0:00:03 > 0:00:09This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Can you imagine being a little boy
0:00:14 > 0:00:18and watching men and women come and take your mother
0:00:18 > 0:00:22and going and talking to people and asking them where she was?
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Begging for her to come back?
0:00:28 > 0:00:33The children lived in fear, the family was broken up,
0:00:33 > 0:00:39and they couldn't find their mother.
0:00:39 > 0:00:45And they went on and on, looking for their mother over the decades.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Jean McConville, a widow and mother of ten,
0:00:48 > 0:00:53was killed and secretly buried by the IRA.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57She would become known as one of the Disappeared.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05Others disposed of in the same way remain missing.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09They are thought to be buried in bogs somewhere in Ireland.
0:01:24 > 0:01:31I lay waiting between turf-face and demesne wall.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35Between heathery levels and glass-toothed stone.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39My body was Braille for the creeping influences.
0:01:42 > 0:01:48Dawn suns groped over my head and cooled at my feet.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Through my fabrics and skins, the seeps of winter digested me.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54The illiterate routes
0:01:54 > 0:01:58pondered and died in the cavings of stomach and socket.
0:01:58 > 0:02:04I lay waiting on the gravel bottom, my brain darkening...
0:02:14 > 0:02:17If there was a hierarchy of victims of the Troubles,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21the Disappeared were at the bottom.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24The invisible dead.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28Killing them wasn't punishment enough.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30I want to know why they were killed
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and their bodies hidden from their families.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36And who was responsible?
0:02:36 > 0:02:41And, above all, I want to put these questions to the republican movement
0:02:41 > 0:02:44and it's leader Gerry Adams,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48seen here in 1970 as a young IRA volunteer
0:02:48 > 0:02:53and, for the last 30 years, the president of Sinn Fein.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56I have learnt from a top republican source
0:02:56 > 0:03:00that you were in fact the Belfast brigade commander
0:03:00 > 0:03:04when Jean McConville was taken and executed
0:03:04 > 0:03:08and that you in fact were ultimately responsible for her fate.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10That's not true, Darragh.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13Do you bear any responsibility for what happened to these people?
0:03:13 > 0:03:15All of us bear a responsibility,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19those of us who are in leadership, and I have never shirked that.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44The explosion of violence from 1969
0:03:44 > 0:03:47forced thousands out of their homes.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Housing became rigidly segregated,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57areas dominated by one religion or the other.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03A Protestant, Jean McConville, made the mistake
0:04:03 > 0:04:07of marrying a Catholic and raising their children in his faith,
0:04:07 > 0:04:12but in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22There was ten of us, all in the one bedroom.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Like ten wee rats, so we were!
0:04:26 > 0:04:32At that point of life, we hadn't got much, but we had each other.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37But in these unreasonable times, mob culture prevailed
0:04:37 > 0:04:39and the family wasn't safe.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42Protestant people came to the house and, first of all,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46they put my father out, so they did, and four weeks later,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49then they told us to get out.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56The McConvilles were forced to move
0:04:56 > 0:05:00from Protestant East Belfast to the Catholic West.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10They set up home in the newly built Divis Flats.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21But the McConvilles were people apart here too.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Most of their neighbours had lived in this area, the Lower Falls,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28for generations, with dense family networks.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35The McConvilles were strangers in a strange place.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49If there was an epicentre for the conflict, it was here.
0:05:52 > 0:05:53This was a war zone.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55GUNFIRE
0:05:58 > 0:06:00Children, mothers, families,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04were caught between the British Army and the IRA.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06GUNFIRE
0:06:10 > 0:06:13You've shot a child, you pigs, ye!
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Ah, she's not shot, she's all right.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25'They made all the Divis Flats and all Catholic places all no-go areas.
0:06:29 > 0:06:30'There was gun battles going on.
0:06:32 > 0:06:33'And bombing.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37'A shooting was nothing.'
0:06:37 > 0:06:41It was just part of growing up, what I thought, when I was a kid,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44just growing up in these times, this is the way life was.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51'At that point of life all I was interested was in pigeons.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00'Although all the bad things was happening around the Divis Flats,'
0:07:00 > 0:07:02I think we were still happy then.
0:07:03 > 0:07:081972 was just days old when Michael's father died of cancer.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Mother Jean was left to raise the ten children alone.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Later that year, behind the closed doors of her home,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Jean McConville suffered a nervous breakdown.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Outside, the war intensified,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and alongside it, an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Few would even make eye contact with soldiers.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42What are you lifting me for?
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Complete loyalty was demanded by the IRA.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49It was given freely by most.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51MUSIC: "Coz I Love You" by Slade
0:07:58 > 0:08:01There were odd contradictions in the early days.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07The army ran discos in nearby bases.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18You're both Catholic girls
0:08:18 > 0:08:20who've come for a night out with British soldiers.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Isn't that a dangerous thing to do in your circumstances?
0:08:23 > 0:08:25It is, yes.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28But, erm, we still take the risk, we think it's worth it.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39Catholic girls knew they could pay a big price for a good night out.
0:08:39 > 0:08:40Tarring and feathering.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48These were wartime rules, with the IRA exerting strict social control.
0:08:59 > 0:09:00Jean McConville's children
0:09:00 > 0:09:03say their mother came to the attention of the IRA
0:09:03 > 0:09:06because she helped an injured British soldier.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08GUNFIRE
0:09:14 > 0:09:17My mother put a cushion under his head.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18My mother would have helped anybody,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21that's just the type of person she was.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24That's where it all started to go wrong for us.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31The McConvilles believe their mother was in the IRA's sights
0:09:31 > 0:09:33from that night.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38Six and two, 62!
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Soon after, Jean was at the local bingo and got called out.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46She was told that one of her children had been injured
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and a car was waiting to take her to the hospital.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56It was a trap.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01The IRA took her away and interrogated her.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08In the early hours of the morning, she was found wandering the streets,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10beaten and disorientated.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Her daughter Agnes remembers her coming home.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20'There was a lot of blood on her.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25'Her face was all swollen and everything, black and blue.'
0:10:25 > 0:10:29And all she could say was... When we got her settled,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32got her a cup of tea and gave her cigarettes.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38And must have smoked the cigarettes one after another and drank the tea,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42and she started to get sick, so she did, with her nerves.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Later that day, the IRA came back for Jean.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Around tea time, a rap came to the door.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08She was in the bathroom getting washed,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10and the next thing they were shouting,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12"Where is she, where is she?"
0:11:13 > 0:11:16All the people just barged into the house.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18There were some of these people had a mask on,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21some of them hadn't got a mask on.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24She was squealing, squealing her head off,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26she was shouting, "Help me, help me."
0:11:28 > 0:11:31All of us were just wrapped round her.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34All crying and squealing.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39I remember one of the girls talking, so I do,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42which I knew, cos she hadn't got a mask on,
0:11:42 > 0:11:45but she used to be a neighbour of ours.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Her and her sister was there.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52They kept trying to calm us down cos they knew us,
0:11:52 > 0:11:53and they knew us by name.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59Michael's older brother Archie followed their mother outside
0:11:59 > 0:12:04until the IRA put a gun to his head and ordered him away.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12We could hear her squealing, still squealing,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and we looked over the banister in Divis Flats,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and there she was getting thrown into the back of a van.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24And that was the last time...I actually seen her.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47I think it was about five days later,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50an IRA man came to the door and rapped the door,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54and, eh, handed...
0:12:54 > 0:12:56my mother's purse...
0:12:56 > 0:12:59and her wedding rings.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01We asked where my mother was
0:13:01 > 0:13:05and they just says, "Look, I was just told to bring these rings to you.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07"I know nothing about it."
0:13:07 > 0:13:09And that was it. Walked away.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15I knew she wasn't going to come back.
0:13:15 > 0:13:16I knew straightaway.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20And when the purse and all came through, I said, no return.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32Michael says he then got a direct threat from the IRA -
0:13:32 > 0:13:34"Say nothing, or else."
