A MOTHER who flies to Ireland every week to be at the graveside of her dead son says she can never forgive those responsible for his death.
Margaret McKinney, one of only a handful of known Disappeared family members living in Britain, is the mother of Brian McKinney who was just 22 when he was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1978.
In a month when TDs in Dublin are calling for a Dáil debate on the issue, she said: “I’ve given up on justice.”
Mrs McKinney’s plight was thrust into the spotlight again this month following an RTÉ/BBC documentary that shed new light on the story of the Disappeared — people who were abducted and murdered during the Troubles in the North of Ireland by republican paramilitaries.
“I know in my heart I can’t forgive them. I wonder sometimes too do their families know what they have done,” she said of those responsible for the death of her son, whose body was uncovered near a bog in Co. Monaghan in 1999.
“The story needs to be told but at the same time I can be content that I know where Brian is. All the years I didn’t know, they were the worst years,” she added.
In the wake of the documentary Fine Gael TD Patrick O’Donovan said a debate on the Disappeared, many of whom have never been found, was of major national importance.
“Seven families are still waiting on closure and justice,” he said. “They deserve all of the political support they can get.”
See More: Brian McKinney, Disappeared, IRA, Ireland, Margaret McKinney
