The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR) has confirmed that human remains have been found in Annyalla Cemetery in Co Monaghan.
The cemetery had been searched in November 2024 for the remains of Joe Lynskey, who was 'disappeared' by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1972 during the Troubles.
In March, however, the ICLVR confirmed that the remains that were exhumed in November were not Lynskey's.
In a development on Friday, May 16, the ICLVR said that remains had been discovered at Annyalla Cemetery after it received information about a different area of the cemetery that does not incorporate any family graves.
“Following the recent exhumation at Annyalla Cemetery in relation to the search for Joe Lynskey, information came to the ICLVR indicating another small area of interest within the confines of the cemetery," Eamonn Henry, the newly-appointed lead investigator at the ICLVR, said on Friday, according to the PA.
“This was not another family grave site."
Henry emphasized that the information "did not relate directly to the disappearance of Joe Lynskey and so until we have a positive identification or the elimination of the remains as those of Joe Lynskey or any of the other of the Disappeared, we have to keep an open mind."
Henry said Ireland's State Pathologist has been notified and that the remains have been taken away for technical examination.
Henry added on Friday: “We know only too well that the Lynskey family have had hopes raised before only to be bitterly disappointed and so, as ever, expectations have to be managed.
“The process of identification could take some time, and we will continue to offer the family what support we can.
“Regardless of the outcome, this work at Annyalla shows that where we have credible information, we will act on it."
Henry went on to renew the appeal for information for all of the remaining Disappeared cases.
“This week also marks the 48th anniversary (15 May) of the murder and secret burial of Robert Nairac," he said.
“We need information on his and the other outstanding cases and anyone with information can be assured that it will be treated in the strictest confidence.
“Our humanitarian work is entirely information-driven to get us to the right places where we can use the considerable technical expertise at our disposal to locate the remains of those disappeared and to return them to their loved ones for Christian burial.
“Anyone who helps with that will be doing a great service to families who have suffered so much for so long."
Who is Joe Lynskey?
Joe Lynskey, a former Cistercian monk from the Beechmount area of West Belfast, disappeared in the summer of 1972 during The Troubles. He is regarded as the first person to have been 'disappeared' during The Troubles.
In December 2009, The Irish News ran an exclusive story revealing that Lynskey had been murdered and secretly buried by the IRA, of which he was a member.
According to The Irish News: "Lynskey's fate was sealed after he had a relationship with the wife of another IRA man and, acting without the sanction of the organization he ordered his love rival be shot.
"The man survived the gun attack but confusion around who ordered the shooting lead to raised tensions between the then fledging Provisional and the Official IRA who it was initially thought carried out the murder attempt."
Likely spurred by The Irish News story, confirmation that Lynskey was "executed and buried" by the IRA came the following month during a briefing conducted by a man who once operated as the IRA’s ‘P O’Neill,' the organization’s leadership spokesman.
According to The Belfast Telegraph in 2010, the briefing revealed that in 1972, the IRA executed and buried Joe Lynskey; that Lynskey was an IRA volunteer in Belfast at that time; that Lynskey was summoned to a meeting outside Belfast by the then leadership; that Lynskey wasn’t aware that he was under (IRA) investigation at that stage; that Lynskey was arrested by the IRA; that Lysnkey was court-martialled for breaches of IRA standing orders; that Lynskey was subsequently executed and buried in an unmarked grave.
In February 2010, the ICLVR added Lynskey to its list of the Disappeared. In March 2015, it began conducting excavations at a site in Coghalstown, Co Meath. During the course of these excavations, the remains of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee were discovered.
Another search for Lynskey was carried out in 2018 at nearby Oristown, Co Meath, but again, nothing was found. The exhumation in November 2024 at Annyalla Cemetery also did not yield any results.
Lynskey is prominently featured in the FX series "Say Nothing," which premiered about two weeks before the November 2024 exhumation at Annyalla Cemetery. Jon Hill, the then-lead investigator with the ICLVR, told BBC Radio in November that the exhumation hadn't "come as a result of that programme going out in the last weeks."
Who are 'The Disappeared'?
According to the ICLVR, The Disappeared are victims of paramilitary violence who were murdered and buried in secret arising from the conflict in Northern Ireland up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998.
17 people were 'disappeared' over the course of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. (The Wave Trauma Centre in Northern Ireland puts this figure at 19, including two additional people who were disappeared in 2003 and 2005, falling out of the remit for the ICLVR which can only work on the cases of those who disappeared up to the Good Friday Agreement.)
The ICLVR says it is believed the 17 'disappeared' were killed by republican paramilitaries though the republican movement did not admit responsibility for all of them.
To date, the remains of 13 of the Disappeared have been recovered, 11 of whom have been recovered through the ICLVR’s efforts. They are Seamus Ruddy, Seamus Wright, Kevin McKee, Brendan Megraw, Peter Wilson, Gerard 'Gerry Evans, Charlie Armstrong, Danny McIlhone, Jean McConville, Eamon Molloy, John McClory, Brian McKinney, and Eugene Simmons.
Four victims - Joe Lynskey, Columba McVeigh, Robert Nairac, and Seamus Maguire - have not yet been located.
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