The body of a man has been discovered in Co Monaghan. The body is believed to be that of an innocent man, Charlie Armstrong, who was murdered by the Provisional IRA and secretly buried in Monaghan in the 1980s.
A project team with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains discovered the man's body earlier today.
The partial remains have yet to be formally identified, but they are believed to be that of Charlie Armstrong who went missing from the Crossmaglen area of Co Armagh in the early 1980s.
Gardai and the Minister for Justice have been informed of the find, and efforts are now underway to firmly establish the identity of the man so that his family can be informed.
The Independent Commission began a process Charlie Armstrong’s family watched unfold before them over the past few months. For several months the team of experts concentrated on an area of bog and gorse at Inniskeen, just a couple of miles from the family home. The commission was prompted to act by an anonymous map, sent to the family, which claimed he’d been buried there.
It was the second map the family had received. The first showed a slightly different location. It’s the fact that both maps highlight the same area that gives the Armstrong’s hope that they’ve been directed to the right place. All they need now is help to pinpoint the exact location.
Bodies found in bog:
The area where it’s believed Charlie Armstrong’s body is hidden had been used for that very purpose before. In 1999, the remains of two of the Disappeared, John McClory and Brian McKinney were found in a bog across the road from the site searched for Mr Armstrong.
Charlie Armstrong disappeared in 1981. A man who sometimes taxied for neighbours, he was on his way to pick up a lady for Mass when he went missing. Many believe he stumbled into an IRA operation and that his killing was neither sanctioned nor intentional. His family think he may have been killed by accident when he tried to stop his car being hijacked by armed men.
The death of a well-known and popular man would have caused major embarrassment for the republican movement in an area where it enjoyed substantial local support. It’s perhaps for that reason that the death was covered up and responsibility for it – even to this day - has never been acknowledged.
It is not known how many men, women and children were kidnapped, murdered and secretly buried by Sinn Fein/IRA, however, it is known that the body of 17 year old school boy Columbia Mc Veigh who was murdered by the PIRA still remains undiscovered in north Monaghan.
