The screening of a Troubles drama was not connected to the exhumation of remains at a Co Monaghan cemetery, according to the lead investigator searching for Disappeared IRA victims.
Jon Hill, who oversees the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains, acknowledged, however, that the publicity surrounding the controversial Say Nothing series might lead to more people coming forward with information on those secretly buried decades ago.
On Tuesday evening the commission confirmed that a grave in the village of Annyalla was exhumed by a team of experts searching for the first of 17 Disappeared victims Joe Lynskey.
A former Cistercian monk from west Belfast who became an IRA intelligence officer, Mr Lynskey (45) was abducted, killed and buried by the IRA in 1972 after he was reportedly involved in a relationship with the wife of another IRA man – who he ordered to have shot without being sanctioned by the organisation.
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Fresh information on “suspicious historic activity” which supported earlier information led to the commission seeking a formal order to work at the Co Monaghan graveyard located between Monaghan town and Castleblayney.
The Lynskey family and relatives of those who own the family plot have been “paramount” throughout, Mr Hill told The Irish Times, confirming that several sets of remains were recovered in the “painstaking” operation.
“It is a family grave and it is within the graveyard. So there’s all the sensitivities and the privacy around that which presents extremely challenging circumstances,” he said on Wednesday.
“The remains are now going to be examined by forensic anthropologists, and we will then determine exactly what we’ve got at the end of that process. Following on from that will be a DNA examination if it’s appropriate.”
It could take “potentially weeks” before information is disclosed to the family regarding potential identification.
“Remember, these are human remains in excess of 50 years old. We’re also working upon DNA profiles which are familial based – we don’t have a DNA profile of Joe Lynskey or anyone else, so we’re slightly distanced from that current DNA examination.”
Asked when work first began at the site and if it coincided with the recent release of the television drama, Mr Hill
played down any link.
“An exhumation process isn’t fast,” he said. “It takes some months to be able to organise it, and that, by definition, will tell you it hasn’t happened this week.
“But it would certainly be the case that any publicity around our work promotes more interest. And if there are people who hear it and realise the impact of what’s happened for these people who’ve been killed and secretly buried it might promote them into coming forward.”
To date 13 of the 17 victims have been found by the commission since it was set by the UK and Irish governments during the peace process.
Family expectations have to be managed as the Lynskeys “have been here before”, added Mr Hill, referring to a 2015 search at Coghalstown, Co Meath, which instead led to the recovery of the bodies of disappeared victims Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee.
“We’re very guarded and very cautious in what we’re doing. But of course the family will have expectations. They will have hopes, as we all do, but we really don’t know until we get to a position where we can talk with confidence around what we found.”
Speaking at the graveyard in Annyalla on Wednesday, one woman who did not wish to be named said her thoughts are with the Lynskey family.
“I hope it’ll be successful for the family. It’s not easy for the family when someone is lost like that, you don’t know where you are,” she said.
Another man who lives near the graveyard, Eddie Kiernan (41), spoke of how much things had changed from the time of The Troubles to the present day.
“It’s a shocking reminder of how things used to be and how normal things have been since,” Mr Kiernan said, expressing hope that the Lynskey family find peace.
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