The Disappeared: Body exhumed from Monaghan cemetery

The body set up to find the remains of the Disappeared has carried out an exhumation at a cemetery in County Monaghan.

The Disappeared are those who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) said it received information about suspicious activity during the 1970s at a grave in Annyalla cemetery.

“Both the timeframe and the location coincide with the disappearance of Joe Lynskey in 1972,” an ICLVR statement said.

Joe Lynskey was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972.

The exhumation happened on Tuesday and it said the formal process to establish the identity of all of the remains found in the grave has begun.

“This process may take some time,” it added.

A former Cistercian monk from the Beechmount area of west Belfast, Mr Lynskey later joined the IRA.

Mr Lynskey went missing in 1972, and republicans have claimed he was “executed and buried” by the IRA.

The latest search for his remains was in 2018. It ended without success.

Last November his niece said that his body “needs to be brought home”.

So far, the remains of 13 of the Disappeared have been recovered.

The remaining four are Mr Lynskey, Columba McVeigh, Seamus Maguire and Robert Nairac.

The disappearance of Mr Maguire was taken on as a new case by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) in 2022.

The ICLVR was established by the UK and Irish governments in 1999.

Annyalla is between Monaghan town and Castleblayney.