Tests show exhumed body is not IRA victim

A BODY exhumed from a cemetery in the long-running search for a teenage IRA victim murdered in 1975 is not one of the so-called Disappeared.

Forensic tests revealed skeletal remains from a graveyard in the Irish Republic are not those of Columba McVeigh.

A family plot beside Urbleshanny Church, near Scotstown, County Monaghan, was opened in June after a tip-off from a priest that there may have been a secret burial in the grave.

Relatives of Mr McVeigh had hoped the latest dig would bring an end to their near 36-year search for answers over his killing and disappearance.

Frank Murray and Sir Ken Bloomfield, commissioners of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR), said DNA tests showed the remains are not linked to any of the Disappeared.

Fifteen men and one woman were murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the Northern Ireland Troubles. Nine bodies have been recovered.

One of the dead, Eugene Simons, was found in 1984, three years after his murder, while eight others have been recovered since the commission was set up in 1999.

Mr McVeigh was from Donaghmore, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He was abducted and murdered by the IRA in Dublin in October 1975.

Despite extensive searches in County Monaghan, his remains have yet to be found. His mother had campaigned tirelessly about her son's case before her death in 2007.