Jean McConville: The Disappeared mother-of-10
- Published
Widow Jean McConville, pictured here on the left, was survived by 10 children when she was abducted and murdered
Jean McConville was not the only person to be murdered and secretly buried during Northern Ireland's Troubles, but her case has been one of the most high-profile.
The mother-of-10, a Protestant, was originally from east Belfast and converted to Catholicism after marrying Arthur McConville.
After being intimidated out of east Belfast, the family moved to west Belfast and set up home in the Divis flats on the Falls Road.
Not long after the move in 1971, Arthur McConville died from cancer.
She was taken from her home by the IRA in December 1972.
There had been speculation that she was taken after being seen by neighbours helping an injured British soldier.
Others claimed she was an informer, but this was dismissed after an official investigation by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.
In a BBC documentary in 2013, one of Mrs McConville's daughters, Agnes, spoke out for the first time about her mother's abduction.
Agnes McConville described seeing her mother being taken away to be murdered
She recalled hearing her mother squealing as she was taken away from her home by a number of men and women and thrown into the back of a van.
"That was the last time that we saw her," she said.
It is believed the 37-year-old was held at a number of houses before being shot.
Unanswered pleas
Her disappearance initially gained extensive media attention in the run-up to Christmas 1972. Her children were interviewed and begged for information about their mother.
Their pleas came to nothing.
Within the community, republicans put out the message that she was merely "lying low", and her story gradually faded from the headlines.
In the intervening years, the IRA always denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Michael McConville was 11 years old when his mother was abducted from her home in the Divis area of Belfast
It wasn't until the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains was established in 1999 that her name resurfaced in the headlines.
Secretly buried
The body was set up by the British and Irish governments to obtain information in strictest confidence to help locate the remains of a number of people who had disappeared during the Troubles.
Those known as the Disappeared had been abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republicans.
The IRA admitted in 1999 that it murdered nine of the Disappeared - including Jean McConville - and buried them at secret locations.
It was several years later, in 2003, that her body was finally found, external on Shelling Hill Beach in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland.
Irish police confirmed that she had died from a bullet wound to the head.
In the days that followed, the IRA issued a statement apologising, external for the grief it had caused the families of the Disappeared and that their suffering had continued for so long.