The Underground

An exhumation of remains has been carried out at a cemetery in County Monaghan this week. The remains are suspected to be Joe Lynskey, a former Provisional IRA Volunteer who disappeared in 1972. 

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) are acting on information provided to them about suspicious activity during the 1970s at a grave in Annyalla cemetery, County Monaghan. 

Joe Lynskey was a former Cistercian Monk from Belfast who joined the Provisional IRA at the outbreak of the troubles in Northern Ireland. In 2010 the IRA issued a statement that Lynskey was killed as part of an internal disciplinary process after he was involved in a feud with another IRA volunteer. This claim is backed up by Dolours Price in her infamous Boston College tapes. She claimed she was the driver that took Joe Lynskey from Belfast over the border to a safe house in the Republic of Ireland. He was then shot and buried in an unmarked grave. 

This is not the first time that remains suspected to belong to Lynskey have been found. However, when conducting an exhumation in County Meath in 2015, the remains uncovered belonged to Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, two IRA Volunteers who were suspected of being informers for British Intelligence. 

Joe Lynskey is classed as one of “The Disappeared”, aka people from Northern Ireland believed to have been abducted, murdered and secretly buried during The Troubles. Of the 17 people who “disappeared”, Lynskey is one of 4 people yet to be found. The ICLVR has played a major role in discovering remains of 13 people and will remain committed to their cause until all of “The Disappeared” are accounted for.