Mother visits search site

Vera McVeigh visited the site of the police dig

The mother of a teenager murdered by the IRA 28 years ago has visited a site close to the Irish border where police are digging for his body.

Columba McVeigh, 17, from Donaghmore in County Tyrone, was kidnapped and killed in 1975 after he allegedly admitted to spying on the IRA.

He is one of the nine so-called Disappeared, people who were murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in the 1970s.

His mother, Vera, and brother, Eugene, visited a bog at Emyvale in County Monaghan on Wednesday, where two previous searches have taken place, and where it is believed the body of Mr McVeigh is buried.

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.

Beach find

Mrs McVeigh stayed at the bog for about an hour, surveying the area and talking to police officers involved in the search.

Garda inspector Pat McMorrow said: "On arrival here she was quite emotional as she walked across to where the digging was happening.

"She relayed the nightmare this has been to her.

"She wondered how her son had made his final journey. She built up her hopes in finding the body and is hoping the operation will be successful."

The police have said that an area about the size of a football field is being excavated, adjacent to where previous searches took place in 1999 and 2000.

The Northern Ireland commissioner for the Disappeared, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, visited the site of the dig on Tuesday.

He later went to the home of the McVeigh family in Donaghmore to speak to the missing youth's mother.

Columba McVeigh: Disappeared in 1975

Agnes McConville, the daughter of Jean McConville who was murdered by the IRA in 1972, travelled to the scene on Monday, the first day of the search, to show solidarity with the McVeigh family.

It is thought remains recovered from a beach in County Louth less than two weeks ago were her mother's.

The Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains has said the search for Mr McVeigh's remains will concentrate on more specific areas than the previous digs.

In a statement, the commission said the decision to proceed with the "limited search" was made following detailed consultations with the garda, regarding information received by the commission in the past week.

Last week, sources within the Irish Government confirmed that they had held recent discussions with Sinn Fein about finding the bodies of the Disappeared.

The discussions focused on the case of Mr McVeigh and Mrs McConville.

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.