The disappearance of Columba McVeigh features in a new TG4 documentary about missing people told through the eyes of their family and friends.
Relatives of the Co Tyrone teenager tell of their continuing heartbreak almost 50 years on from his abduction.
His siblings Oliver and Dympna look back on their search and the impact on their family, particularly their mother who died before her son could be found.
“Just imagine it yourself, a son of yours to be taken away, never to be seen again for years, it doesn’t bear even to be thinking about,” Oliver tells the programme.
It is part of a four-part documentary series, Ar Iarraidh, featuring interviews with people who have suffered the heartbreak of a missing loved one and how they continue to live with the ongoing grief, whilst trying to maintain hope.
The story of Columba’s disappearance looks back on him growing up in Donaghmore, with Oliver telling the programme his brother was a “happy-go-lucky fella, just making his way out in life, no different to any other teenager”.
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But living during the Troubles in the 1970s, as a vulnerable teenager, he became sucked into the conflict.
After British authorities were unable to draw any information about republican activity from Columba, it is believed he was used as bait to catch a prominent member of the IRA.
Columba was jailed and kept in the prison’s political wing where he endured horrific beatings.
Upon release he moved to Dublin, but was abducted, killed and secretly buried by the Provisional IRA on Halloween night 1975.
It wasn’t until 1998 that the IRA admitted it was responsible and Columba was named as one of The Disappeared.
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains has conducted six unsuccessful searches at Bragan Bog, Co Monaghan, covering more than 26 acres.
“Did he know how was going up there to die, what was he thinking,” Dympna tells the programme.
“I know Columba, Columba was a child and I know he would have been looking for our mother that day and I don’t care what anyone else tells me, I know he will have been crying.”
Columba’s mother, Vera, campaigned tirelessly for the return of his body. She died in 2007.
“My mother went fighting to her last days, trying to get Columba’s body buried inside here (in Donaghmore) and I’m not giving it on it,” said Oliver.
But he said “we are as far as ever if that wee bit of a jigsaw doesn’t come in”.
Dympna added: “I want to walk behind that lad’s coffin into Donaghmore chapel and I want to walk out behind it again up to the graveyard at Donaghmore and see it lowered into the grave.
“I’m not saying I won’t have a tear in my eye, but I promise you I would be the happiest woman alive that we could do what our mother asked us to do.”
Ar Iarraidh - Columba McVeigh airs on May 8 at 9.30pm on TG4 and on the TG4 Player.
