Cathal BarryMichael Fisher
The Bishop of Clogher has made a special appeal at a Mass in Co. Monaghan for anyone with information about Columba McVeigh, abducted and killed by the IRA in 1975 and then secretly buried, to come forward.
At a Mass in Carrickroe, near Emyvale, Bishop Liam MacDaid urged anyone who might have “even a small shred of evidence” about where Mr McVeigh was buried to contact the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains.
“I appeal to you to come forward and share it. It could lead to healing the burden of a family’s distress which they have carried for almost 40 years. You could give them back the precious gift of their sleep. If you can do this, you will have done something worthwhile which you will never regret,” Bishop McDaid said.
The Sacred Heart church is a few miles from Bragan mountain, where 19 year-old Columba McVeigh is believed to have been buried. Four searches, the most recent in September 2013, have been carried out in the bogland since 1999, but Mr McVeigh’s remains have yet to be found. The Commission is hoping former IRA members directly or indirectly involved in the incident would come forward with more specific information to assist in the search. Columba’s mother, Vera McVeigh, campaigned tirelessly for the return of his body. She died in 2007, aged 82.