The human remains deposited in a Co Louth cemetery by the IRA on May 28th last were returned to Belfast yesterday for burial after extensive forensic tests confirmed them to be Mr Eamon Molloy, who was murdered in 1975 and secretly buried by the IRA.
The family of Ms Jean McConville meanwhile have promised to continue the search for their mother's remains at Templetown beach in Co Louth, the site pinpointed by the IRA which killed and secretly buried her over 25 years ago.
The Garda search for Mrs McConville and the remaining "disappeared" was called off at the weekend when it was decided there was no prospect of discovering remains on the basis of information supplied by the IRA.
Tests were carried out at forensic science laboratories in Birmingham and Dublin to determine if the remains were Mr Molloy's, believed to be a low-level IRA figure who was reputedly murdered for passing information to security forces in the North. According to local sources, Mr Molloy was killed and shortly afterwards buried under the floor of a farm building in south Armagh.
In May the IRA removed his body and left it south of the Border because, it is understood, it did not want either the RUC or British army to be involved in any way in uncovering remains.
In April the IRA issued a statement saying it had identified the graves of nine people it had killed and buried. It later gave information to two Belfast priests about locations of six burial sites, all in the Republic.
Only one of those sites has given up any remains. Similar tests to those on Mr Molloy's body are now being carried out on the only other recovered remains, believed to be those of Mr John McClory and Mr Brian McKinney, who were also kidnapped and subsequently killed by the IRA in Belfast.
At the weekend the Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains called off the remaining searches pending the provision of further, more accurate information by the IRA about the graves of the "disappeared". The independent commission has indicated that digging would resume if more detailed information were received from the IRA on the location of remains of murder victims.
Gardai privately express doubts about the prospects of discovering any of the other remains, but will continue to search as directed by the commission.
Members of the family of Mrs Jean McConville, the 37-year-old mother of 10 who was abducted and murdered in 1972, held a vigil at the site where the IRA said she was buried. Speaking as gardai suspended their search at the site yesterday, her son-in law, Mr Seamus McKendry, called on the IRA to return to the location and use the lull in activity to provide more precise details to the commission.
"They should find the gravediggers, take them back to the site and pinpoint the spot. Failing that, we will go back ourselves. We have had offers of machinery, and even some of the Garda personnel offered to help in their spare time," Mr McKendry said.
Father Pat McCafferty, a mediator for some of the families of the disappeared, confirmed last night that the body of Mr Molloy had been returned to Belfast after being formally identified by forensic experts in Dublin.
The body was taken to the home of his mother in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. The funeral is expected to be held later this week in the Sacred Heart Church. It will be the first funeral of a recovered body of the disappeared.
Father McCafferty said the suspension of the dig for Mrs McConville's remains in Co Louth was inevitable because details of the location were not precise. The fact that the family could not bury their mother "compounded the grief and the loss and leaves it, in a sense, hanging there endlessly", he said.
