The remains of one of the "Disappeared", Seamus Ruddy, whose body was located in France a month ago, are being brought home on Tuesday for burial in Newry on Saturday, June 17th.
Mr Ruddy was abducted from Paris in 1985 by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), then murdered and secretly buried in a forest in Pont-de-l'Arche near Rouen.
His remains were uncovered by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) on May 6th after four days of searching.
The joint heads of the commission, Frank Murray and Sir Ken Bloomfield, said that initially the body is to be taken to the Dublin city mortuary and will be released to the family when the Dublin coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, has fulfilled her legal obligations.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Ruddy family, and we would ask that their privacy is respected as they prepare to lay Seamus to rest,” they said.
Mr Ruddy’s remains will be brought back to his sister Anne Morgan’s home in Newry to be waked on Thursday, June 15th. The funeral will be held on June 17th at St Catherine’s Dominican Chapel, Dominic Street, Newry.
Arms smuggling
Mr Ruddy (33), a former member of the INLA's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, was teaching in a private school in Paris when he was killed in a dispute understood to have been linked to INLA arms smuggling.
Ms Morgan, who has campaigned for many years to have her brother’s remains found and brought back to Newry to be buried with their mother and father at Monk’s Hill cemetery, said the family had waited for more than 30 years “to get Seamus home and to lay him to rest”.
“We never gave up hope despite some very dark times, and now our prayers have been answered.”
She thanked the commission and the French authorities who assisted in the search and those who brought forward information to help them finally locate the remains.
Of the 17 Disappeared, there are now three remaining bodies to be discovered: those of IRA victims, Columba McVeigh from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, who went missing in 1975; Joe Lynskey, who went missing from Belfast in 1972; and British soldier Capt Robert Nairac, who was shot dead close to the Louth/south Armagh Border area in 1977.
Ms Morgan appealed to anyone with information about the remaining Disappeared to bring it forward to the commission. “There are now three families who are waiting for the news that we received on May 6th. I hope and pray that their torment will end,” she said.
Anyone with information on the Disappeared can contact the ICLVR in confidence on 00800-55585500, by writing to ICLVR, PO Box 10827, Dublin 2 or via the website, iclvr.ie
