‘I’m prepared to meet IRA’

File photo dated 04/10/07 of Oliver McVeigh, the brother of Columba McVeigh, as a new search for the remains of the teenager who was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA nearly 40 years ago has been called off. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday September 30, 2013. Relatives of Columba McVeigh, 19, from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, who is believed to have been buried in bogland near the Irish border, said they are devastated. See PA story ULSTER Missing. Photo credit should read: Paul Faith/PA Wire

Oliver McVeigh was reacting to news that the latest search by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’s Remains (ICLVR) for his brother Columba had ended without success.

Mr McVeigh told reporters this week that he was now prepared to meet the IRA to get the information he needed to lay his brother to rest beside their parents.

“It has to go back to the republican movement now,” he said.

“They have to come up with answers now because the commission has dug 21 acres of land, there’s been nothing found, and they have proven they can find bodies when they are there.

“I’ll go to the devil, I’ll talk to, or do whatever I have to do to get the information. I’m prepared to meet anyone. I will stop at nothing. I would like to meet them and ask them these questions. I want to get answers. They say they have given as much information as they can. I want them to look me in the eye and say that.”

The ICLVR have been searching Bragan Bog, Co Monaghan, following a tip off.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Eamon Martin, has appealed to those with information about the Disappeared to end families’ heartache.

He said: “The sense of dejection felt by Columba’s family and the ICLVR team is heart-rending. His family has suffered too much pain, distress and anxiety over all these years.

“Columba’s mother had dearly wished that he would be found so that he could be buried in the family grave.

She has now gone to her rest without finding the remains of her beloved son. Other family members are getting older.

“They promised their mother they would never give up looking for Columba. Their dedicated and lonely vigil for Columba is agonising.”

Seventeen-year-old Columba, from Donaghmore, disappeared in November 1975.

The Provisional IRA alleged he was a British Army intelligence agent who had attempted to infiltrate the organisation.