A FERMANAGH-BASED priest has called on the Independent Commission for
the Location of Victims Remains to seek an exhumation order to
determine if a body buried in a grave in Co Monaghan is one of the
“disappeared”.
Fr Joe McVeigh has urged the commission and the
Department of Justice to carry out further checks on what appears to
have been a secretive burial at a graveyard at Urbleshanny Church just
outside Scotstown in Co Monaghan.
Fr McVeigh said that several
years ago he was provided with confidential information by an “old-style
republican” that a body was discovered buried at a shallow level in the
grave.
“I was told the body was badly decomposed and placed in a thin plywood box,” he said.
The discovery was made in 1980 when the remains of a person who had died in England were being legitimately buried in the plot.
Fr
McVeigh said that despite this unearthing, the burial went ahead with
the coffin placed on top of the makeshift coffin “I checked with the
gravedigger and he confirmed this is what happened,” he added.
The
commission checked out the plot but did not carry out any digs because,
said Fr McVeigh, it was informed by “primary source” IRA contacts that
it had not buried any of its victims in the grave.
Fr McVeigh
nonetheless called for an exhumation of the grave to check if the body
was one of the disappeared.
“I would hope the Department of Justice and
the commission would pursue this so that they could at least rule out
that the body is not one of those on the list of the disappeared.”
Fr
McVeigh added that anyone who had information about the circumstances
of the mysterious burial should come forward to assist the commission.
A commission spokesman said it was aware of the claim about the body but was not in a position to make any comment.
SIC: IT/IE