The Disappeared (Northern Ireland)

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The disappeared - the Disappeared is a group of people who during the time of the so-called Troubles in Northern Ireland mostly or exclusively by the Provisional Irish Republican Army were abducted (IRA), murdered and buried at an unknown location first. The search for her remains continues to this day. The problematic way the IRA and its political representatives deal with the investigation of the murders continues to play an important role in the peace process.

background

In 1921 the southern part of Ireland became independent from the United Kingdom . Northern Ireland, where there was a Protestant majority, remained with the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland, the Protestant Unionists retained control of political power and the Catholics, who were mostly pro-Irish Republican, suffered widespread discrimination. From 1969 this situation led to an openly violent escalation. The paramilitary IRA tried to force a political connection between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland through terrorism and bomb attacks. The security forces and Protestant Unionist paramilitaries responded with counter-violence. In many cases, uninvolved civilians were victims of the clashes. The peak of the violence occurred between 1972 and 1976, when more than 200 deaths occurred each year (out of a total Northern Ireland population of approximately 1.5 million). The violence only came to an end when the so-called Good Friday Agreement came into force in 1998. The total number of dead is estimated at around 3500.

The fate of most of the fatalities was known, but there were people who had been abducted by paramilitaries and were allegedly murdered in an unknown location. These became known as The Disappeared . The Good Friday Agreement provided for the establishment of an Irish-British commission to clarify the fate of these people. For this purpose, a telephone number and a post office box for anonymous reports on the fate of the Disappeared were set up.

In the peace process, from a loyalist and unionist perspective, the willingness of the IRA and its political representatives to clarify the whereabouts of the disappeared and to admit guilt for their deaths was and still is an important milestone. The unwillingness to do so was also one of the obstacles on the way to a Northern Irish truth commission based on the South African model - called for by Sinn Féin .

List of the disappeared with their fates

The following list contains the names and circumstances of the disappearances. All those who disappeared were Catholics. Jean McConville came from a Protestant family, but converted to Catholicism after marriage.

