Head of Disappeared probe believes it can complete task
The new head of a commission set up to find the bodies of people murdered and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles has said he would not have taken the job, if he did not believe it can complete its task.
The remains of four of 17 people known as the so-called 'Disappeared' have not yet been recovered.
Former garda officer Eamonn Henry is the lead investigator for the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR), often referred to as the Disappeared Commission.
Since it was established in 1999 by the Irish and British governments, 13 of the bodies have been recovered and returned to their families.
A former garda inspector who served for 30 years, Mr Henry worked as a liaison officer with the commission from 2013 to 2017.
He joined its investigation team in 2023 and was appointed to lead the organisation last month.
The search continues for the bodies of Joe Lynskey, Columba McVeigh, Seamus Maguire and former British army captain Robert Nairac.
While many of those involved in those abductions, murders and burials have since died, Mr Henry does not accept that any hope of finding them is gone.
"No, and that's my job, and that's the commission's job," he told RTÉ News, adding "it's all the investigators' jobs to make sure that we don't lose hope".
"If I didn't believe that we can find these bodies I wouldn't be here today, I would not have put myself forward for this," he said.
"But I have seen the tremendous work that has been done over the years, and I firmly believe that we will recover the last four remains," he added.
Mr Henry said the recovery of the bodies "may take a bit of time".
But he added: "I do believe that we will recover those people."
During his time as garda liaison officer, the commission recovered the bodies of Brendan Megraw, Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright.
He also worked on the case of Seamus Ruddy, whose remains were found in Paris a few months after he retired.
Mr Henry said it was "a moving experience" when Brendan Megraw was recovered, adding "it was a really moving experience" meeting the Magraw family.
He said: "And again, the Wright and McKee families as well, it was a moving experience, and to see the, I suppose, some relief in relation to the recovery of their loved ones and that they now had a place where they could bury their loved ones and place to go up to mourn them, compared to the people who haven't been recovered."
'Time to bring them home'
Mr Henry said the commission is actively following leads in the search for the bodies of the remaining Disappeared and appealed to anyone with information to come forward.
"We will have a number of operations in the near future in relation to some of those," he said.
"At the end of the day basically, I might be oversimplifying this, but we are looking for four locations, four locations of where those bodies are," he added.
Mr Henry said he is "not interested in the politics, I'm not interested in secrets of any organisation or whatever".
"I'm interested in four locations as to where these victims are so that we can recover them," he said.
He said it has been "between 48 and 53 years" since the four individuals disappeared.
"I think it's time to bring them home to their loved ones and to their families," he said.
The commission has co-operation from former members of the Provisional IRA and the INLA, but Mr Henry believes there are still people who have information about the four bodies that have not been found and who have not yet come forward.
He said: "Absolutely, I have no doubt that there are and whatever constraints there are in relation to them passing on that information, I'm asking the people who are either putting pressure on them or constraining them in handing over that information to please desist and allow these people to talk to us.
"The information that we receive is treated in confidence, it's fully confidential.
"Allow these people to give us the information that we need to find these four people and bring them home to their families."
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