It has been confirmed that human remains found in County Meath at the start of last month were those of IRA murder victim Brendan Megraw.

Mr Megraw was one of the 16 people murder by the IRA who became known as ‘the Disappeared’.

His remains were found on October first, in a drainage ditch on Oristown bog, near Kells, by contractors called in to prepare the site for forensic excavations by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR)

DNA tests conducted since the find have now confirmed the body as that of Mr McGraw.

The coroner for the city of Dublin has accepted this as evidence of identification.

Mr Megraw was 23 when he was abducted from Twinbrook in Belfast in 1978, and murdered by the IRA.

Mr Megraw was recently married at the time of the abduction. His wife, who the kidnappers drugged during the kidnapping, was pregnant at the time of his disappearance.

It was not until 1999 that the family was told Mr Megraw was one of the Disappeared and his body had been buried in bogland in County Meath.