People) Age circumstances Time of
disappearance 		Discovery of remains
Kevin McKee
Seamus Wright 		25th Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee were from Belfast, believed to be IRA members and suspected by the IRA of providing information to the security forces. 2nd October 1972 Human remains were found near a farm in Coghalstown , County Meath in June 2015 .
Brendan Megraw 23 Megraw was abducted from his home in Twinbrook, West Belfast, by the IRA; his wife was expecting their first child at the time. The IRA alleged that he shared secrets with a UK liaison officer and worked as an undercover agent . April 1978 After several unsuccessful searches, remains were found in Oristown Bog, near Kells, County Meath in autumn 2014
Peter Wilson 21st Wilson was kidnapped in West Belfast. The IRA never gave a reason. It is believed that the kidnapping was related to the fact that Wilson had recently spent several days in a British Army camp. The army was again accused of wanting to use Wilson, who was considered an easily influenced personality, for spy purposes. The army denied these allegations. 1973 Discovery of remains at Waterfoot beach in County Antrim in November 2010
Gerard Evans Evans was last seen hitchhiking in County Monaghan in March 1979 . 1979 In March 2008 Evans' aunt received a map with the alleged location of his remains, found around this location in County Louth in October 2010 after over 16 months of digging an area the size of four football fields.
Charlie Armstrong 54 Armstrong, the father of five children, was involved in paramilitary organizations. He disappeared on the way to mass on a Sunday morning in Crossmaglen in 1981 . Amstrong's family suspected that he was killed trying to prevent his car from being stolen and charged the IRA with the murder, which the IRA denied. 1981 In 2010, remains were found in a bog in County Monaghan.
Danny McIlhone McIlhone disappeared from his apartment in West Belfast. The IRA announced that he was not an informant but was suspected of stealing weapons. He was killed trying to escape. 1981 Remains were found in the Wicklow Mountains in November 2008.
Jean McConville 37 McConville, a widowed mother of ten, was abducted by the IRA from her apartment on Divis Flats , Belfast. The IRA later accused her of being an army informant (which the police ombudsman denied), but initially denied any involvement in the kidnapping. 1972 Remains were found by a walker on Shelling Beach in County Louth in August 2003.
Eamon Molloy Molloy was abducted from his apartment in North Belfast. The IRA accused him of being an informant. 1975 Remains were in a coffin in the cemetery of Faughart, close on 28 May 1999 Dundalk found
Brian McKinney 22nd McKinney disappeared in Belfast. A few days earlier he had disappeared for 48 hours and then reappeared physically abused. The IRA alleged that he stole guns for use in robberies. After the first kidnapping, his family tried to appease the IRA with cash payments. 1978 Remains were found in a bog in County Monaghan in June 1999 after a 30-day search.
John McClory 17th McClory disappeared from Belfast with his friend McKinney. 1978 Remains were found in Monaghan moorland in June 1999 after a 30-day search
Eugene Simons 26th Simons disappeared from his home near Castlewellan , County Down . January 1, 1981 Remains were found by chance on May 24, 1984 in a bog at Knockbridge, near Dundalk , County Louth.
Joe Lynskey Lynskey, a former Cistercian monk , was a member of the IRA and disappeared from his apartment in West Belfast. The IRA first denied involvement in his disappearance and did not admit the murder until 2010. Summer 1972 Fate so far unknown
The search for his grave near Coghalstown , County Meath , in the summer of 2015 was unsuccessful in this regard, but led to the discovery of the graves of Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright (see above)
Columba McVeigh 19th McVeigh was from Donaghmore , County Tyrone , a painter by profession and had just returned to Northern Ireland a few days earlier from Dublin, where he worked. 1st November 1975 Fate so far unknown
Several searches in 1999, 2000, September 2003, September 2012 and a five-month search in the bog of Bragan, County Monaghan, in 2013 were unsuccessful.
Robert Nairac 29 Nairac was an officer in the Grenadier Guards of the British Army and was on a business trip to Northern Ireland. It is believed that he was there to gather information. He allegedly sang Republican songs in a pub in South Armagh the night he was kidnapped. He was later overpowered in a fight in the parking lot, taken across the border and shot there. 1977 In 1977 a man was sentenced to prison for the murder of Nairac. Nairac received the George Cross posthumously . His remains have not yet been found.
Seamus Ruddy 32 Ruddy, who was from Newry, had ties to the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) and the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and disappeared in Paris, where he worked as an English teacher. It is believed that he came into conflict with INLA members who wanted to procure weapons in France. In December 1995, INLA admitted Ruddy was murdered. May 9, 1985 An indication that he was buried in a forest near Rouen did not lead to the discovery of his remains in 2015. In May 2017, human remains were found in a forest near Pont-de-l'Arche near Rouen , which were identified as the Ruddys by DNA analysis. He was killed by a double head shot.

The IRA initially denied many of the alleged kidnappings and murders. The disappearance and the uncertainty about the fate of the people concerned aroused the public. The case of Jean McConville in particular evoked sympathy and shock because the abductee had ten children, some of whom were still young, who became orphans when their mother disappeared. The children had witnessed their mother's abduction and, after the police took over the case, were seen on television shortly before the 1972 Christmas holidays, where they were questioned and asked for information about their mother. After the Good Friday Agreement was signed in April 1998, an IRA spokesman in September of the same year admitted in the newspaper Phoblacht / Republican News one that the IRA in the 1970s, "a small number of people" ( "a small number of people" ) killed and buried. In March 1999, the IRA admitted that it was responsible for nine kidnappings and murders and alleged that it had informed the security forces of the whereabouts of the bodies, which the relatives of those murdered denied. In October 2003 the IRA apologized for leaving the relatives of the murder victims in the dark for so long. The apology was rejected by the families of Jean McConville and Columba McVeigh.

