Opinion

Fresh hope for family of Seamus Ruddy

It is clear that the latest search in northern France for the remains of Newry-born Seamus Ruddy, who is feared to have been abducted and murdered by the INLA, is both comprehensive and painstaking.

Mr Ruddy (32) was a teacher in Paris when he went missing in 1985, and specific new information is believed to have taken a well equipped investigative team to a forest in the Rouen area.

His family, together with all the other relatives of the wider group known as The Disappeared, have suffered an appalling ordeal down the decades, but at least now have a degree of optimism.

It is appalling that they have had to wait so long for progress and there will be widespread hopes that all the missing victims will all be finally able to receive a Christian burial.