A friend of Jo Jo Dullard’s family has said her relatives will “never lose hope” that one day her body will be found. 

The 21 year old was last seen on 9th November 1995; after meeting friends in Dublin, Ms Dullard began to make her way home to Kilkenny. 

She phoned a friend from Moone, County Kildare, to say she had found someone to give her a lift but was never seen again. 

Earlier this week, Gardaí began a search of an area of an area of land close to the Wicklow/Kildare bodies. 

The search has been described as a “fairly major operation” and there is an expectation that they might also find the body of Deirdre Jacob, who disappeared in Kildare in 1998. 

On The Hard Shoulder, Father Willie Purcell, a close friend of Jo Jo Dullard's family, said finding Ms Dullard’s body would mean a huge amount to her family. 

“You can imagine for 31 years that Jo Jo's family, Kathleen, her sister and her family, have been waiting every day for some word that will bring Jo Jo home,” he explained. 

“For the last 31 years, again, with the different searches that have taken place, the information that has been given, the hopes that have been built up and then many times hopes that have been dashed.

“But they continue to never lose hope.” 

Fr Purcell continued that this their hope for her return “comes through heroism”. 

“In my view, these are the heroes,” he said. 

“They are heroic because they just want to bring their loved one home; to be able to bring Jo Jo home would be for them to be able to lay her to rest. 

“When Jo Jo, on the 9th of November in 1995, when Jo Jo made that last phone call from the phone box in Moone, she was looking for a safe journey home, a safe lift. 

“In that sense, she was waiting to be brought home to start a new job and begin a new life and be with her family and her friends.” 

A grave stone where Jo Jo Dullard went missing. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland.

Fr Purcell urged anyone with any information about Ms Dullard’s disappearance to please contact Gardaí. 

“There are people out there who have the power to give Jo Jo Dullard a safe lift home - that lift is now the information,” he said. 

“Maybe there's someone listening to us this afternoon who was even involved in the situation, who can, give Jo Jo's family that peace, that reconciliation and really just that opportunity to bring Jo Jo to rest with her family.” 

Main image: Jo Jo Dullard. Image: Supplied.