Hopes are high that remains of ‘Disappeared' IRA man Joe Lynskey have finally been found
Joe Lynskey with the Price sisters in Say Nothing
This is the spot at Annyall Cemetery where Fragments of human remains were discovered by Independent Commission for the Location of Victims this week as the search continues for Joe Lynskey.
This is the spot at Annyall Cemetery where fragments of human remains were discovered by Independent Commission for the Location of Victims this week as the search continues for Joe Lynskey
Hopes were high last night that the remains of 'Disappeared' IRA man Joe Lynskey have finally been found, the Sunday World has learned.
On Tuesday, we were made aware that a convoy of Garda vehicles and a number of black Mercedes cars had assembled near the grave of the Comiskey family in a small Catholic cemetery at Annyalla, Co Monaghan.
It came five months after six bodies were exhumed from the family grave of Bishop Brendan Comiskey. However, in March the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR) revealed that DNA tests confirmed that Lynskey was not one of them.
The 40-year-old former Cistersian monk from Belfast was killed and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972. The Sunday World can reveal that human remains which were removed from the cemetery this week were 30 yards from the Comiskey plot, where Bishop Comiskey was buried earlier this month.
This is the spot at Annyall Cemetery where fragments of human remains were discovered by Independent Commission for the Location of Victims this week as the search continues for Joe Lynskey
It's a remote and silent spot, shaded yesterday by a lone hawthorn in full bloom of mayflower. Just a short distance away, boys and girls were inside the adjoining St Michael's church making their First Communion.
And last night, a republican source in rural Monaghan told us: 'I know we've been down this road before, but I honestly believe this time we have Joe Lynskey.'
He added: 'It's in all our interests that we do all we can to facilitate the finding of the bodies of the Disappeared.' Late on Friday afternoon And following an inquiry from the Sunday World, the ICLVR issued a statement to the press that partial human remains had been discovered.
Eamon Henry, lead investigator of the ICLVR, said: 'Following the recent exhumation at Annyalla Cemetery in relation to the search for Joe Lynskey, information came to the ICLVR indicating another small area of interest within the confines of the cemetery.
'This was not another family grave site.
The search continues for Joe Lynskey
'I want to emphasise that this information did not relate directly to the disappearance of Joe Lynskey and until we have positive identification or the elimination of the remains of Joe Lynskey, or any of the other Disappeared, we have to keep an open mind.'
Joe Lynskey
News in 90 Seconds - May 18th
Mr Henry also said he was aware the hopes of the Lynskey family had been raised once before, only to be disappointed. And he cautiously added: 'The process of identification could take some time and we will continue to offer the family what support we can.'
Garda officers remained at the graveyard on Tuesday and Wednesday, while specially trained experts brought in a small digger machine to begin a new search operation.
Last December, Bishop Comiskey had personally given the go-ahead for the search to take place at his family's grave, bearing the bodies of his mother and father and other members of his family.
And when Bishop Comiskey was buried there, the family plot was closed for good. It had previously been wrongly believed that the IRA had taken advantage of a tragedy at the Comiskey family farm to cover up the fate of Joe Lynskey.
Lynskey had gone missing from his west Belfast home around the same time that Bishop Brendan Comiskey's mother Clare died in fire at the family farm at Tasson, near Annyalla.
Former bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey pictured during a confirmation cermony in 1997 . Photo P.J.Browne
When her elderly husband Patrick went off to summons help, Mrs Comiskey re-entered the blazing farmhouse in an effort to retrieve valuables.
Lynskey went missing from his home in the Beechmount area of west Belfast in 1972.
He was driven to Monaghan town by IRA volunteer Dolours Price. And on the journey, he shared with her the trail of debris he had left in his wake, which almost sparked a full-scale feud within rival factions of the republican movement. Lynskey had previously been in the IRA during the failed 'Border Campaign'. And when violence erupted on the streets of Belfast in the early 1970s, he joined the Provisional IRA.
As he was older and had some weapons experience, he was appointed to senior post with a number of younger men under his command.
Soon afterwards, he became infatuated with the wife of a young IRA member. And in an effort to get rid of his love rival, he ordered another IRA volunteer to shoot the woman's husband dead.
The order was carried out, but it was botched and the targeted man survived. He approached a number of leading Provos and he told them Lynskey had ordered him to be shot because he was having and affair with his wife.
But Lynskey had already told his IRA bosses that the shooting was the work of the Official IRA, which at the time was as powerful as the Provos.
The Provo leadership had already ordered a number of retaliatory attacks on the Officials.
Joe Lynskey with the Price sisters in Say Nothing
But when the full truth emerged, Lynskey was court marshalled and ordered to travel to Monaghan until the IRA decided his fate.
On the journey across the border, Dolours Price later revealed how she felt sorry for her passenger, even offering to leave him off at a cross-channel ferry terminal, but Lynskey insisted he had to take his medicine.
The journey scene was re-enacted in the recent Disney+ series Say Nothing.
In Monaghan, Lynskey was dropped off at the Park Street home of a well-known republican family related to legendary IRA figure Fergal O'Hanlon, who was shot dead in 1957 attacking Brookeborough RUC barracks in Co Fermanagh. We recently learned that although Lynskey was under IRA orders, he wasn't a prisoner and he was free to come and go as he pleased.
In the evenings, Lynskey prayed a lot and he enjoyed discussions about Irish history with Einaghan O'Hanlon – Fergal's brother – as they ate home-made bread and drank tea.
We learned from republican members who knew Lynskey that he was resigned to his fate and he was fully aware that one day he would pay the ultimate price for trying to deceive the IRA leadership.
Eventually, an order came from Belfast saying he was to be shot dead. But local volunteers who had come to know him and liked him refused to carry it out.
In the end a number of IRA gunmen from Belfast were despatched to Monaghan to carry out dirty deed.
According to our sources, Lynskey asked to be buried in consecrated ground. And his killers took him to the cemetery at Annyalla where they shot him dead.
As DNA testing on the remains found there this week begin, many of Lynskey's old republican friends are praying and hoping the tests prove positive. As well as Lynskey, the commission is also tasked with finding three other victims – County Tyrone teenager Columba McVeigh, British army Captain Robert Nairac and Seamus Maguire, who was in his mid-20s and last seen in a bar in Aghagallan, Co Antrim.
Anyone with information on the four outstanding Disappeared cases, can contact the Commission on 00 353 1 602 8655 or by email to secretary@iclvr.ie or by post to ICLVR, PO box 10827, Dublin, Ireland.
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