Hundreds gathered at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin, on Wednesday to mark National Missing Persons Day, a commemorative event when the family and friends of missing people come together.
Now in its 13th year, the event also provides a platform to appeal to the public for information on missing people.
Oliver McVeigh, brother of Columba McVeigh, who was 19 when he was abducted on October 31st, 1975, was one of the family members appealing for information. Although first believed missing, the IRA admitted to abducting and murdering Columba in a statement read out to Oliver in 1998.
He is one of 17 people known as the Disappeared, who were similarly abducted and buried in secret locations around Ireland.
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“The word disappeared is very final, you know he’s dead,” a certainty he noted that for many families in the room is not felt. However, not until his Columba’s body is found will Mr McVeigh feel there is a “full stop” over his disappearance.
Mr McVeigh spoke of the mental and physical toll his brother’s disappearance took on their mother, Vera McVeigh, who died after suffering a stroke in 2007.
Six searches for Columba McVeigh have been carried out by The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) at Bragan Bog near Emyvale since 1999. A fresh dig got under way on bogland in Co Monaghan in August for the remains of the teenager from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone.
Expert teams have covered more than 10 hectares in their attempt to find his body. Speaking at Wednesday’s event, Mr McVeigh appealed to anyone who might have information that would finally help find him to come forward.
For Pauline Price, her “world turned upside down” almost 11 months ago when she heard “the words all parents dread”. Her son, Luke (27), had gone missing.
The year of “firsts” would be “especially difficult”, she said. “His birthday, Christmas, and the day he went missing ... it’s going to be an emotional couple of months”.
She remembers the first couple of months in their search for Luke as “a time fraught with expectation” where everyone was expecting the worst but hoping for the best. Luke was reported missing after being last seen in Limerick on January 14th, 2025, at 9pm.
Alan Bradley, who went missing from Maynooth in November 1999, would be 50 years old this year.
“His birthday just passed,” says his brother Jerry Bradley. There was one unconfirmed sighting of him on Christmas of 1999.
“We’re kind of at a stage now where we think we need to go again with it, to jog people’s memories.”
Addressing the event, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan announced that he would be seeking Government approval in the new year for legislation that would allow Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) to use more powerful DNA technology for identifying human remains.
“For the first time, the programme for Government commits to supporting national missing people day,” he said, noting the work of services and organisations including FSI, the coroner’s service and the missing people helpline.
Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said “hope and remembrance” were the themes that are central to national missing people day. Missing people reports in respect of almost 3,900 individuals have been made so far this year, he said.
“In Ireland, every missing people case remains open until we can bring it to a conclusion. This is not the case in all other jurisdictions.”
He encouraged those in attendance to consider submitting a DNA sample to the national missing person’s data base if they had not yet done so.
