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| France remains confirmed as Disappeared victim Ruddy | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Human remains found during a search in northern France have been confirmed as those of Seamus Ruddy, one of the Disappeared. | Human remains found during a search in northern France have been confirmed as those of Seamus Ruddy, one of the Disappeared. |
| They were uncovered on Saturday morning after a number of searches in France. | |
| Mr Ruddy was working as a teacher in Paris in 1985. | Mr Ruddy was working as a teacher in Paris in 1985. |
| The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear, but he was shot dead by republican paramilitaries, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), and secretly buried in a shallow grave. | |
| Mr Ruddy's sister, Anne Morgan, said it was "an enormous relief" to have the confirmation from the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, which instigated the search. | |
| The remains were found during a search of a forest at Pont-de-l'Arche after new information was passed to the ICLVR by former INLA members and the closely linked Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP). | |
| IRSP sources claim Mr Ruddy went willingly with INLA members from Paris to the wooded area, where there was an arms dump. | |
| Sources claim that INLA members returned to the spot the following day, removed the arms cache and buried Mr Ruddy where it had been. | |
| 'Relief' | |
| "We waited all these years to get this news and now, inside a minute, life has changed once again for us," Mr Ruddy's sister, Anne Morgan, told the BBC's Evening Extra programme. | |
| "We are hoping that very soon we will bring him back and give him Christian burial in Newry. | |
| "My mother discovered through a newspaper article in 1995 that Seamus was dead. | |
| "She decided to put his name on her headstone, then within three months she had died. | |
| 'Final resting place' | |
| "She just said 'I need this - I have to do this. If I put his name on the headstone, no-one will forget him.' | |
| "She went to her grave not knowing where he was but she was more content that she knew his name was on the headstone and he would have a final resting place." | |
| Ms Morgan said it was "more poignant" than ever to be able to get closure on her brother's death now that her family is older. | |
| "In a sense we are all together again. At this time it becomes a very personal family journey, we are prepared for this and we are all together and we will be ok," she said. | |
| "We just have to wait another little while but the 32 years were the longest years that we had to wait. The next few weeks, won't be as bad." | |
| Mr Ruddy was one of four people out of 16 Disappeared whose bodies had not been found; the others are Columba McVeigh, Joe Lynskey and Army Capt Robert Nairac. |