The IRA has made a genuine attempt to help locate the bodies of people abducted, killed and buried during the Troubles, Sinn Féin leader Mr Gerry Adams insisted today.
Mr Adams says he hopes an end can be brought to the agony of the families of Jean McConville and Columba McVeigh.
Revealing that he had held two meetings with the families of the "disappeared", the west Belfast MP said he hoped the remains of a woman found on Shelling Hill Beach in Co Louth turned out to be those of mother-of-ten Mrs McConville.She was abducted from her home in the Lower Falls area of Belfast by the IRA on December 7th 1972 and was later killed.
"I hope this brings closure to her family," Mr Adams said. "I have long thought that the families of these people who were killed and those whose remains were buried have suffered a dreadful injustice.
"I think that the IRA has made genuine efforts to try and bring closure for the families involved."
In a statement released last night, the IRA said it had worked to identify the graves of the "disappeared". The IRA said it had done "all within our power" to pinpoint the unmarked burial places of nine IRA victims who disappeared between 1972 and 1981. It denied involvement in the disappearance of several other people during that period.
But the Government has denied any new information was provided. A Government spokesman said discussions had been ongoing with Sinn Féin in relation to IRA victims' remains.
However, he insisted the remains discovered last week had been found by a passerby and said any information received on the location of remains would not have resulted in the discovery made at Shelling Hill beach. The location was a half mile away from the location originally pinpointed as the site where Ms McConville had been buried.
Ms McConville was a Protestant disowned by her family for marrying a Catholic. The IRA claimed she was an informer, although her family has denied this and believes she was killed by the IRA for comforting a wounded British soldier.
The Sinn Féin president also said he was prepared to help locate Armagh man Mr Gareth O'Connor (24), whom the Provisionals have denied kidnapping. He was awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in teh "Real IRA". The man's family and PSNI chief Hugh Orde have both blamed the Provisional IRA.
Mr O'Connor's father Mark said his son had been involved in a financial dispute with the Provisionals before his disappearance.