brother.

"I would be the happiest woman alive to walk in behind his coffin into Donaghmore chapel, celebrate that funeral mass with him, walk out behind it, carry it up and see it being lowered into the grave beside our mum and dad. That's it."

She said she prays for those who have information on her brother's whereabouts to have the strength and courage to come forward.

"I don't need to know who they are, I don't want to know who they are.

"If they do that, I'll keep praying for them, even after we find him."

• Timeline: The Disappeared and the attempts to find them

The remains of 13 of the 17 so-called Disappeared have been found by investigators.

But four cases remain unsolved - they are Mr McVeigh, Joe Lynskey, Seamus Maguire and Army officer Robert Nairac.

The Provisional IRA has admitted responsibility for 13 of the murders and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) said it carried out one.

Ms Kerr said that the US president should be made aware of the plight of the families that have yet to find their murdered relatives.

It is understood that Mr Biden's visit to Northern Ireland will begin in Belfast on 11 April.

"President Biden will rightly be proud of the role played by the USA in our peace process and President [Bill] Clinton did so much for the families of the Disappeared," she said.

"But President Biden needs to know that there is unfinished business.

"There are Irishmen and women who every day and every night still have to live in this horrible limbo.

"It has to end."

Ms Kerr said she wanted a resolution to the family's "endless nightmare".

The search for Mr McVeigh is being carried out by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR).

It was looking for him in Bragan Bog last autumn but the search was put on hold when bad weather set in and the bog became too dangerous to work on.

On Monday, the ICLVR's lead investigator Jon Hill said: "If his remains are here, if he was buried here, we will find him.

"We have the experts, we have the technology, we have the equipment and we've proven it in other cases.

"No doubt we have the knowledge and experience to recover his remains."

Mr Hill said there is an area of around two acres that the commission will be searching, however the evolving terrain remains a challenge.

"This area has changed so much over the years since back in 1975, it would have looked completely different to the way it does now... it's changed dramatically.

"It looks very different so people's memories won't be what they were, the area doesn't look the way it did, so it's completely understandable, although disappointing, that we haven't found the right spot as yet."

Mr Hill said the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement has taken the investigation forward "dramatically" by encouraging people to come forward with information.

He appealed for anyone with knowledge on Mr McVeigh's disappearance to contact the commission, adding confidentiality is paramount to their operations.

"Any information that comes to us is treated in the strictest confidence and will never be used for any other purpose than to find the remains and return them to their family," he said.