Paisley to meet with family of 'disappeared'

DUP leader Ian Paisley is to today meet with the mother of one of the so-called disappeared.

Columba McVeigh, 17, from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone, was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA in 1975. In 1999, the Provisionals admitted to the killing.

Vera McVeigh, Columba's mother, now aged 82, will meet with Mr Paisley in County Tyrone, after a meeting was prompted by the late Monsignor Denis Faul, who requested from his deathbed that the DUP leader champion the cause of families whose loved ones were abducted by the Provisionals and whose remains have not been found.

The McVeigh family are hoping that Mr Paisley will be able to apply more pressure to Sinn Fein and both the British and Irish governments to to do more to help recover the remains of all the missing people.

Oliver McVeigh, brother of Columba today said that more needed to be done to give the families closure.

He said: "Closure for our family will not just come with Columba's body being returned.

"We want to see all the bodies come back, including the two people the Provisionals have not admitted abducting."

In 1999, a two-week search took place at bogland at Bragan near Emyvale in County Monaghan in a bid to find the teenager's body, after the IRA passed on fresh information, however nothing was found.

(EF)