The family of a teenager abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA are meeting with DUP leader Dr Ian Paisley today in an attempt to win support for their efforts to recover the remains of their son.
The meeting was arranged by DUP Assembly member Lord Morrow after Monsignor Denis Faul sent a message from his deathbed earlier this year to Dr Paisley to champion the cause of families whose loved ones were abducted by the Provisionals and whose remains have not been found.
Mr McVeigh said: "We would hope he [Dr Paisley] would be able to apply more pressure on Sinn Féin/IRA and on the British and Irish governments to find not just Columba's remains but the other remains.
"Closure for our family will not just come with Columba's body being returned. We want to see all the bodies come back, including the two people the Provisionals have not admitted abducting."
Mr McVeigh paid tribute today to Monsignor Faul, who died at 74 after a long battle with cancer. "The fact that he went to Ian Paisley for help speaks volumes," he said. "He was a remarkable person and very determined to see this resolved - even from his deathbed."
In 1999, the IRA admitted Columba McVeigh's murder. A two-week search for his body took place along a mountainside bog on the southern side of the Irish Border near Emyvale, Co Monaghan, after the Provisionals passed on information about where his body was believed to be buried.
However, gardaí did not recover the body.