‘We'll be forever grateful for their compassion': Lynskeys pay tribute to Comiskey family following death of controversial bishop
Ms Lynskey, the niece of Joe Lynskey, who was abducted, murdered and secretly buried by the IRA in 1972, said she and the wider Lynskey family will be 'forever grateful for the compassion shown by Bishop Dr Brendan Comiskey and his family' for all their assistance in the search for her uncle's remains in Annyalla Cemetery, Co Monaghan, in November last year.
Remains from the Comiskey family grave were exhumed by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains (ICLVR), the body set up to locate and recover the remains of the Disappeared, when it was believed that Mr Lynskey's body may have been buried in the grave following his murder.
DNA testing revealed that although there were remains in the grave that did not belong to the Comiskey family, they were not those of Joe Lynskey or any other Disappeared.
Maria Lynskey said: 'Previous searches for Joe's remains were in a field and on a bog.
'Going into a family grave was very different and it must have come as a shock to the family to think that one of the Disappeared might be there. I can only imagine how distressing it must have been for them.
'Bishop Comiskey, who was very ill at the time, and his family supported the ICLVR's efforts to find Joe despite the very difficult personal circumstances, and that showed great compassion,' she added.
'I will never forget it and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.'
A former Cistercian monk from the Beechmount area of west Belfast, Mr Lynskey later joined the IRA and went missing in 1972. Republicans have claimed he was 'executed and buried' by the IRA.
The latest search in November last year was the first since 2018. Before that, a search for the remains of Mr Lynskey recovered the remains of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee.
The remains of four of the original 19 Disappeared — Captain Robert Nairac, Seamus Maguire, Columba McVeigh and Joe Lynskey — have yet to be recovered.
Maria Lynskey interview
As last November's search got underway, Ms Lynskey said her father, who had been dead for 30 years, would have loved to have known where his brother was.
'When people give information, they don't realise how humble and how grateful we are that they have given information,' she said, speaking of her hopes that the details provided would finally lead to her uncle's remains being discovered.
'Whoever owns this grave, I thank them from the bottom of my heart… Hopefully it's Joe. I hope to God it's Joe and that we can bring him home.
'But we still have four more bodies — three men and one young woman — that we need to bring home, too.'
Describing her uncle, Ms Lynskey said: 'He was quiet. He was quite gentle and shy in a way. He was the only uncle we had.'
Bishop Brendan Comiskey had resigned from Ferns diocese in the south-east of Ireland in 2002 after acknowledging failings in his handling of complaints against notorious priest Fr Sean Fortune.
Requiem Mass for Bishop Comiskey was held in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Clondalkin in west Dublin on Thursday.
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