‘I’m coming here until we find them’: Families of Disappeared maintain hope

A woman whose teenage brother was murdered and secretly buried by the IRA has pledged she will never give up hope of finding his body as families of the Disappeared came together to lay a wreath at Stormont.

Dympna Kerr’s brother Columba McVeigh, from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, was 19 when he was disappeared by the paramilitary in 1975.

A number of searches by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) have taken place at the remote Bragan Bog in Co Monaghan close to the Irish border, the most recent of which in December 2025 ended unsuccessfully.

Relatives of four men and a woman secretly murdered and buried by paramilitaries in Northern Ireland came together for the 20th annual memorial for their loved ones.

Mr McVeigh, Joe Lynskey, Robert Nairac, Seamus Maguire and Lisa Dorrian were all remembered at the All Souls Silent Walk for the Disappeared at Stormont on Monday.

Some 17 people were designated as disappeared, and 13 have been found.

While Ms Dorrian’s disappearance came in 2005, outside the remit of the ICLVR, which can only take cases from before April 10 1998, Wave includes her as one of the Disappeared.

The families gathered to lay the black wreath with five white lilies representing those who have yet to be found, and heard prayers from Father Joe Gormley.

Ms Kerr said the memorial walk is “always an emotional day” for the family, especially given Mr McVeigh was abducted on Halloween night 51 years ago.

“It really does bring a lot of emotions,” she said.

“But then I come here and all them people, families of the Disappeared, they’re all my friends.

“We were strangers once and through something so horrible we are now friends, and I can actually say some of them are my best friends and it’s a pleasure to walk beside them.”

Ms Kerr added: “Every family has experienced grief, there’s not one family out there that hasn’t.

“The difference with us is, we’ve experienced the grief, and I think every one of us has accepted the grief – it’s this disappearing them and burying them in bogs and burying them in unmarked graves, that’s the bit that I’ll never, ever get over, and that’s the bit that I will never give up on.

“And while I can make it here on Holy Souls Day, I’ll be coming as long as I am breathing and able to walk and make it, I’m coming here until we find them, and then after that, I’ll still come to support any family that hasn’t got what we want.”

Ms Kerr said the support of those who had family members disappeared and whose bodies were later recovered gave her hope of finding her brother.

“It doesn’t matter how many years. In our case, Columba’s dead 51 years there, it was 51 years on Halloween that Columba was abducted.

“That’s a lifetime ago, but it doesn’t matter how long it is ago until we get him.”

She added: “I think until we get that funeral and put that coffin in the ground, that’s when it will become a true reality and I look forward to that day.

“And don’t get me wrong, I know I’ll get emotional, but it will put an end to the nightmare that I’m living at the minute and let’s face it, it is a nightmare.”

Asked for her message to those who have information about Mr McVeigh’s whereabouts she said: “So many times I have pled to them to just bring the information to the commission.

“I don’t want to know who they are. I’m not interested in who they are. That doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that we find Columba and get him buried in Donaghmore beside Mum and Dad.”

Dr Sandra Peake, chief executive of Wave Trauma Centre, which organises the annual event and has supported the Families of the Disappeared since 1995, said the event is “hugely important” to the families.

Asked if they felt there was a lack of political will in relation to the Disappeared, Ms Peake said the families have had “to fight and fight and fight for the return of their loved ones’ bodies”.

“If they remain silent, then sadly the issue is silent, and so therefore they’ve had to give voice to the issue of the Disappeared,” she said.

“They’ve had to give voice to who their loved ones were and are, and they’ve had to say, ‘Look, please do all you can to provide the information to allow them to be recovered’.

“The independent commission is a process that works. There is an immunity provision in relation to if anyone provides information, it can only be used for the recovery of those who are disappeared.

“We’ve seen it work so many times. We’ve seen so many families come here and walk here, and subsequently their loved ones’ bodies were recovered, and they were able to lay them to rest and to give them a Christian burial.

“That’s what we need for all of those families. Everybody has the right to be able to lay their loved ones to rest, and the families are not at rest until the Disappeared are at rest.”