It is “doubly cruel” for the family of Joe Lynskey to learn that human remains exhumed from a Co Monaghan cemetery are not his, according to the lead investigator searching for IRA Disappeared victims.
Jon Hill, who oversees the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR), said he was “crestfallen” when he received the call confirming that results of DNA tests on the remains - exhumed from a grave in Annyalla village cemetery four months ago - were not a match for Mr Lynskey.
“You realise that the next thing to do is to break it to the families – which you know, it’s going to be hard,” Mr Hill said on Monday.
It is the second time in a decade that the hopes of the Lynskey family had been raised, and then dashed.
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A former Cistercian monk from west Belfast who became an IRA intelligence officer, Mr Lynskey (40), was abducted, killed and buried by the IRA in 1972 after he was reportedly involved in a relationship with the wife of another IRA man – who he ordered to be shot without being sanctioned by the organisation.
He was the first of the 17 people “disappeared” by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles. To date, remains of 13 of the victims have been recovered.
On Monday, the commission also confirmed that the DNA examination results do not match those of the family to whom the grave belongs, or any of the remaining Disappeared.
An Garda Síochána has notified the local coroner and said attempts have begun to “determine the correct identification of the remains”.
In 2015, a search for Mr Lynskey on remote land at Coghalstown in Co Meath led to the unexpected discovery of the remains of Kevin McKee (17) and Seamus Wright (25).
The commission was set up by the UK and Irish governments during the peace process to investigate the whereabouts of the Disappeared.
Its small team of experts work on a part-time basis, with many living in England and travelling to Ireland for the searches.
Mr Hill paid tribute to the “stoicism” of Mr Lynskey’s niece, Maria Lynskey (77), when he delivered the news last Friday.
“It’s quite extraordinary,” he said.
The exhumation in Co Monaghan was “not undertaken lightly”, with many legal processes to go through, he added.
“It’s the families that suffer. All of this is cruel, to kill their loved ones and bury them in these circumstances, but particularly for the Lynskeys – it’s doubly cruel in that on two occasions now we have found remains that we believed could, or would, have been Joe Lynskey – and proved not to be him,” Mr Hill said.
“This hasn’t happened to any of the other families.
“It’s not just the sadness of the search being undertaken and finding nothing, but finding something that gives them hope for quite a long period of time.”
With the passage of time, obtaining information has become more challenging.
“The indications from the republican movement are that those who could provide the information around where Joe Lynskey is buried, are dead,” Mr Hill said.
[ Meath bogland search for remains of Joe Lynskey, one of the DisappearedOpens in new window ]
“That doesn’t mean there’s no one left who would know where he is - we’ve been in this position before and circumstances have changed.
“So they weren’t able to provide the detail that we needed to suggest where he’s buried. Also, in fairness, they also didn’t dismiss completely that he was buried at that cemetery – because they just don’t know where he is.
“In fact, they were hopeful that it would be where he was. A number of people approached us with information in relation to this dig. It’s the amalgamation of those pieces of information put together. Once one piece comes in, we start to investigate that, and as we go further along, that kind of corroborates what we’ve been told in the first place.
“Gradually, it improves the quality of it to the stage we thought this was justified in taking it further forward into an exhumation.”
Mr Hill made renewed appeals for information on the remaining Disappeared.
As well as Mr Lynskey, 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, remain undiscovered.
“We have other strands of information that we will examine more carefully now that this has been eliminated; we will continue on, we will appeal again in relation to all the Disappeared,” he said.
“Bear in mind, none of us are full-time. We’re all part-time employees, we’re dipping in and out when there’s work to be done. We react to whatever comes in as quickly as we are able.
“But it is a massive demand… we have to manage all of that along with the expectation of the families.”