0:13:34 > 0:13:38He says a gang of boys from the IRA's youth wing, Na Fianna, abducted him.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47They pulled a hood over my head.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51It was the sleeve of a jumper,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54a woolly jumper, cos I could see through the mask.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01They took me down out of the Divis Flats into a house.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08They tied me to the chair.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13They were hitting me with sticks.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15They were putting a gun to my head
0:14:15 > 0:14:17and they says they were going to shoot me.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22I'd looked out the side of my eye and there was a man
0:14:22 > 0:14:26and he was telling the younger ones what to do with me.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29So they had me for, I would say, for about three hours
0:14:29 > 0:14:32and they says they were going to shoot me.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34If I told anything about any member of the IRA,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37they would shoot me or shoot some more family members.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40They fired a gun -
0:14:40 > 0:14:42a cap gun -
0:14:42 > 0:14:44and of them stuck a penknife into my leg.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56They took me over to the Divis Flats and let me go at the stairs.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02I hobbled up the stairs into the house.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04I had just turned 11 at the time.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15The children waited for news of their mother.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21It was coming up to Christmas,
0:15:21 > 0:15:27and that Christmas, I realised there was no Santa Claus.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30The Christmas came and went.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It was fully six weeks after Jean's disappearance
0:15:37 > 0:15:40that newspapers caught up with the story.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45It was front page across Ireland - TV cameras followed.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49Agnes, eh, you were in the night your mummy disappeared,
0:15:49 > 0:15:50can you tell me what happened?
0:15:50 > 0:15:52My mummy was over at my granny's
0:15:52 > 0:15:54and she just came over
0:15:54 > 0:15:56and four young girls came in into the hall,
0:15:56 > 0:16:00she was only coming into the kitchen, and they came in,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02they ordered all the kids up the stairs
0:16:02 > 0:16:05and they just walked in and they took my mummy.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Do you know why your mummy went away? Why she was taken away?
0:16:09 > 0:16:13No. She never done anything, so she never.
0:16:13 > 0:16:14She'd never done anything anybody...
0:16:14 > 0:16:17She was with us in the house, at nights she just went to bingo.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22When do you think you'll see your mummy again?
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Don't know.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27We keep our fingers crossed and pray hard for her coming back.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Can you remember what she was wearing that night?
0:16:37 > 0:16:39I can remember her wearing red shoes.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43And a tweedy coat, so I can.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45And the head scarf.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47She put on her coat and her scarf,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50she had on her red slippers and blue trousers,
0:16:50 > 0:16:55an orange check coat and a brown and white jumper.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Even in the madness of the times, this was a sensational story,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07and might have run for weeks.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11But Republicans concocted a lie.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17And a message was sent out - Jean McConville wasn't being held captive,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20just in hiding because of publicity.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26She had been murdered weeks earlier,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29but the lie worked.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33The headlines were amended. The public had been conned.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36And the McConvilles had been wronged - again.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45The children were hearing a different story on the streets.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Children growing up round Divis Flats would hear
0:17:49 > 0:17:51what their parents were saying -
0:17:51 > 0:17:54"Your mummy's a tout and your mummy's this and your mummy's that,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58"and your mummy will never be back," and all this here, you know.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01She's gone with a British soldier.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04This wasn't coming from the adults, this was coming from the children.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10The McConvilles were now outcasts.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12They had no-one to fall back on.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15And within months, the children were scattered into care homes
0:18:15 > 0:18:17across Northern Ireland.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26These welfare notes of one of the children
0:18:26 > 0:18:28have just been released to the family.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31They confirm in official documentation
0:18:31 > 0:18:34just exactly how isolated they were.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38The first note goes to the 13th of December '72.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Days after their mum has been taken away.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45An official with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
0:18:45 > 0:18:48phones to say that this family have been apparently
0:18:48 > 0:18:51looking after themselves for the past four or five days -
0:18:51 > 0:18:55a group of children aged between 16 and six -
0:18:55 > 0:18:59since their mother "has apparently been abducted by an organisation."
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Now, isn't that astonishing?
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Within DAYS...the word was out.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07This is on official documentation.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12A note is made here that the "neighbours, etc,"
0:19:12 > 0:19:15are "unsympathetic" towards her.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19That's the mother, Jean. Although less so towards the children.
0:19:19 > 0:19:25We have reports of the parish priest in the run up to Christmas
0:19:25 > 0:19:27saying he's aware of the circumstance
0:19:27 > 0:19:32but being described here as being "very unsympathetic towards the family and their plight."
0:19:32 > 0:19:38The parish priest apparently says he would call but didn't think he would help.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40We're seven days out of Christmas.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Jean McConville was not the only person
0:19:48 > 0:19:51disappeared by the IRA in 1972.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59The IRA took and buried three of their own men that same year.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Joe Lynskey,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06Seamus Wright,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08and the youngest of them all -
0:20:08 > 0:20:1017-year-old Kevin McKee.
0:20:14 > 0:20:22# If you hate the British Army, clap your hands
0:20:22 > 0:20:26# If you hate the British Army, hate the British Army,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28# Hate the British Army, clap your hands! #
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Kevin McKee, like many of his age,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44had progressed from stone throwing into more serious violence.
0:20:51 > 0:20:57He was a member of the IRA's youth wing, Na Fianna, in Ballymurphy, West Belfast.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59This was Republican base camp.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03The home place of Gerry Adams - where kids fell into line.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Kevin's sister Marie saw it all.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14To me, he was just like all the other teenagers.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17He didn't do nothing different to what everyone else was doing.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Throwing stones, breaking things up
0:21:22 > 0:21:24they used to put Union Jacks up a lot,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27and they'd scale up to the very top,
0:21:27 > 0:21:29and take the Union Jack down
0:21:29 > 0:21:31and set fire to it and then everyone clapped.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39Kevin was, no matter what they say he done, he was a child.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41He was 17 years of age.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44Maybe there was other things going on that I wasn't aware of,
0:21:44 > 0:21:46because I was too young,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49but to me Kevin was doing what everybody else done.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59When Kevin joined the IRA's Belfast 2nd Battalion,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01Richard O'Rawe joined with him.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05I knew Kevin very well, very well.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Kevin was a lovely lad, if the truth be told.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12I lived just on the next street,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15we were very, very close in terms of our friendship.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Kevin was the first person that I ever had a drink with
0:22:18 > 0:22:20and I wasn't allowed to drink.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23My father allowed me to join the IRA but he wouldn't allow me
0:22:23 > 0:22:24to have a bottle of beer.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29What was in your head though, when you went out there and signed up?
0:22:29 > 0:22:31I was an Irish patriot.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33You saw yourself as a freedom fighter?
0:22:33 > 0:22:34Nothing else.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38As far as I was concerned, this was about freeing Ireland from Britain.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Things went awfully wrong for Kevin McKee shortly afterwards.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50He and another IRA man, Seamus Wright,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53were recruited by British Army intelligence.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56But the IRA found out about them and the two men confessed.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00Well, it was bad business.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02He went from being an IRA volunteer
0:23:02 > 0:23:07to being actively involved in anti-IRA activities for the enemy.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12No matter what way you look at it, he was a traitor.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16You look back and you say...what was it all about?
0:23:19 > 0:23:23Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright revealed to the IRA
0:23:23 > 0:23:27details about a covert British Army operation,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30in which a mobile laundry van called the Four Square
0:23:30 > 0:23:32was used to spy on the IRA.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40The IRA then ambushed the van, killing a British soldier.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43It was a propaganda coup for the Republicans.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48Kevin may have thought his role
0:23:48 > 0:23:52in exposing the army spying operation had saved him,
0:23:52 > 0:23:54but the IRA came knocking anyway.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01I had said to him, "The IRA's been looking for you."
0:24:01 > 0:24:02He says, "I've done nothing wrong."
0:24:02 > 0:24:05I says, "Well, they're definitely looking for you
0:24:05 > 0:24:07"and I'm just warning you off."
0:24:07 > 0:24:11And it was then I took a photograph of him and that was it.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14And that was the day that the IRA said he was under arrest.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16I never seen him again.
0:24:16 > 0:24:17That was the last.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26The family said nothing to the police because they were afraid
0:24:26 > 0:24:30and because of rumours - thought to have been spread by the IRA -
0:24:30 > 0:24:33that Kevin was staying away of his own accord.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Those rumours suited the IRA.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41All you heard was, "Oh, we seen Kevin."
0:24:41 > 0:24:44If you went to ask anybody - "Oh, we seen him."
0:24:44 > 0:24:46You know, he was in art school or something like that.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49And then somebody said they seen him in England.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52It was too much for Kevin's mother Mary -
0:24:52 > 0:24:55she suffered a nervous breakdown.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58My sister didn't want to accept it.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Didn't want to accept that there was something wrong, so...
0:25:01 > 0:25:03I think she built it all up inside her,
0:25:03 > 0:25:05hoping that he was coming back every day.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11She imagined him places.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14She stopped cars. Asked to check the boots.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20And she was running everywhere looking for him,
0:25:20 > 0:25:22and getting us to come and getting the kids out of the house,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24getting their coats on at night -
0:25:24 > 0:25:26"He might be here and he might be there."
