Investigators searching for one of the IRA’s so-called ‘Disappeared’ victims have exhumed remains from a grave in County Monaghan in Northern Ireland.
Joe Lynskey, a former Cistercian monk from Belfast who later joined the IRA, was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the paramilitary group in 1972.
The ‘Disappeared’ refers to a group of 17 victims who were secretly killed by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.
A number of searches have taken place to recover Mr Lynskey’s body - the most recent in 2018 - but all have ended without success.
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) said the grave in Annyalla cemetery was exhumed after they received information related to “suspicious historic activity” during the 1970s.
A formal process will now be undertaken to establish the identity of all the remains found in the grave in the village of Annyalla.
“Both the time frame and the location coincide with the disappearance of Joe Lynskey in 1972,” the commission said in a statement.
The commission said the process of establishing the identity of the remains found in the grave “may take some time”.
The commission was set up by the UK and Irish governments in 1999 during the peace process to investigate the whereabouts of the ‘Disappeared’. Thirteen have been formally found and returned to their families for burial.
In most cases, the victims were abducted in Northern Ireland but taken across the border to be murdered and buried in the Republic.
As well as Mr Lynskey, the commission is also tasked with finding three other Disappeared victims – Co Tyrone teenager Columba McVeigh, British Army Captain Robert Nairac, and Seamus Maguire, who was in his mid-20s and from near Lurgan, Co Armagh.
