The first "disappeared" body was found in a country graveyard just south of the Border yesterday morning. The remains were in a coffin which had never been below ground. It had been left underneath a sprawling rhododendron by St Brigid's Well.
Gardai were taken by surprise by the way in which they were told about the body. Instead of going through the Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, the IRA made contact with gardai through two priests. They went to Dundalk Garda station just after 7 a.m. yesterday.
Gardai accompanied them to Old Faughart Cemetery. Garda Supt John Farrelly said: "The information passed on was that what we would find down here would be one of the nine victims that had been missing between the years 1972 and 1976. I have no cause to doubt that information . . . The coffin has been taken to the city morgue."
There was no forensic examination of the area, nor evidence gathered. The legislation passed on Thursday night in relation to the Commission means that no evidence gained in recovery of the bodies can be used in a criminal prosecution.
The Commission formally came into being yesterday. Former Tanaiste Mr John Wilson is the representative of the Irish Government and Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, the former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, is the British representative.
Yesterday it emerged that the information passed to the Commission related to more than nine people.
As the coffin was taken to Dublin City morgue, the Commission released a statement saying it has been contacted by intermediaries who have indicated the location of certain graves.
"The Commission has given the knowledge of locations to the Garda Siochana. They will secure the sites and proceed with the exhumation."