County Meath

County Meath is the location of a search that took an unexpected turn: investigators looking for Joe Lynskey instead uncovered the remains of Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, buried together. The discovery linked a particular patch of ground to the unresolved history of secret executions and to the continuing, uncertain work of finding the conflict’s disappeared.

The Search for Joe Lynskey

In autumn 2014, a tip suggested that Joe Lynskey’s remains might be in a particular area of County Meath. A team led by retired Manchester detective Geoff Knupfer began searching with a sniffer dog, a forensic anthropologist and ground-penetrating radar, which was used to locate anomalies in the earth. Lynskey’s niece, Maria, expressed cautious hope that he would be found and given a proper burial. The team searched for months without finding him.

An Unexpected Discovery

The following summer, a shout drew investigators to something in the ground. They set aside the mechanical excavators and carefully cleared the earth with trowels, gradually uncovering bones. Maria Lynskey drove to the site as the search continued. At about 8:30 that evening, investigators found a second set of human remains beneath the first. The two bodies had been buried together, one on top of the other.

The remains were not Joe Lynskey’s. They belonged to Seamus Wright and Kevin McKee, whom Dolours Price had driven to their deaths. Their discovery explained why the search had failed to locate Lynskey: investigators had found another burial at the site. Maria was devastated, but also felt relief for the families of Wright and McKee.

Significance of the Site

The discovery in County Meath turned a search for one missing man into the recovery of two others. At a requiem Mass for Seamus Wright, his sister Breige appealed for information about Lynskey and the other victims whose remains had yet to be found. The site therefore marked both a recovery and an absence: Wright and McKee had been identified, while the original purpose of the search remained unresolved. The ground yielded a concrete answer about who lay there, but not the answer the search team had come to find.