Mags Gargan
Archbishop Eamon Martin Priests could have a role in sharing sensitive information which would help families left grieving after the Troubles, the Primate of All Ireland has said.
Archbishop Eamon Martin told a Mass for the Disappeared in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, there are people on all sides who carry secrets, “memories of their own involvement in the deaths and injury of thousands of men, women and children”.
Dr Martin appealed to the conscience of anyone who can help with the cases of Joe Lynskey, Robert Nairac, Seamus Ruddy and Columba McVeigh, “to bring even the slightest clues” to the attention of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains, so that the “agonising wait of the remaining families can be shortened and their loved ones can at last have a Christian burial”.
Trustworthy
He added that “in the absence of a formal mechanism”, he was confident that there are “trustworthy people in society and in the Churches” who would be willing to accept and sensitively share information on killings during the Troubles.
The Archbishop of Armagh said there must be “so many people walking around today who know in their hearts that the information that they have locked down inside them is capable of unlocking the uncertainty and grief of families”.
“In some cases they pulled the trigger, planted the bomb, blindly followed orders or gave the command for death or punishment. In other cases they willingly drove a car, kept watch, spread fear, collected money or information, sheltered combatants, colluded or covered up, destroyed evidence or intimidated witnesses.
“These were awful, terrible times,” he said.
The archbishop also asked for prayers at this “critical time in the peace process”, that politicians in the North will have a “breakthrough at the talks in Stormont”.