0:25:26 > 0:25:29And the kids were running about in the cold in the winter.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35So you were trying to deal with losing your brother
0:25:35 > 0:25:38and then you were trying to deal with your mother losing her mind
0:25:38 > 0:25:39over losing her son.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45The IRA held the men for weeks.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51Then one Friday, a surprise call to Mary McKee from her son
0:25:51 > 0:25:53gave her hope.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56He was calling from a town just across the border
0:25:56 > 0:25:57in the Irish Republic.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02My sister got a phone call - he was down in Monaghan
0:26:02 > 0:26:04and ringing from a priest's house,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06and he asked his mother if she'd come up.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08And that was on a Friday, and she's says,
0:26:08 > 0:26:10"You'll have to wait till Monday",
0:26:10 > 0:26:12because she didn't have a clue what was going on -
0:26:12 > 0:26:15she was in and out of the mental hospital.
0:26:15 > 0:26:16She didn't tell us till the Monday.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24When the family eventually set off to Monaghan, three days later,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27they expected to be reunited with Kevin.
0:26:28 > 0:26:33Me and my sister went down and my husband Jim along with Mary,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35brought him down clothes, and when we went to the door
0:26:35 > 0:26:36the man said, "He's not here.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39"He has just left and yous can take your clothes back with yous."
0:26:45 > 0:26:47I've discovered that house where Kevin McKee,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50possibly with Seamus Wright, was staying in.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53A terraced house in Monaghan Town.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01It was the home of Fergal O'Hanlon,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04a legendary IRA figure from the 1950s.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10The McKees say that it was his father that answered the door to them after Kevin phoned.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14I don't think Kevin knew that he was going to his death.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16I don't think so.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18Cos he wouldn't have asked for his clothes if he had've.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25Four decades later, Kevin's aunt and his sister Phil
0:27:25 > 0:27:30are going back to Monaghan, to the house that Kevin called them to.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37They're hoping for information that might help them find his remains.
0:27:40 > 0:27:45Ohhh.. Just a bit of a feeling coming over me, you know.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Whenever you know you are coming to the spot that he was.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50The last spot that we know where he was.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57A sister of Fergal O'Hanlon's lives in the house now.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00She had nothing to do with what happened to Kevin,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03but the McKees have written to her requesting a meeting.
0:28:10 > 0:28:11How did you feel in there?
0:28:11 > 0:28:15I was actually crying. I says, "To think that Kevin was here."
0:28:15 > 0:28:17She said, "Are you sure it was my father?"
0:28:17 > 0:28:19I said, "Yes, he addressed himself as Mr O'Hanlon."
0:28:19 > 0:28:23But she had no notion that her house was where Kevin was last heard of?
0:28:23 > 0:28:26No, she said, "Definitely, it's the first she's heard of it."
0:28:29 > 0:28:31He's missed by everybody
0:28:31 > 0:28:33and we just want to get his body back
0:28:33 > 0:28:35so that we can put his name on the grave
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and we can pray and just go up and tell him how sorry we are
0:28:39 > 0:28:41that we weren't there that Friday.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45So terrible me not going up that Friday.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48I feel awful Mary didn't tell us, you know, the Friday.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56SHE SIGHS HEAVILY
0:28:59 > 0:29:03The McKee's never heard from Kevin again.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05Seamus Wright also vanished.
0:29:12 > 0:29:17The practice of disappearing inconvenient bodies in the Irish countryside
0:29:17 > 0:29:22goes back to the 1920s and the Irish War of Independence.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27The practice was resurrected by the IRA in 1972.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Traditionally alleged informers were shot dead -
0:29:32 > 0:29:36bodies displayed on roadsides - as examples to all.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39The rules for informants are the same the world over.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44Veteran Republican Billy McKee knows those rules.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47He helped set up the Provisional IRA in 1969.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52I was OC Belfast Brigade.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54You were the boss man? Mm.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58Did you have many people working with you?
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Were there many in the IRA at the time?
0:30:01 > 0:30:05The IRA was never as strong since 1920,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08as it was when I was in charge.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13From your perspective - people knew the rules?
0:30:13 > 0:30:17Yes, you were warned about it when you joined the IRA.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21You were told all...what could happen to you, you could be arrested,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25imprisoned, beaten, taken away, shot dead somewhere...
0:30:27 > 0:30:30But you were warned not to inform.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33And you were told what the penalty was.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37At the time of the 1972 disappearances,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41Billy McKee was in jail and no longer in charge.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Looking back, what was the point of disappearing people?
0:30:45 > 0:30:48I couldn't tell you. I wasn't in command.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50I'd no say in the matter.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52I wasn't approached about it.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55It was up to the people that were in charge
0:30:55 > 0:30:57to do what they thought was right.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00They thought they were doing right. Well, it's up to them.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Billy McKee was from an older generation of IRA activists.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10Gerry Adams was part of the next generation -
0:31:10 > 0:31:13though he's always denied being a member.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Gerry Adams says he wasn't in the IRA.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Gerry Adams's speaking for himself.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22Was Gerry Adams in the IRA?
0:31:22 > 0:31:25Ask him will he come up and say that to me face to face.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34I understand that Gerry Adams joined the IRA around 1966.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37He rose up the ranks quickly.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Here he is accompanied by senior IRA men
0:31:40 > 0:31:42at the funeral of a volunteer in 1970.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Interned in Long Kesh prison camp -
0:31:47 > 0:31:53in June, 1972, the 23-year-old was released to represent the IRA
0:31:53 > 0:31:55in talks with the British government.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Later that same year - the bloodiest of the conflict -
0:32:04 > 0:32:09he was promoted to the post of OC - Officer Commanding -
0:32:09 > 0:32:12the top rank in the Belfast Brigade of the IRA.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Former IRA members from that era that I have spoken to,
0:32:18 > 0:32:20say that he was in charge there
0:32:20 > 0:32:24when Jean McConville was taken in December that year.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26Today Gerry Adams leads Sinn Fein
0:32:26 > 0:32:29and can claim to be the head of Irish Republicanism.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37Over the course of The Troubles at least 16 people were disappeared,
0:32:37 > 0:32:4315 of them by the IRA, who finally stopped the practice in 1981.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50The IRA's governing army council is said to have ordered an end to it.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56As for those disappeared -
0:32:56 > 0:32:59they were swallowed up in the silence of their unmarked graves.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06I knew winter cold Like the nuzzle of fjords At my thighs -
0:33:07 > 0:33:10The soaked fledge, the heavy Swaddle of hides.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17My skull hibernated In the wet nest of my hair.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32It was the IRA ceasefire of 1994 that changed everything.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34With the guns silent,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37the families of the disappeared could finally be heard.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43A campaign to recover the disappeared began -
0:33:43 > 0:33:44and it had powerful allies.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53Today there are families that have still not had the chance to grieve in peace,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56to visit the graves of their loved ones,
0:33:56 > 0:33:58to reunite after years of separation.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01It is time to allow families to be whole again.
0:34:08 > 0:34:14You first spoke about this back in 1995, and Gerry Adams was in the audience that day.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17Were you aware of it as an issue as far back then?
0:34:17 > 0:34:18I was,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21but I have to say that it was different and more personal to me
0:34:21 > 0:34:23once I actually met a real, live flesh-and-blood mother
0:34:23 > 0:34:25who was looking for her boy.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30That woman was Margaret McKinney
0:34:30 > 0:34:33whose son Brian was disappeared in 1978.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38She had succeeded in getting the ear and the support
0:34:38 > 0:34:41of the most powerful politician in the world.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45We were sitting outside the Oval Office
0:34:45 > 0:34:50and when the door opened, President Clinton and his wife was just there.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52I couldn't believe it.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55And he said to me that day, he says,
0:34:55 > 0:34:58I promise you, I'll help you find your son.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03She was a very impressive woman, I thought.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Just in her simple... love for her son,
0:35:07 > 0:35:12she was willing to go on with her life, but she wanted her baby back,
0:35:12 > 0:35:14so she could bury him properly.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17And he did, you know. He did help me.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20I will never forget President Clinton -
0:35:20 > 0:35:22he will always be my President.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28Margaret's son Brian and his friend John McClory
0:35:28 > 0:35:31had been accused of taking IRA weapons
0:35:31 > 0:35:32and using them in a robbery.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37The money had been paid back, but it made no difference.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42He was the one child you had to be very protective of,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45and his friends were very protective of him, too,
0:35:45 > 0:35:47for he was very childish.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51A great singer.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54His favourite was Engelbert Humperdinck -
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Please Release Me, Let Me Go.
