14 April 2025

FRESH APPEAL FOR INFORMATION ON DISAPPEARED SEAMUS MAGUIRE.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) which was set up by the UK and Irish Governments in 1999 to locate and recover the remains of the Disappeared has issued a fresh appeal for information in relation to Seamus Maguire from Aghagallon, near Lurgan,  who disappeared almost 50 years ago.

While it was initially thought that he disappeared sometime around 1973-1974 it has now been established that after spending time in Manchester he returned to Northern Ireland and was then killed and secretly buried in the Aghagallon/Derryclone area in 1976 aged 29.

It is believed his death was as a result of republican paramilitary activity though it is not yet clear which wing of the IRA was involved.

Investigator Mark Pickard who has been running the Seamus Maguire investigation since he joined the ICLVR in 2023 said that work has been ongoing on the case since it was referred by the PSNI to the ICLVR in 2022 but that a specific search site within the Aghagallon/ Derryclone area has yet to be identified by the ICLVR.

Mark Pickard said:

“We have been working steadily to resolve the issue of Seamus’ disappearance using all the resources available to the Commission but this is a complex case dating back nearly 50 years and as ever in these circumstances we do need more information. 

With this appeal we are issuing a photograph of Seamus which we hope might jog someone’s memory and move us on.

As with all our cases our interest is purely humanitarian and all information that comes to us is treated in the strictest confidence and will not be passed to any enforcement body and will be used solely to help us find Seamus’ remains and to bring them home to his family”.

Mr Pickard continued:

“We are convinced that someone somewhere has a vital piece of information  in relation to his disappearance even though they might not be aware of its significance.

We need them to come forward and help end the decades of pain that the Maguire family have suffered”.

Anyone with information on the four outstanding Disappeared cases —Joe Lynskey, Columba McVeigh, Robert Nairac and Seamus Maguire— should contact the ICLVR on +353 1 602 8655 or Secretary@iclvr.ie or ICLVR PO Box 10827 Dublin, Ireland. 
All information is treated in the strictest confidence.

Ends.

Contact: Dennis Godfrey (ICLVR):: +44 7771 642348

Seamus Maguire