Jean McConville: her story

On December 7th, 1972, IRA members forcibly took Mrs Jean McConville, a recently widowed mother of 10, from her flat in Divis…

On December 7th, 1972, IRA members forcibly took Mrs Jean McConville, a recently widowed mother of 10, from her flat in Divis in the Lower Falls area of Belfast.

She was questioned, shot dead and her body eventually disposed of on Shelling beach, Co Louth.

That year saw 496 deaths as a result of the conflict and such was the toll in December alone that Mrs McConville's name competed for public attention with many others. It was not until the New Year of 1973 that word filtered out about her disappearance.

Mrs McConville was a Protestant who married Mr Arthur McConville and was disowned by her family for marrying a Catholic and going to live in nationalist west Belfast.

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She was accused by her killers of being an informer, a charge the family still denies. Some believe her real "crime" was to have gone to the aid of a dying British soldier near her home.

Following the ceasefires, and after a series of searches for the "Disappeared", who had been secretly murdered by the paramilitaries, her remains were found in Co Louth in August 2003.