0:35:59 > 0:36:04I know in my heart, too, he would have been crying out for me.
0:36:06 > 0:36:07Oh, God love him.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15President Clinton spoke to Gerry Adams who promised to help.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19It was around this time that a special IRA team
0:36:19 > 0:36:22was told to find the remains of the disappeared -
0:36:22 > 0:36:24and report back.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Fr Alec Reid, Adams's long-time friend and confidante,
0:36:28 > 0:36:30agreed to be an intermediary.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35The IRA leadership decided to help the families
0:36:35 > 0:36:38and these people who had disappeared.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42They spent one year looking for the IRA people who had dug the graves
0:36:42 > 0:36:45for these people, then they hoped they'd be able
0:36:45 > 0:36:48to lead people like me to where these bodies were.
0:36:52 > 0:36:57Fr Reid went on an odyssey of bog and death, and farce, too.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03I was taken to a country road - a remote country road -
0:37:03 > 0:37:05and told to wait there.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10And after a few minutes these two men in balaclavas came out of a wood.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Then they brought me to a field.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16A place the IRA uses as a shooting range, you know,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18for practising shooting.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20They brought us into this tent
0:37:20 > 0:37:24and they cooked sausages and rashers and fried eggs for us all
0:37:24 > 0:37:26in the middle of the night.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Why were you taken there?
0:37:29 > 0:37:32Because some of the bodies were there, you see.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35Then they brought me to a field,
0:37:35 > 0:37:37and they said there are two bodies here.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Look for a tree that's about 20 years old,
0:37:40 > 0:37:43and if you find one the bodies should be there.
0:37:43 > 0:37:44And then there was another one
0:37:44 > 0:37:48and the body had been buried in the front garden of the house.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56When the IRA decided they had found out as much as they could,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59nine families were contacted individually.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07Among them, the family of Columba McVeigh.
0:38:07 > 0:38:1219-year old Columba from Tyrone had disappeared in 1975.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16The IRA told his brother they'd killed and buried him.
0:38:17 > 0:38:22My immediate thoughts went back, how am I going to tell my mother this?
0:38:22 > 0:38:25It's probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life -
0:38:25 > 0:38:28and I mean that, with any shadow of a doubt -
0:38:28 > 0:38:31was to go and break that news.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Not, you know, that he was dead,
0:38:33 > 0:38:36but that this horrible thing that he'd been shot...
0:38:37 > 0:38:38..and buried like a dog.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42And I'll never forget the first words she said to me.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47You know, she says, "The bastards hadn't the balls to tell me herself."
0:38:47 > 0:38:51And I remember thinking, you know what - that's correct.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Afterwards the IRA issued a statement
0:39:02 > 0:39:06in which they admitted killing and disappearing nine people -
0:39:06 > 0:39:12Jean McConville, Columba McVeigh,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15over here wee Brian McKinney -
0:39:15 > 0:39:17and as far as they were concerned
0:39:17 > 0:39:20there weren't any others that they were responsible for.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22That wasn't to prove to be the case.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26But it did acknowledge that they'd caused incalculable pain and distress
0:39:26 > 0:39:30and they said here that they felt they'd established
0:39:30 > 0:39:33the burial sites of these people
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and that they hoped for a speedy retrieval of the bodies.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46Gerry Adams, almost completely recast as a statesman-in-waiting.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50was clearly committed to achieving this dramatic turnabout
0:39:50 > 0:39:51of IRA policy.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54The organisation had moved from burying people
0:39:54 > 0:39:56to helping to find them.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59These folks were killed,
0:39:59 > 0:40:01secretly buried,
0:40:01 > 0:40:05and their families didn't have a grave to go to.
0:40:06 > 0:40:12And I think that's, you know, a grave injustice to them.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15I think it is something which Republicans have acknowledged,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18certainly the IRA, for its part, has apologised.
0:40:18 > 0:40:24So it's very much an issue that Republicans have a responsibility,
0:40:24 > 0:40:29in my opinion, to rectify - in so far as that's possible
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and something which I have been trying to do for some time.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37Behind the scenes, in May 1999, a deal was done with
0:40:37 > 0:40:40the Irish and British governments to find the disappeared.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43IRA members could give information about the killings
0:40:43 > 0:40:46and burials without fear of prosecution.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53A matter of hours after the deal was formalised,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57the body of alleged IRA informant Eamon Molloy was recovered
0:40:57 > 0:41:02in a brand-new coffin at the ancient churchyard of Faughart
0:41:02 > 0:41:04on the southern side of the border.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08What was it like that day when you came here?
0:41:08 > 0:41:11It was an unusual and eerie scene, certainly one
0:41:11 > 0:41:15we'd never see before or never since either.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18About where we are now, when you look down, you could see a brand-new
0:41:18 > 0:41:21clean coffin sitting in the trees down there.
0:41:21 > 0:41:26That's the Blessed Tree and there's a Blessed Well at the back of it.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30The coffin had been left under the Sacred Tree of St Bridget,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33the patron saint of lost children.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37Eamon Molloy's family then discovered that before he'd been shot
0:41:37 > 0:41:40Eamon was given the last rites by a priest.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44The priest, now dead, told the family that Eamon wanted them
0:41:44 > 0:41:46to know that he wasn't an informer.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Searches began for the others.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59Did you guys think that, you know,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03"This was very easy, all the other finds will be just as simple"?
0:42:03 > 0:42:05Well, we knew that a number of digs were
0:42:05 > 0:42:08about to commence and, I suppose, the fact that this body was left
0:42:08 > 0:42:14here to be collected and taken away would lead one to believe that
0:42:14 > 0:42:17a number of bodies would be recovered in the short term.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22The victims' group WAVE, which continues to support
0:42:22 > 0:42:25the families today, helped them get their message out
0:42:25 > 0:42:26from the start.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30We don't want anybody prosecuted.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34We don't want anything other than to know the whereabouts of the bodies.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40Six weeks later, Margaret McKinney, who had
0:42:40 > 0:42:44taken her campaign to President Clinton, got her son back.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54In the first few shovelfuls was
0:42:54 > 0:42:55Brian's wee shoes
0:42:55 > 0:42:59and his wee mouth organ.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01He loved playing the mouth organ.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06God, how could they do that to him?
0:43:13 > 0:43:17And he is always with me, anyway, he's always with me.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23Brian was found in a double grave with
0:43:23 > 0:43:27his friend John McClory in County Monaghan just across the border.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34The deal with the IRA meant that no evidence could be
0:43:34 > 0:43:38collected at the burial sites for use in prosecution
0:43:38 > 0:43:41but the actual cause of death was recorded.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46You were involved quite a few of the cases of the disappeared.
0:43:46 > 0:43:47What's common?
0:43:47 > 0:43:49Those of us that worked on these cases
0:43:49 > 0:43:52were of the opinion that a vehicle had been used,
0:43:52 > 0:43:56that the person who was abducted and going to be murdered
0:43:56 > 0:43:59was brought to the location accompanied by probably two,
0:43:59 > 0:44:01three others.
0:44:01 > 0:44:02The person was bound.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06They were walked a short distance, probably to a grave that had
0:44:06 > 0:44:10been partially dug or was to be dug there and then, and the bodies
0:44:10 > 0:44:14were dumped and concealed in a shallow grave.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19In general, a single shot, probably a small calibre at the base of
0:44:19 > 0:44:23the skull, corresponding with the stem of the brain
0:44:23 > 0:44:27which would result in instantaneous death.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33In one or two instances, large stones had been placed on top of the body.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36Why was that? This may have been because in some of
0:44:36 > 0:44:41the summers of the past, which were very good, the bog shrinks
0:44:41 > 0:44:43and so your body may rise.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50When the digs began, that summer of 1999, the expectation
0:44:50 > 0:44:55among the families was that the disappeared would be found in days.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01Jean McConville's daughter Agnes dreamt about her mother,
0:45:01 > 0:45:04imagining her by a beach on Dundalk Bay.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09I had a dream one night,
0:45:09 > 0:45:11I heard this cry,
0:45:11 > 0:45:15and I see my mother with a headscarf on her...
0:45:17 > 0:45:20..and all I could hear was her saying, "I'm out on the beach,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23"please find me, I'm out on the beach, please find me."
0:45:27 > 0:45:30I went out to the beach to see out of curiosity,
0:45:30 > 0:45:32would there be any sign of her?
