News and Events
Poster Appeal To End Agony
26th May 2009
The daughter of Disappeared Crossmaglen man Charles Armstrong has begged those who know anything of his fate to finally end her family’s agony.
Anna McShane made the heartfelt plea as plans are drawn up to unveil posters of her father and fellow Disappeared Gerry Evans at Crossmaglen Rangers’ ground, while it is also hoped to put up billboards highlighting the case on the main roads in and out of the south Armagh village.
Mr Armstrong has not been seen since the morning of August 16, 1981, when he left home to bring an elderly neighbour to Mass, while Mr Evans has been missing since March 27, 1979, when he was seen trying to hitch a lift outside Castleblayney.
Although the IRA has admitted being responsible for killing a number of the Disappeared, the organisation has denied murdering Mr Armstrong or Mr Evans.
Mrs McShane told the Democrat that the posters should be put on hoardings along the pitch at Crossmaglen Rangers’ St Oliver Plunkett Park ground within the next few weeks, while agreement about where to position the billboards is expected to be reached soon with Newry and Mourne District Council. “I’m hopeful that the community will support us,” she said.
“They’re not offensive, we’re not blaming anyone or condemning anyone, they’re just pictures of my father and Gerry Evans with the telephone number of the International Commission (for the Location of Victims’ Remains) in the middle.
“We’re not looking for someone to blame or even for justice, we’ve never done that. It’s for our mother, what happened to our father has taken over her whole life.
She goes to Mass every day and prays for the people who took him, that they will realise the suffering they’ve caused and come forward.” Mrs McShane revealed details of the poster campaign after BBC NI’s Spotlight programme focused on the families’ plight on Tuesday.
Aged 25 when her father went missing, she retains vivid memories of him.
“He was the best father anyone could have asked for,” she recalled. “He was quite strict in bringing us up but he was very straight down the line. You could have a real laugh with him.
“He had strong opinions but he wanted us to keep neutral, not to get involved in any of the things that were going on in those days. He was a real family man and you could have set your watch by him.”
It was that reliability which made Mrs McShane all the more anxious on that sunny Sunday morning almost 28 years ago when she received a phone call telling her that her father was late for an appointment.
“She thought that perhaps he had caught up in helping a neighbour or even that he had been detained by the British Army.
A phone call to the barracks confirmed this was not the case, while ringing hospitals on both sides of the border proved equally fruitless.
Increasingly worried, she drove around the area in search of him before she and her brother realised that they would have to tell their mother.
“She was sunning herself outside but the moment she saw my face she asked me what was wrong,” Mrs McShane said.
“I told her what had happened and some neighbours and friends came round and sat with her and we all said the Rosary. That night, my mother sat at the front of my house in the dark looking out, watching for him to come home.”
The following day Mr Armstrong’s car, with his jacket in the back seat, was found in Dundalk in a spot where he often parked. It was discovered by a Garda patrol who confirmed that it had not been there when they passed an hour earlier. “That was the last concrete news we got,” Mrs McShane explained.
“We’ve heard numerous rumours and we’ve checked them all out, we’ve travelled all over Ireland, checking with nursing homes, the Red Cross, the Simon Community, but nothing.”
It has often been clutching at straws, she admits, while she and her family have remained trapped in a situation few could imagine.
However, the billboard campaign has given them renewed hope that someone, somewhere, will listen to their conscience.
Asked what she would say to those who know of her father’s whereabouts, Mrs McShane said: “I would beg them once more to try and help us.
“We won’t have peace, we can never have peace, without our father’s body.
“All we’re asking for is the chance to give him a Christian burial. We don’t want to know how he died, who did it or why, we just want to know where he is.”
Source:
http://www.newrydemocrat.com/tabId/281/itemId/3011/Poster-appeal-to-end-agony.aspx
