Commission launches fresh appeal to help find Disappeared victim Seamus Maguire

By David Young (PA)

An investigator tasked with finding a Disappeared victim of the Northern Ireland Troubles has appealed for the “vital piece” of information that will help end the bereaved family’s five decades of pain.

Seamus Maguire, who was 29 and from Aghagallon near the Co Armagh town of Lurgan, was murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries during the mid 1970s.

He is one of four people whose remains are still being searched for by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR).

The ICLVR has issued a fresh appeal in Mr Maguire’s case, as it revealed it did not yet have sufficient information to identify any potential search site.

While it was initially thought Mr Maguire was killed in either 1973 or 1974, the commission has now established that he was murdered in 1976 when he returned to Northern Ireland after spending time in Manchester.

The commission said he was secretly buried in the Aghagallon/Derryclone area.

Investigators said it was not clear which wing of the IRA was involved in the murder.

Mark Pickard, who heads up the Seamus Maguire investigation, said that work has been ongoing on the case since it was referred to the commission by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in 2022.

He said a specific search site within the Aghagallon/Derryclone area has yet to be identified by the commission.

“We have been working steadily to resolve the issue of Seamus’s disappearance using all the resources available to the commission but this is a complex case dating back nearly 50 years and as ever in these circumstances we do need more information,” he said.

“With this appeal we are issuing a photograph of Seamus which we hope might jog someone’s memory and move us on.

“As with all our cases our interest is purely humanitarian and all information that comes to us is treated in the strictest confidence and will not be passed to any enforcement body and will be used solely to help us find Seamus’s remains and to bring them home to his family.”

Mr Pickard added: “We are convinced that someone somewhere has a vital piece of information in relation to his disappearance even though they might not be aware of its significance.

“We need them to come forward and help end the decades of pain that the Maguire family have suffered.”

As well as Mr Maguire, the commission is also tasked with finding three other Disappeared victims – Co Tyrone teenager Columba McVeigh, British Army Captain Robert Nairac, and former monk turned IRA member Joe Lynskey.

Investigators looking for remains of Seamus Maguire issued a new picture