The search for the remains of Columba McVeigh, who, as a 17-year-old was abducted and killed in 1975 by the IRA, which claimed that he was spying for the British army will take another four days to complete.
Yesterday, for the second time in four years the mother of Mr McVeigh, Mrs Vera McVeigh, visited the Garda search for his secret grave.
The excavation of an area of bog the size of a football pitch near Emyvale, Co Monaghan, is around 60 per cent complete.
It was originally estimated that it would take gardaí about a week to complete the 80m by 40m area. Gardaí estimate that it will take another four days to complete the search subject to weather conditions and mechanical failure.
The nature of the terrain and recent heavy rainfalls have delayed progress, and logs have been placed under the digger. It is going down some four feet, and each scoop is then searched by gardaí from the Cavan- Monaghan divisional search team.