0:45:36 > 0:45:39And the following week
0:45:39 > 0:45:43I heard they were starting to dig out in Templetown.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47Agnes's dreams had led her
0:45:47 > 0:45:51right to where the IRA said they had buried her mother -
0:45:51 > 0:45:54Templetown beach on Dundalk Bay, where a search began.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01Six and a half weeks was a long, long time for
0:46:01 > 0:46:05anybody to be sitting, lying, waiting
0:46:05 > 0:46:07on their mother's remains.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18There wasn't a day went past I never brought flowers.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27The days seemed longer and longer.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29She wasn't there.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33We all said to ourselves, "We're never going to get her now"
0:46:33 > 0:46:36because they'd dug the whole beach up.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39And the worst thing was when we got the news
0:46:39 > 0:46:41that the dig was stopping.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46We were sure, 100% sure, that she was here, so we were.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52We were just heartbroken leaving this beach.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57The information was wrong.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Just three of the victims identified by the IRA were recovered
0:47:02 > 0:47:03that first year.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10Four more years passed before Jean McConville's body was found
0:47:10 > 0:47:14by a local man out walking on another beach nearby.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24And this was just plain, just sand.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29Just this spot where the bank and everything had fallen down
0:47:29 > 0:47:31and I just seen the piece of cloth.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35I pulled it up, and kept pulling, I could see, like, a pattern
0:47:35 > 0:47:37coming in the...
0:47:37 > 0:47:39In the fabric? In the fabric, yeah.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44And I put my hand down and I knew it was a bone.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49The first thing that came into my head was Jean McConville.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53I went over to the car and I got a little bottle of holy water.
0:47:57 > 0:47:58And I blessed...
0:48:01 > 0:48:03..and said a little prayer.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06I knew there was a body that had been laying there
0:48:06 > 0:48:09for a long time on their own. I just...
0:48:11 > 0:48:12I Just felt like I had to do it.
0:48:27 > 0:48:2931 years after she had been taken,
0:48:29 > 0:48:32Jean McConville's children were now able to grieve.
0:48:35 > 0:48:36BELL TOLLS
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Her funeral took her past Divis for the last time.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48By the standards of Republican west Belfast, it was a small affair.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52But her nine surviving children,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55long ago farmed out to various orphanages,
0:48:55 > 0:48:58came together to lay their mother to rest.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12Always wondering what was going
0:49:12 > 0:49:14through my mother's head.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18Knowing the steps what I'm taking there myself,
0:49:18 > 0:49:20that was the last steps of my mother's life
0:49:20 > 0:49:24which she was taking, coming down here to her death.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29I just can't get my head round it -
0:49:29 > 0:49:32how another human being can do this to another human being.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37We were going to be orphans when they done this here to us.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40When they killed our mother, they knew we'd be orphans,
0:49:40 > 0:49:42they knew there was nobody else to look after us.
0:49:42 > 0:49:43They knew what they were doing,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47and they knew what they were leaving behind...
0:49:47 > 0:49:48so they do.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53I just can't get my head round that, so I can't.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02The same nightmares are there all the time, seeing them coming in.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05It never goes away, so it doesn't.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11And the hurt's always there, too, so it is.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29The majority of those on the IRA's list were still missing.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33The promised cooperation was coming up short.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Maybe because some involved in the burials were dead, or the terrain
0:50:36 > 0:50:41had changed and also because some of the IRA just didn't want to help.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53But there were others who weren't even on the IRA list,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56like two men disappeared by the organisation
0:50:56 > 0:50:58in the borderlands of South Armagh.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05More than 150 members of the British security forces were killed
0:51:05 > 0:51:08in the countryside around the town of Crossmaglen.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12Here the IRA's South Armagh Brigade,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16waged a ruthless war by their own particular rules.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20If you fell foul of them everyone knew the consequences.
0:51:25 > 0:51:31Gerry Evans, 24, from Crossmaglen, was disappeared in 1979.
0:51:31 > 0:51:32He wasn't on the list
0:51:32 > 0:51:35because the IRA never admitted taking him.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40We did report him missing.
0:51:40 > 0:51:45They said maybe he'd turn up in a field somewhere, you know,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47in years to come.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51So that wasn't very nice.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54And you were afraid to ask anyone.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00But there was no-one coming forward with any information.
0:52:00 > 0:52:01There was a silence.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08And then Charlie was in the group out looking for him too -
0:52:08 > 0:52:10that's Charlie Armstrong.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Gerry's neighbour, Charlie Armstrong, was himself taken
0:52:16 > 0:52:19and disappeared two years later.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21His name wasn't on the IRA list either.
0:52:24 > 0:52:25I remember him making things.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28I remember the smell of sawdust, that would be
0:52:28 > 0:52:29the big thing with me.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32Whereas if we behaved ourselves we could sit up on the couch
0:52:32 > 0:52:35and he'd start making things on the floor, cutting it out,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37and I just loved the smell of the sawdust.
0:52:37 > 0:52:43He'd make dolls' houses, cribs, chapels, didn't matter what it was.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45He was always making something.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49He was just an ordinary man,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52he liked a wee gamble on the horses.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57Now and again.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02One Sunday morning, Charlie left on his regular mission
0:53:02 > 0:53:04to drive an elderly neighbour to mass.
0:53:06 > 0:53:07He was never heard of again.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11As with other victims, almost immediately,
0:53:11 > 0:53:16rumours began circulating that Charlie was alive and well.
0:53:17 > 0:53:19The family blame the IRA -
0:53:19 > 0:53:22a cynical ploy to keep them guessing.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25People saying he was seen sitting in a bar
0:53:25 > 0:53:28chatting two women up in Carrick.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32Another man said that he'd seen him getting off a bus in Drogheda.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36We checked them all out, there was nothing.
0:53:38 > 0:53:39Everybody went looking.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43We went round the roads every Sunday...
0:53:43 > 0:53:44Nothing.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47That went on for 29 years.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53The IRA remained silent.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57But in 2001 one individual appeared to break ranks
0:53:57 > 0:53:59and wrote to Kathleen.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Went up at lunch one day and my mother was in tears
0:54:03 > 0:54:06in the kitchen, and she says, "Look at this",
0:54:06 > 0:54:09addressed to the Armstrong family, Cullaville Road,
0:54:09 > 0:54:11it wasn't a stranger.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15And, um, it was just scrawled along,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19with the letters stating, "Why now, I don't know.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23"Charlie is buried three feet down,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26"50m or so off the road,"
0:54:26 > 0:54:28and a map roughly drawn.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31This first map was inaccurate.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35But by this time, a special forensic team had been set up
0:54:35 > 0:54:36to find the bodies.
0:54:39 > 0:54:44Sent more accurate maps, the team found Charlie in 2010,
0:54:44 > 0:54:46buried just across the border.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50We weren't sure whether it was him or not,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53and they took us out to Dundalk and they had all his...
0:54:53 > 0:54:55wee bits and pieces that he had.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58And every one of them I knew, they were...
0:55:01 > 0:55:03Even his shoes...
0:55:05 > 0:55:06..everything.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10Even his socks.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18It was wonderful in one way...
0:55:19 > 0:55:21Another way, it was very sad.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25I don't know how I got over it.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31But I was glad. Glad to have him back.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39Gerry Evans's body was found a few months later.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45"Whatever you say, say nothing" is a local mantra,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50but there is one man who knows this place and isn't afraid to speak up.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53Martin McAllister is a former member
0:55:53 > 0:55:55of the IRA's South Armagh Brigade,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58with the scars and the prison terms to prove it.
0:56:00 > 0:56:02Who carried out these disappearances?
0:56:02 > 0:56:06It would have been the local IRA, be in no doubt about that.
0:56:06 > 0:56:07Are you sure of that?
0:56:07 > 0:56:10Yeah, certainly, and the reason for disappearing him
0:56:10 > 0:56:11is a very simple one.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14The local community, ordinary decent people in Crossmaglen,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16would not have stood for it,
0:56:16 > 0:56:18would not have put up with it, would not have supported it.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23So, no claim, no blame. Everybody was aware what had happened to them.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27The fact that they didn't leave him at the side of the road,
0:56:27 > 0:56:29so to speak, maybe saved their own grace a little bit
0:56:29 > 0:56:32because they could say, "Well, we didn't do this."
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Another thing that would have been done very comprehensively
0:56:35 > 0:56:38would have been the rumour mill would have been started.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40You know, to try and kill the story off.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42Such as they've disappeared here or there or they were spotted in
0:56:42 > 0:56:45such a town and such a place in England or whatever.
0:56:45 > 0:56:47All absolute nonsense. None of it.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49All it did was add more distress to
0:56:49 > 0:56:53the families of the people concerned, huge distress to the people.
