Opinion

Margaret McKinney's fearless campaign

Margaret McKinney, who has died at the age of 85, was a remarkable woman who was able to set aside her own enormous grief over the loss of her son and campaign tirelessly on behalf of the group known as the Disappeared.

Brian McKinney vanished from his west Belfast home at the age of 22, in 1978, and was known to be one of 16 people abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.

His mother spoke out fearlessly over many years, demanding answers from the IRA and making her case directly to senior politicians including US president Bill Clinton and UK prime minister John Major.

Her prayers were answered when the bodies of Brian, and his 17-year-old friend John McClory, were eventually found in a bog in Co Monaghan in 1999, but the support she still offered to the other families of the Disappeared was unwavering for the rest of her days.