A 30-year-old mystery was solved at a coroner’s inquest in Letterkenny yesterday when DNA established that the body of a man washed ashore in Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal, in 1983 is a direct relative of local man James McGlynn.
Coroner John Cannon read the conclusion of a report on the DNA taken from Mr McGlynn and from the deceased man which concluded, “my opinion is that these findings strongly support that James McGlynn had a relationship to the deceased, either a brother, father or son – it was that close a link”.
In 2010 Mr Cannon instructed samples be taken from the unidentified body, which was buried in an unmarked grave in Dunfanaghy, and compared with saliva samples given by Mr McGlynn.
Mr McGlynn has maintained for years that the body washed up was that of his brother Noel who was 26 when he went missing.
Noel McGlynn had been suffering from depression before he disappeared from the family home in the Ballaghderg area of Letterkenny on June 17th, 1983.
The body was washed up on the county’s west coast nine years later.
Solicitor for Mr McGlynn, Kieran Dillon, told the inquest the conclusion of the report was a new development.
Great comfort
“My client is relieved to have an outcome and it has brought great comfort and relief and answered a question that has been around for 29 years,” Mr Dillon said.
A visibly upset Mr McGlynn then left the inquest, which has been adjourned until April.
The coroner explained that the DNA samples were sent to a laboratory in Britain and when the report came back it was of such a technical nature that he forwarded it to the forensics laboratory in Dublin, which furnished him with the result.