0:56:57 > 0:57:02The IRA has never admitted the murders of Charlie Armstrong
0:57:02 > 0:57:04and Gerry Evans, why is that?
0:57:06 > 0:57:09Well, there are only two reasons for it.
0:57:09 > 0:57:15First of all, the IRA leadership didn't authorise that killing.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18The IRA leadership which carried out the investigation would have
0:57:18 > 0:57:23uncovered that and said that at the time, so whether the IRA
0:57:23 > 0:57:28didn't kill Gerard Evans and Charlie Armstrong, they were killed by
0:57:28 > 0:57:31others, which could include other Republicans.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34It could even include local Republicans.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37But everyone knows they were killed by the IRA.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39Well, you know, again, I am not going to speculate.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42You asked me the question, I'm giving you...
0:57:42 > 0:57:45I know, but you know they were killed by the IRA. No, I don't.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Gerry Adams says he can't be sure that the IRA was responsible.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54Well, there's lots of things in your life that you can't be certain of.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57I can't be certain the sun's going to come up in the morning but I
0:57:57 > 0:57:59could put money on it, you know. It's as simple as that.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04I think Gerry Adams, perhaps... He chooses, maybe, to come up with
0:58:04 > 0:58:07that answer as opposed to facing the reality that he himself has
0:58:07 > 0:58:11been told lies by them here locally and perhaps he wants to believe it.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18A local IRA source told me that Charlie Armstrong
0:58:18 > 0:58:23was not an informer but often dallied about the town square
0:58:23 > 0:58:26and someone decided he might have seen something
0:58:26 > 0:58:27that he shouldn't have.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33He was very close to you all of those years, too, wasn't he?
0:58:33 > 0:58:36Yes, three miles as the crow flies.
0:58:36 > 0:58:37You'd be here in a few minutes.
0:58:42 > 0:58:44How was your father killed?
0:58:45 > 0:58:49The half of his head was missing, half a skull.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52The hands and his feet were tied to the front, which meant that he was
0:58:52 > 0:58:57killed and then tied up and dropped off.
0:58:57 > 0:59:00The IRA have never admitted killing your dad, have they?
0:59:00 > 0:59:03No, he wasn't mentioned at all.
0:59:06 > 0:59:11I believe I know the people who done it and I'll always know them.
0:59:11 > 0:59:14And even the day of my father's funeral I had to thank
0:59:14 > 0:59:16those people.
0:59:16 > 0:59:18I felt it was something I had to do.
0:59:18 > 0:59:21I had to get up and thank whoever gave us that information.
0:59:24 > 0:59:27So would your mum ever come here, come here to see this?
0:59:27 > 0:59:30No, no, she would prefer to go to the grave than think
0:59:30 > 0:59:32of him lying out here.
0:59:32 > 0:59:33Where he should never have been.
0:59:33 > 0:59:35He never should have been out here.
0:59:49 > 0:59:50Charlie, help me down the steps.
0:59:53 > 0:59:57Thank you, Charlie, for helping me down the steps.
1:00:01 > 1:00:02Thank you, Charlie.
1:00:05 > 1:00:08Charlie, are you listening?
1:00:08 > 1:00:12That's right, you are. God bless you and take care.
1:00:31 > 1:00:34Recovering the dead has been a protracted
1:00:34 > 1:00:36and often disappointing process.
1:00:38 > 1:00:42This summer the only active search was for Columba McVeigh.
1:00:43 > 1:00:48In 1999, his brother was told that his burial site had been identified.
1:00:48 > 1:00:5114 years on, his remains are still to be found.
1:00:52 > 1:00:56He's supposed to be buried at Braggan bog in Monaghan.
1:00:57 > 1:00:59Earlier searches here have failed,
1:00:59 > 1:01:03but this time the specialist search team was cautiously optimistic.
1:01:12 > 1:01:17Columba's sister Dympna has one keepsake of him -
1:01:17 > 1:01:18a present he gave to their mother.
1:01:18 > 1:01:21CHIMES OF GALWAY BAY
1:01:21 > 1:01:22Galway Bay.
1:01:24 > 1:01:26This was in the glass cabinet.
1:01:26 > 1:01:30That kept pride of place. Columba bought her that.
1:01:30 > 1:01:32Can't hear that song now.
1:01:32 > 1:01:33Can't listen to that song now.
1:01:42 > 1:01:45The IRA branded him an informer
1:01:45 > 1:01:48but to Dympna he will always be a younger brother.
1:01:50 > 1:01:551975, that's Columba in the armchair with his legs crossed.
1:01:55 > 1:01:57He looks in total charge of his world there.
1:01:57 > 1:02:00Oh, he was always in total charge of everything.
1:02:00 > 1:02:03That was his... His front? Yeah.
1:02:04 > 1:02:07I've always said he was dead from day one,
1:02:07 > 1:02:10when he was missing. I've always said he was dead.
1:02:11 > 1:02:15And why did I say he was dead? Because he needed my mum too much.
1:02:15 > 1:02:16He could not have stayed away.
1:02:18 > 1:02:21You've heard the thing about "attached to apron strings"?
1:02:21 > 1:02:24He was tied to mummy's apron strings.
1:02:25 > 1:02:29She was living, wasn't she, to see her son home?
1:02:29 > 1:02:31God, yeah. But it wasn't to be.
1:02:31 > 1:02:32No.
1:02:33 > 1:02:36I never done anything to the IRA.
1:02:36 > 1:02:39Neither did me mum, so why are they torturing us?
1:02:41 > 1:02:4638 years on and they're still torturing us. And that's what it is.
1:02:46 > 1:02:48How would you feel if it was your brother?
1:02:49 > 1:02:53Have you been to Braggan? Have you been to the bog? No. No.
1:02:53 > 1:02:54Refuse to go. Why?
1:02:57 > 1:03:00Cos I've got an image in my head.
1:03:06 > 1:03:08An image of...Columba?
1:03:08 > 1:03:12Hm-mm. The way he was?
1:03:12 > 1:03:13No.
1:03:20 > 1:03:24I've got an image in my head of Columba standing there, crying...
1:03:26 > 1:03:28..looking into a hole.
1:03:31 > 1:03:32Nobody got to say goodbye to him.
1:03:41 > 1:03:45Braggan, where Columba is thought to have been shot and buried,
1:03:45 > 1:03:50is, like most of the burial sites, isolated, miles from anywhere.
1:03:53 > 1:03:56Tied up, guns pressed to your side,
1:03:56 > 1:03:58your last minutes alive.
1:03:58 > 1:04:01It might make a lovely drive on a summer's day
1:04:01 > 1:04:03but not this night.
1:04:06 > 1:04:08As quiet as rural Ireland gets,
1:04:08 > 1:04:13a terrifyingly lonely place being driven to your certain death.
1:04:18 > 1:04:22In the absence of fresh information, other searches have been abandoned.
1:04:22 > 1:04:26Like that for Kevin McKee and Seamus Wright,
1:04:26 > 1:04:29who were said to have been buried in County Meath less than
1:04:29 > 1:04:3340 miles from Dublin city centre.
1:04:33 > 1:04:34They were the pair who were
1:04:34 > 1:04:38accused of informing on the IRA but who had later helped them
1:04:38 > 1:04:42ambush the British Army's undercover Four Square Laundry operation.
1:04:43 > 1:04:47I've been trying to piece together the crucial events in the last
1:04:47 > 1:04:48months of their lives.
1:04:50 > 1:04:55The IRA leader who dealt with them in 1972, Brendan Hughes,
1:04:55 > 1:04:57said they should never have been killed.
1:04:59 > 1:05:02The following explanation from Hughes himself has never been
1:05:02 > 1:05:04broadcast before.
1:05:05 > 1:05:08You had to understand that McKee and Wright
1:05:08 > 1:05:12believed themselves to be... have immunity.
1:05:13 > 1:05:14They were given that.
1:05:15 > 1:05:17They were taken away across the border.
1:05:17 > 1:05:21I mean, they were held for weeks and weeks and weeks, across the border.
1:05:24 > 1:05:28Kevin, remember, was just 17 - a kid.
1:05:28 > 1:05:33Most his age have a lifetime to make and atone for mistakes.
1:05:34 > 1:05:37Brendan Hughes bitterly regretted what happened next.
1:05:42 > 1:05:47Actually, McKee, the people who were holding him...
1:05:47 > 1:05:51liked him. Good cook, good craic,
1:05:51 > 1:05:56and the order was given for them to be put down, right.
