A West Belfast man has been laid to rest nearly 30 years after he was abducted, killed and secretly buried by the IRA.

In 1999 the IRA admitted that Danny McIlhone was one of nine people who it had killed and secretly buried during the Troubles, who became known as "The Disappeared."

The IRA said that the teenager was not an informer but had been accidentally killed in 1981 after being suspected of stealing its weapons.

McIlhone's remains were finally recovered from a hillside in Co. Wicklow last month.

On Monday senior Republicans joined the funeral cortege as it left McIlhone's home in West Belfast led by his daughter Sarah and twin brother John.

At Mass Father Darach MacGiolla Cathain said the McIlhones' long journey had now come to an end.

"There is the obvious sadness each of us experience when we lay our loved ones to rest," he said.

"Yet there is also a very real sense of thankfulness that, after a wait of over 27 years, we can at last give his body the dignity of a Christian burial. You never gave up hope when people told you there wasn't any.

"Today is your reward, today is your answer and the result of your faithfulness and persistence. Today is your vindication."

Highlighting the plight of the seven families who have still to have the remains of their loved ones returned, he said, "We remember those families whose loved ones have still to be given the dignity of a Christian burial and we ask that God would sustain them as they continue to wait, with hope and dignity."

Reiterating the McIlhones' call, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said, "Efforts continue to identify the locations of Seamus Wright, Kevin McKee, Columba McVeigh, and Brendan McGraw who were killed by the IRA.

"Sinn Fein will continue to support all the families, including the families of Seamus Ruddy, Charlie Armstrong, Gerard Evans and Lisa Dorrian and to work diligently on this important issue.

"Let me repeat my call on anyone with any information, no matter how small, to bring that information forward either to the commission or any of the official agencies or to myself or any other Sinn Fein representative."