A FERMANAGH-BASED priest has called on the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains to seek an exhumation order to determine if a body buried in a grave in Co Monaghan is one of the “disappeared”.
Fr Joe McVeigh has urged the commission and the Department of Justice to carry out further checks on what appears to have been a secretive burial at a graveyard at Urbleshanny Church just outside Scotstown in Co Monaghan.
Fr McVeigh said that several years ago he was provided with confidential information by an “old-style republican” that a body was discovered buried at a shallow level in the grave.
“I was told the body was badly decomposed and placed in a thin plywood box,” he said.
The discovery was made in 1980 when the remains of a person who had died in England were being legitimately buried in the plot.
Fr McVeigh said that despite this unearthing, the burial went ahead with the coffin placed on top of the makeshift coffin “I checked with the gravedigger and he confirmed this is what happened,” he added.
The commission checked out the plot but did not carry out any digs because, said Fr McVeigh, it was informed by “primary source” IRA contacts that it had not buried any of its victims in the grave.
Fr McVeigh nonetheless called for an exhumation of the grave to check if the body was one of the disappeared. “I would hope the Department of Justice and the commission would pursue this so that they could at least rule out that the body is not one of those on the list of the disappeared.”
Fr McVeigh added that anyone who had information about the circumstances of the mysterious burial should come forward to assist the commission.
A commission spokesman said it was aware of the claim about the body but was not in a position to make any comment.