THE LEAD INVESTIGATOR of the commission established to recover the remains of the ‘Disappeared’ has said the TV adaptation of Say Nothing might encourage people to come forward with information on outstanding cases.
Jon Hill, the Lead Investigator of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR) was speaking today from the Ballymascanlon Hotel in Dundalk as the first search for remains of Robert Nairac got underway.
Nairac, who was a British Army officer, is believed to have been abducted by the IRA while on an undercover operation at a bar in south Armagh in May 1977 and taken across the border to Flurry Bridge in Co Louth where he was killed.
The remains of the Grenadier Guards captain have never been found.
Nairac is considered to be part of a group of 16 people, known as the ‘Disappeared’, who were killed and secretly buried by paramilitary groups during the Troubles.
Mother-of-10 Jean McConville was also one of the Disappeared – she was taken from her home in west Belfast in December 1972.
Her remains were found by a walker in August 2003 on a beach in Co Louth.
The New York Times best-selling book Say Nothing by author Patrick Radden Keefe focuses on the disappearance of Jean McConville and has been adapted into a nine-part TV series that will air on Disney+ on 14 November.
When asked by The Journal if the TV series could prompt someone to come forward with information on the four outstanding Disappeared cases, Hill remarked that “any event that draws attention to it might encourage someone to come forward with that information”.
He added: “Any publication that comes out that draws attention to the plight of the Disappeared and might encourage information, we welcome it.”
Hill also expressed hope that searches such as the one currently underway for the remains of Nairac, might encourage someone to come forward with information on Nairac or the other outstanding cases of Columba McVeigh, Joe Lynskey, and Seamus Maguire.
Hill also remarked that there is a “confidentiality of our information that cannot be stressed enough”.
“Those who speak to us do so in complete confidence and that will not go beyond our circle, and it could lead to recovering the remains of someone,” said Hill.
A search got underway this morning in the Faughart area of Co Louth for Nairac’s remains.
Hill said Nairac is “one of the highest profile Disappeared and yet his case is one in which we have had very little to go on”.
However, Hill said he believes the ICLVR now has “sufficient credible information to warrant a search”.
“You can’t minimise how difficult a search is when 40 or 50 years has elapsed and the landscapes have changed dramatically,” Hill told reporters at the Ballymascanlon Hotel.
“Fortunately, the landscapes haven’t changed too much here, because it is farmland and it’s pretty much as it would have been back then.”
Typically, such press conferences would be held on the site being searched rather than in a hotel.
Hill told reporters “not to draw any inference or significance from this”.
“It is private land owned by people who don’t want the press intrusion that comes with our searches, and that’s why we’ve had to deal with it in this way.
“I don’t want you to draw any significance or inference from the fact that we’re undertaking the press conference here, this case isn’t of any more interest to us than any of the other Disappeared.”
Hill also remarked that there are historical and archaeological concerns to be taken into consideration.
“It’s on the Hill of Faughart which is a battlefield site from the 1300s, and there may be archaeology or other human remains we may come across.”
Hill said the ICLVR has the “support and co-operation of the National Monuments Service” in this regard and that “any remains that don’t impact on the search will be left in place”.
Hill also remarked that while “former PIRA people had supported” almost every other effort to recover the remains of the Disappeared, this has not been the case regarding Nairac.
“There are a number of reasons why that might be, not least because some of the significant people who might be involved are now dead,” said Hill.
“It may equally be there are people who don’t want to talk about it for various reasons.
“It may also be that people’s memories are fading, and their recollection of what happened isn’t as good as what one would like it to be, but they’re the facts, that’s what we’re dealing with.”
Hill added: “I couldn’t say I know somebody refuses to talk about it because of the rumours that were put around about Robert Nairac”.
He said these were “particularly nasty rumours that have been dispelled over the recent years”.
“I couldn’t say that that is why people have not spoken, but it is a consideration, and it may still be the case.
“Even though those rumours have been dispelled, people might not believe that,” said Hill.
There have been rumours that Nairac was involved in the Kingsmill massacre, when ten Protestant workmen were shot dead by the IRA in Co Armagh in January 1976.
However, an inquest into the killings recently described this as “utter fantasy”.
Delivering his findings in the long-running legacy inquest into Kingsmill in April at the Belfast Coroner’s Court, coroner Brian Sherrard said he was entirely satisfied that Nairac had “no role whatsoever” in the atrocity.
Meanwhile, Hill said the search will be “undertaken in a painstaking manner and will take as long as it takes” and that Nairac’s family are “philosophical” about it.
“They are very private people, they have no wish to make any comment other than they hope that Robert can be found and brought home for a Christian burial, and that’s the only comment they will make at this stage.”
Hill also noted that the search area is less than one acre, which comprises of three of four separate but nearby areas, and that he doesn’t expect it to “go beyond a few months”.
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