In a late admission in 2006 , Gerry Adams , chairman of Sinn Féin , the IRA's political arm , admitted that the IRA's actions were “wrong” . Forensic experts would now assist former IRA members in their search for the remains. In 2007, the Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness called on any confidante to share their knowledge of the circumstances and the whereabouts of Robert Nairac's remains to the police.

In March 2014, 77-year-old ex-IRA leader Ivor Bell was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the murder of Jean McConville and released on bail a few days later. On May 1, 2014, Sinn Féin party leader Gerry Adams was arrested on the same charge. Adams denied any involvement in the murder and was released a short time later. Michael McConville, the son of the murdered, said in an interview with the BBC on May 1, 2014 that he knew the murderers, but could not tell anyone, otherwise he would have to fear that he or one of his family members was part of "splinter groups" IRA would be killed.

The search for the disappeared is sometimes very time-consuming, as the information is sometimes imprecise. Areas the size of a football field had to be dug up several times during the search.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Who were the Disappeared? BBC News, September 8, 2015, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b c The ongoing search for The Disappeared. RTÉ, September 8, 2015, accessed on September 12, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Summary of Status of the Persons Killed :. Malcolm Sutton: An index of deaths from the conflict in Ireland, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b Cheryl Lawther: Truth, Denial and Transition: Northern Ireland and the Contested Past, Routledge, 2014, pp. 2116 ff
  5. ^ Lack of NI truth process 'encourages tribal myth-making'. The Irish Times, November 3, 2013, accessed September 26, 2015 .
  6. ^ A b Jean McConville: The Disappeared mother-of-ten. BBC News, April 6, 2015, accessed October 22, 2015 .
  7. ^ The Disappeared: Meath remains were those of Brendan Megraw. BBC News, November 3, 2014, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Remains were 'Disappeared' man Peter Wilson's. BBC News, December 14, 2010, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Remains were 'Disappeared' Crossmaglen man Gerry Evans. BBC News, November 29, 2010, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  10. ↑ a b c Timeline: The Disappeared. BBC News, November 5, 2014, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Widow's relief as remains found in 'Disappeared' search. BBC News, July 31, 2010, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  12. ^ Family of IRA victim 'at peace'. BBC News, December 19, 2008, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  13. ^ Body is that of 'Disappeared' victim. BBC News, October 20, 2003, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  14. ^ 'Disappeared' victim identified. BBC News, July 20, 1999, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  15. ↑ a b 'My tears for Brian'. BBC News, July 17, 2002, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Body finds encourage searchers. BBC News, June 30, 1999, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  17. ^ The Disappeared of Northern Ireland: Eugene Simons. (No longer available online.) Thedisappearedni.co.uk/, archived from the original on January 31, 2016 ; accessed on October 22, 2015 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / thedisappearedni.co.uk
  18. ^ Brian Rowan: Forty years later, IRA finally admits to man's 'execution'. Belfast Telegraph, February 9, 2010, accessed October 21, 2015 .
  19. ^ Commission to investigate Joe Lynskey death. BBC News, February 19, 2010, accessed October 21, 2015 .
  20. ^ Family of INLA murder man misled. BBC News, July 22, 2008, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  21. ^ Body of 'Disappeared' victim Seamus Ruddy found in France. Belfast telegraph, May 10, 2017, accessed December 15, 2018 .
  22. ^ Louise Roseingrave: Seamus Ruddy inquest held 33 years after his murder in France. The Irish Times, May 9, 2017, accessed December 15, 2018 .
  23. ↑ IRA 'was wrong' over bodies issue. BBC News, July 11, 2006, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  24. ↑ McGuinness in Nairac body appeal. BBC News, June 20, 2007, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  25. ^ Ivor Bell. BBC News, March 26, 2014, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  26. ↑ Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams held over Jean McConville murder. BBC News, May 1, 2014, accessed September 12, 2015 .
  27. ↑ Jean McConville murder: Son says he knows killers. BBC News, May 1, 2014, accessed September 12, 2015 .