Search to continue over weekend

Police are searching a specific area of a Monaghan bog

A search for the body of a teenager murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in the 1970s is now expected to continue over the weekend.

Columba McVeigh, 17, from Donaghmore in County Tyrone - one of the so-called Disappeared - was kidnapped and killed in 1975.

A search for his body has been taking place at a bog at Bragan near Emyvale, County Monaghan, since Monday of last week but so far nothing has been found.

Garda Superintendent John Farrelly said excavation of this area was expected to be completed on Friday, but digging would continue until Sunday on a number of small places.

He said the extension to the dig was not the result of any new information emerging.

"We do not have any hard information as to the possibility that his remains will be found there, but we're just going to finish it off to satisfy ourselves and the commission, right up to Sunday," he said.

It is the third dig in the area and follows new information passed to the Irish Government by the IRA.

The latest dig concentrated on an area about the size of a football field, adjacent to where previous searches took place in 1999 and 2000.

The Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains said the search was concentrating on a more specific area than the previous digs.

Columba McVeigh: Disappeared in 1975

News of a third dig at the same location came a little more than a week after the IRA said it had given new information about his grave to the Irish Government.

Mr McVeigh's mother, Vera, and brother, Eugene, visited the dig scene last week.

Agnes McConville, the daughter of Jean McConville who was murdered by the IRA in 1972, also visited the scene to show solidarity with the McVeigh family.

In 1999, the IRA offered to help locate the bodies of the nine Disappeared but the remains of Mrs McConville and Mr McVeigh were not found, despite extensive excavations. Only three bodies were found.

It is thought remains recovered from a beach in County Louth last month were her mother's.

DNA tests are currently being carried out to establish if the remains are those of Mrs McConville.