1:05:56 > 1:06:00I didn't give the order. I felt betrayed to some extent.
1:06:01 > 1:06:03Now this is hearsay on my behalf.
1:06:03 > 1:06:08The people who were holding them liked them and couldn't execute them
1:06:08 > 1:06:13and people were sent from Belfast to do the actual execution.
1:06:13 > 1:06:17There was no purpose in it, it was pure revenge, I think.
1:06:20 > 1:06:23Brendan Hughes also explained that Gerry Adams was
1:06:23 > 1:06:26involved at this time, planning IRA attacks against the army
1:06:26 > 1:06:31intelligence teams that Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee had revealed.
1:06:31 > 1:06:36Brendan Hughes doesn't accuse him of having any part in their deaths.
1:06:36 > 1:06:40But if he is correct, wouldn't Gerry Adams have known about their role?
1:06:41 > 1:06:44Did you know Kevin McKee?
1:06:44 > 1:06:46Did I know Kevin McKee? Ballymurphy lad.
1:06:46 > 1:06:48I know where he's from.
1:06:48 > 1:06:50I know his family well.
1:06:50 > 1:06:55I can't say I know him, person to person, but I know his family,
1:06:55 > 1:07:00I know his...siblings.
1:07:00 > 1:07:04Did you know him as a young lad in Ballymurphy?
1:07:04 > 1:07:08Not that I can recall, but I may have, but I can't recall that.
1:07:08 > 1:07:11Did you know Seamus Wright? I know the Wright family.
1:07:11 > 1:07:18Again, I know his siblings - very strong Republican family,
1:07:18 > 1:07:21Did you hear what happened to them back then in 1972,
1:07:21 > 1:07:26did you hear that they had been involved in the Four Square Laundry?
1:07:26 > 1:07:30Yes, there were rumours about, there always are.
1:07:30 > 1:07:34There always are rumours when something happens.
1:07:34 > 1:07:39But you were a seriously-placed Republican leader in Belfast
1:07:39 > 1:07:43in 1972, you have written about the Four Square Laundry operation
1:07:43 > 1:07:47in glowing terms, I assume you must have heard about these two men
1:07:47 > 1:07:49and their involvement in it back then, did you?
1:07:49 > 1:07:52I am assuming you did, but maybe you didn't...
1:07:52 > 1:07:55I learnt a long time ago, if you don't ask you can't tell,
1:07:55 > 1:07:58and you are also talking about very turbulent times.
1:07:58 > 1:08:00Did you not know that Seamus Wright,
1:08:00 > 1:08:02whose relatives were well known to you,
1:08:02 > 1:08:04did you not know that Seamus Wright had disappeared?
1:08:04 > 1:08:08Nobody knows these things, Darragh... But you knew his family.
1:08:08 > 1:08:11Hold on a second, what sort of world do you live in?
1:08:11 > 1:08:14Kevin McKee's mum was looking for him, the entire
1:08:14 > 1:08:16family searching for him.
1:08:16 > 1:08:19Please bear with me. Do you not live in the real world?
1:08:19 > 1:08:22People go off, people disappear,
1:08:22 > 1:08:26people bring back reports of having seen such and such a person.
1:08:29 > 1:08:32But what about Jean McConville, the mother of ten
1:08:32 > 1:08:34that disappeared in 1972?
1:08:42 > 1:08:44After she was found in 2003,
1:08:44 > 1:08:48her family persuaded the police ombudsman to inquire into
1:08:48 > 1:08:53why there had been no proper police investigation in the first place.
1:08:57 > 1:09:00The reason they didn't start an investigation was that
1:09:00 > 1:09:03that area was so dangerous that they only investigated
1:09:03 > 1:09:07what they called serious crimes and they clearly didn't regard...
1:09:09 > 1:09:11..poor Jean McConville's abduction as a serious crime.
1:09:15 > 1:09:19As part of her inquiry, Nuala Oloan wanted to
1:09:19 > 1:09:22establish the truth about claims that Jean McConville
1:09:22 > 1:09:23was an informant.
1:09:25 > 1:09:28There were two main allegations - that she had revealed
1:09:28 > 1:09:33the whereabouts of a gun or that she had concealed Army transmitters.
1:09:35 > 1:09:37Both were false, according to Nuala Oloan.
1:09:40 > 1:09:41Why was she disappeared?
1:09:41 > 1:09:45I think she was the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
1:09:45 > 1:09:49She was an East Belfast Protestant, they had moved across
1:09:49 > 1:09:51to West Belfast,
1:09:51 > 1:09:56and there were suspicions, the laundry vans incident
1:09:56 > 1:10:01had occurred where the British Army were collecting information,
1:10:01 > 1:10:05and there were suspicions about informants and I think that because
1:10:05 > 1:10:08she was not one of them...
1:10:08 > 1:10:11they just decided to make an example of her.
1:10:11 > 1:10:12She was not an informant.
1:10:19 > 1:10:23Murder is sometimes a solitary act.
1:10:23 > 1:10:25Not Jean McConville's.
1:10:25 > 1:10:27It's thought that up to 20 people
1:10:27 > 1:10:29may have been involved in her killing.
1:10:31 > 1:10:34A source who believes their life would be at risk
1:10:34 > 1:10:37if identified told me that Jean was held
1:10:37 > 1:10:39and interrogated close to her home,
1:10:39 > 1:10:42never more than three quarters of a miles away.
1:10:43 > 1:10:48She was held for up to six days in Belfast - not for interrogation
1:10:48 > 1:10:52but to finalise the logistics of disappearing her.
1:10:52 > 1:10:56A team to drive her across the border, a team to shoot her,
1:10:56 > 1:10:58a team to dig her grave.
1:10:59 > 1:11:03For certain, the IRA believed she was an informant
1:11:03 > 1:11:06but this doesn't explain why she was disappeared.
1:11:09 > 1:11:14Billy McKee, the former IRA Belfast commander, wasn't in charge then,
1:11:14 > 1:11:16but he knows what he would have done.
1:11:16 > 1:11:19Would you have buried Jean McConville? No.
1:11:19 > 1:11:22I'm telling you I wouldn't have buried them.
1:11:22 > 1:11:25I would have executed her all right, no problem,
1:11:25 > 1:11:27but I would not have buried her.
1:11:27 > 1:11:29Sinn Fein have told me that the policy
1:11:29 > 1:11:32of disappearing people was a policy
1:11:32 > 1:11:35inherited from the old men of the IRA,
1:11:35 > 1:11:38the men from the 1940s and the 1950s campaign. Is that true?
1:11:38 > 1:11:40That's a goddamn lie.
1:11:41 > 1:11:46In my time, I never knew anybody to be buried.
1:11:46 > 1:11:49Executed, yes, but not to be buried.
1:11:49 > 1:11:51They were never disappeared.
1:11:53 > 1:11:56Not in the '40s, not in the '50s.
1:11:59 > 1:12:00But why are they telling it?
1:12:03 > 1:12:05They would near tell you they weren't involved
1:12:05 > 1:12:06in the campaign at any time.
1:12:08 > 1:12:11That's confounded lies, what they're saying.
1:12:15 > 1:12:19Alone of the disappeared, Jean McConville's killing
1:12:19 > 1:12:21is a live police investigation.
1:12:21 > 1:12:25This is in large part because she was found by a member of the public,
1:12:25 > 1:12:29so the special deal with the IRA doesn't apply.
1:12:30 > 1:12:33So who ordered her death and disappearance?
1:12:34 > 1:12:38Republican sources who don't want to be identified
1:12:38 > 1:12:43have told me that a special Belfast IRA intelligence team was in charge.
1:12:43 > 1:12:46This unit has been called The Unknowns.
1:12:47 > 1:12:50One of its members was Dolours Price.
1:12:50 > 1:12:54Once very close to Gerry Adams, she became bitterly critical of him.
1:12:54 > 1:12:59She struggled with illness but, before her death earlier this year,
1:12:59 > 1:13:03she did a number of interviews in which she admitted driving
1:13:03 > 1:13:05Jean McConville across the border.
1:13:05 > 1:13:10She also admitted helping to disappear three others in 1972.
1:13:11 > 1:13:16Crucially, she said she was acting under the orders of Gerry Adams.
1:13:19 > 1:13:23Brendan Hughes - once said to have loved Gerry Adams as a brother -
1:13:23 > 1:13:27goes even further. He admitted being involved in the IRA's
1:13:27 > 1:13:31investigation of Jean McConville, but says the responsibility
1:13:31 > 1:13:33for her death lies with Gerry Adams.
