50th anniversary of the disappearance of Columba McVeigh
As his family remember their brother today, a search for the teenager's remains continues in Co. Monaghan
TODAY marks 50 years since 19-year-old Columba McVeigh from Co Tyrone, went missing.
And as his distraught family prepare to remember their brother on this most somber of anniversaries, a search for Columba McVeigh’s remains continues on Bragan Bog, Co. Monaghan.
The teenager is one of just four of the so-called ‘Disappeared’ whose remains are yet to be found.
The ‘Disappeared’ refers to 17 people who were abducted, murdered, and secretly buried by the IRA during the Troubles.
On Hallowe’en night 1975, Columba left his Dublin apartment and was never seen again.
The current excavation of Bragan Bog for the teenager’s remains is the seventh such search conducted by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) since 1999.
In 2023, the then Minister for Justice, Simon Harris, and Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphries, attended a search in Bragan Bog. The North’s First Minister Martin McGuinness also accompanied Columba’s family to the bog in 2014.
A spokesperson for ICLVR told the Celt: “Everyone involved in the search for Columba is acutely aware that the 50th anniversary of his murder and secret burial is approaching.
“The pain and anguish this causes his family is almost impossible to imagine.
“We are doing everything in our power to recover Columba’s remains and while it is frustrating for us and deeply disappointing for the McVeigh family that we have not yet found him, our determination to do so is undiminished.
“If he is here, we will find him,” the spokesperson said.
Meanhile, ICLVR have conducted searches at a different area in Co. Monaghan in the hope of finding another one of the Disappeared, Fr Joe Lynskey.
Two searches at Annyalla Graveyard in November 2024 and May this year, turned up two individual sets of human remains but, forensic analysis proved neither belonged to the missing priest.
Gardaí told the Celt work to establish the identity of the human remains at Annyalla Graveyard is “ongoing”.
Anyone with information on any of the four outstanding ICLVR Disappeared cases — Columba McVeigh, Joe Lynskey, Robert Nairac and Seamus Maguire— should contact the ICLVR. All information is treated in the strictest confidence.
The ICLVR can be contacted by telephone: +353 1 602 8655
E-mail information to: Secretary@iclvr.ie
By post to: ICLVR PO Box 10827
CrimeStoppers can be contacted on 0800 555 111 and the untraceable anonymous online form is at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.