EVEN among the measureless litanies of suffering inflicted during the Troubles, few of its depravities continue to echo into the present with the profound sorrow of those whose loved ones were 'disappeared'.
The official record shows that the practice of 'disappearing' during the 1970s and early 1980s was carried out by republican paramilitaries. All but one is believed to have been perpetrated by the IRA. The targets of this particular form of brutality, which saw victims abducted, murdered and secretly buried, were all Catholics and – with the tragic exception of Jean McConville – all men.
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Amid this darkness, the work of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains has been a powerful beacon of light and hope.
This post-Good Friday Agreement cross-border body has performed heroic work in seeking to recover the remains of the Disappeared, conducting its work with compassionate indefatigability.
Of the 17 people on the ICLVR's list, the remains of 13 have been found. This has frequently happened under the most unpromising of circumstances, including long-running digs in remote bogland. In other cases, the remains of some of the Disappeared have been discovered by accident.
If 13 families have been able to bury their loved ones, then four others desperately hope to be able to do so as soon as possible. Still to be recovered are Joseph Lynskey, Columba McVeigh, Robert Nairac and Seamus Maguire.
A fresh search for Columba McVeigh's remains started in October in the remote Bragan Bog in Co Monaghan. Today, November 1, is the 48th anniversary of his disappearance. From Donaghmore in Co Tyrone, Mr McVeigh was abducted from Dublin, where he had been living. He was just 19 years old.
Mr McVeigh's family has held a patient vigil during this and previous searches. It is impossible not to be moved by the words of his sister, Dympna Kerr, speaking as she watched the experts from the ICLVR go about their painstaking work this week: "Every anniversary that comes and goes is harder than the last... I feel sad, I feel sick and sometimes on the edge of despair but I can't give in to that."
The family only want to be able to give Mr McVeigh a Christian burial. "I can't let go of the hope that one day we'll get the call that says, 'We've found him'," is Mrs Kerr's fervent prayer.
Criticism levelled at the British government's new structures to deal with the legacy of the Troubles centres on how they deny families an opportunity to pursue justice.
It's a further stain that others involved in the Troubles – in this case, the IRA – are still denying families simple dignity and the right to bury their loved ones.
