SEARCH RESUMES IN BRAGAN FOR REMAINS OF COLUMBA McVEIGH

Investigators Hopeful of a Successful Conclusion

Michael Fisher “When it’s wet, it’s so difficult to work on this (bogland) terrain; it’s very much like you’re standing on porridge,” senior investigator Jon Hill from the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains told me.

Seven months ago, we stood at the same site on Bragan mountain near Carrickroe when the Commission announced it was suspending the search for the remains of one of the ‘disappeared’, Columba McVeigh, as the winter drew on. “The light and the weather are the two conditions that constrain us the most,” Mr Hill explained. “In November time, we were dramatically losing light so we couldn’t start early enough and we were finishing too early, and of course there are the weather conditions. When it’s wet, the terrain is very much like porridge.

And yet you have a few days of dry or sunny weather and it becomes stable again. So we are relying on the good weather.” Ironically, it was very wet on Tuesday morning when the team resumed their work in the bogland of Bragan. “Of course in summer, albeit it’s wet, it’s still warmer than it is in November. So….