1:13:37 > 1:13:43BRENDAN HUGHES:
1:14:15 > 1:14:19More than 40 years after her death, the circumstances
1:14:19 > 1:14:22of Jean McConville's killing still follow Gerry Adams...
1:14:22 > 1:14:23OVERLAPPING
1:14:24 > 1:14:27..though he insists he had no knowledge of her then.
1:14:27 > 1:14:31I would love to hear you speak the truth about some elements
1:14:31 > 1:14:33of your past, Deputy Adams.
1:14:33 > 1:14:36Cut out the waffle and have some straight talk.
1:14:36 > 1:14:39Perhaps you might someday tell the truth about
1:14:39 > 1:14:42the tragedy and about the remorse
1:14:42 > 1:14:45and the compassion that should have been shown to Jean McConville.
1:14:45 > 1:14:49Maybe you might do that, Deputy Adams. You might do that sometime.
1:14:49 > 1:14:51OVERLAPPING
1:14:52 > 1:14:56Brendan Hughes has alleged that there was only one man
1:14:56 > 1:14:59who gave the order for "that woman", meaning Jean McConville,
1:14:59 > 1:15:04to be executed. That man is now the head of Sinn Fein.
1:15:04 > 1:15:07That's what Brendan Hughes has said.
1:15:07 > 1:15:10Did you give the order for the execution of Jean McConville
1:15:10 > 1:15:11as he claims?
1:15:11 > 1:15:17No, I had no act or part to play in either the abduction, the killing
1:15:17 > 1:15:20or the burial of Jean McConville
1:15:20 > 1:15:22or indeed any of these other individuals
1:15:22 > 1:15:25and Brendan is telling lies,
1:15:25 > 1:15:26and himself and Dolours Price,
1:15:26 > 1:15:30opponents of the Sinn Fein leadership,
1:15:30 > 1:15:34opponents of our strategy,
1:15:34 > 1:15:37from their point of view and obviously I profoundly disagree,
1:15:37 > 1:15:42they see us as having sold out, they see us as being traitors
1:15:42 > 1:15:47and they also have their own demons to deal with,
1:15:47 > 1:15:50so all of this and these allegations have to be set in that context.
1:15:59 > 1:16:02Brendan Hughes's recordings were made as part
1:16:02 > 1:16:05of an American history project based at Boston College.
1:16:14 > 1:16:17I wanted to get insight into the thinking of Brendan Hughes,
1:16:17 > 1:16:22his motivation for accusing his once close friend of the killing
1:16:22 > 1:16:24and disappearance of Jean McConville.
1:16:42 > 1:16:45I think what motivated Brendan Hughes
1:16:45 > 1:16:48in coming forward and talking about this sort of thing
1:16:48 > 1:16:53was his anger at Gerry Adams's denial of his own past and their shared past
1:16:53 > 1:16:55as senior figures in the IRA,
1:16:55 > 1:17:01and Brendan Hughes, I think, was very strongly influenced by the fact
1:17:01 > 1:17:04that there was Gerry Adams denying
1:17:04 > 1:17:07that he had given orders to Brendan Hughes
1:17:07 > 1:17:09to do certain things,
1:17:09 > 1:17:13when both Brendan Hughes and Gerry Adams knew that this has happened.
1:17:13 > 1:17:16And I think that denial angered him
1:17:16 > 1:17:19and I think angered other people
1:17:19 > 1:17:22and, in his case, persuaded him to actually take a big step
1:17:22 > 1:17:26and give this interview to Boston College.
1:17:28 > 1:17:31Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes are both dead.
1:17:33 > 1:17:35In Ireland I established contact
1:17:35 > 1:17:38with another former senior IRA figure
1:17:38 > 1:17:41whose identity I have agreed to keep secret.
1:17:41 > 1:17:44It was stated to me that Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes
1:17:44 > 1:17:46were telling the truth.
1:17:47 > 1:17:52It's not just people like Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price
1:17:52 > 1:17:56that make these allegations about you and Jean McConville.
1:17:56 > 1:18:00I have learnt from a top Republican source
1:18:00 > 1:18:06that you were in fact the Belfast Brigade commander
1:18:06 > 1:18:10when Jean McConville was taken, murdered and executed
1:18:10 > 1:18:13and that you in fact were ultimately responsible.
1:18:13 > 1:18:16You, as Belfast commander,
1:18:16 > 1:18:18as the OC in Belfast of the IRA,
1:18:18 > 1:18:21were ultimately responsible for her fate,
1:18:21 > 1:18:23because the unit, the intelligence unit,
1:18:23 > 1:18:25some people call it The Unknowns,
1:18:25 > 1:18:28that took her away, that dealt with her,
1:18:28 > 1:18:31answered to one person and that person was you.
1:18:31 > 1:18:35Well, that's just a recycling of the same story, that's not true, Darragh.
1:18:35 > 1:18:39But I've been told... Come here, you can repeat it ad nauseam,
1:18:39 > 1:18:41I'm telling you it's not true.
1:18:41 > 1:18:44Do you regret what happened to her? My focus...
1:18:44 > 1:18:46Do you regret it from a personal perspective?
1:18:46 > 1:18:49Bear with me. My focus is in trying to do what I can
1:18:49 > 1:18:57as an individual to bring those remaining bodies to the families
1:18:57 > 1:19:00who grieve them and who want a burial place to go to.
1:19:00 > 1:19:03Of course I regret. Of course.
1:19:03 > 1:19:06One wouldn't be a thinking, living human being
1:19:06 > 1:19:08if one didn't have regret.
1:19:08 > 1:19:11Do you bear any responsibility for what happened to these people?
1:19:11 > 1:19:13All of us bear a responsibility,
1:19:13 > 1:19:15those of us who are in leadership
1:19:15 > 1:19:17and I have never shirked that.
1:19:18 > 1:19:23Gerry Adams and some in the IRA have attempted to atone
1:19:23 > 1:19:26for the wrong done to the families of the disappeared.
1:19:26 > 1:19:31But certain wrongs can never be undone or made right.
1:19:37 > 1:19:40MICKEY McCONVILLE: I can't remember a time
1:19:40 > 1:19:42when there wasn't pigeons around the family.
1:19:44 > 1:19:47It puts me back to my childhood memories what were happy,
1:19:47 > 1:19:49when we were all together.
1:19:51 > 1:19:54I will always hope to get the truth.
1:19:54 > 1:19:57It's one of things that I am fighting for, is to get the truth,
1:19:57 > 1:19:58why they killed my mother.
1:19:58 > 1:20:00It was wrong.
1:20:00 > 1:20:04They made us suffer all them years not knowing where she was.
1:20:08 > 1:20:10I suppose they'll have to answer for it someday.
1:20:26 > 1:20:28When I send them away,
1:20:28 > 1:20:31they always return home, they always come back to me.
1:20:42 > 1:20:47The latest dig for Columba McVeigh has again ended in failure.
1:20:52 > 1:20:55Four of the six IRA victims not found
1:20:55 > 1:20:57are thought to be buried in bogs
1:20:57 > 1:21:00in County Meath in the heart of Ireland,
1:21:00 > 1:21:02like here at Orristown.
1:21:07 > 1:21:10All the families can do for those still missing
1:21:10 > 1:21:13is hope for new and better information.
1:21:27 > 1:21:31Just look at the size of it. It's hundreds of acres.
1:21:31 > 1:21:34How on earth are you going to find somebody?
1:21:36 > 1:21:42And all you're looking of course now is for some bone, dyed turf brown.
1:21:42 > 1:21:46Maybe a belt buckle or a shoe.
1:21:47 > 1:21:52But in a place this size you could be digging from now until doomsday
1:21:52 > 1:21:54and never find somebody.
1:22:08 > 1:22:13It's clear that certain people are still holding on to secrets,
1:22:13 > 1:22:15but secrets kept die,
1:22:15 > 1:22:17secrets told can heal.
1:22:21 > 1:22:26One day, maybe the bogs of Ireland will give up their dead,
1:22:26 > 1:22:29but before then certainly, there will be time
1:22:29 > 1:22:34to contemplate the truths of our historic conflict.
1:22:36 > 1:22:38SEAMUS HEANEY: The plait of my hair
1:22:38 > 1:22:42a slimy birth-cord of bog, had been cut
1:22:42 > 1:22:44and I arose from the dark,
1:22:44 > 1:22:47hacked bone, skull-ware,
1:22:47 > 1:22:50frayed stitches, tufts,
1:22:50 > 1:22:52small gleams on the bank.
1:24:09 > 1:24:12Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd