The IRA murder of a widowed mother-of-10 was an act of "unspeakable cowardice", the Republic's justice minister said last night.
Michael McDowell said his sympathies were with the family of Jean McConville who was abducted and shot dead by the IRA in January 1972.
"The brutal, cowardly and vicious and sectarian murder by the IRA of their mother so many years ago is a crime which still is a huge mark of shame for people who claim to act in the name of Irish republicanism," Mr McDowell said.
The McConville family said yesterday that they believed the body of a woman found at a beach in Co Louth on Wednes-day was that of their mother. Mrs McConville is one of the so-called Disappeared whom the IRA admitted kidnapping, murdering and secretly burying during the 1970s.
In 1999 the paramilitary organisation revealed the names of nine people it has disappeared and made a commitment to locate their bodies.
However, no-one knows the extent of the Disappeared list and so far only three families have been able to lay their loved ones to rest.
Eamon Molloy's remains were found in a coffin in Faughart cemetery, Co Louth, in May 1999 and five weeks later the bodies of friends John McClory and Brian McKinney were discovered in bogland in Colgagh, Co Monaghan. All of the victims had been shot in the head.
Yesterday (Thursday), the postmortem examination in Louth County Hospital and the identification by a family member of clothing discovered at the scene has led the McConville family to believe their mother has finally been found. Last night, Monsignor Denis Faul called on the IRA to reveal where the remaining disappeared are buried.
He said they had a responsibility to end the years of suffering endured by the families of those whose bodies have never been found. John Wilson, one of the two commissioners for the location of victims' remains, visited Shelling Hill beach yesterday.
He told RTE News he hoped the discovery would help the McConville family but added that he was not optimistic about finding the other IRA victims.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said he hoped that the McConville's search was coming to an end.
"It is our hope that the recovery of human remains close to the site which was previously examined, brings closure to the McConville family's long search for their mother's remains.
"At this time we are mindful that the family concerned continue to suffer great hurt and everybody's thoughts will be with them at this difficult time."
A man walking with children on Shelling Hill beach made the discovery on Wednesday and gardai cordoned off the area.
Family members gathered at the beach – approximately a quarter of a mile from where extensive searches had been carried out for Mrs McConville's body in 1999 and 2000 – and Carlingford parish priest Fr McParland said prayers.
The remains were taken to Louth County Hospital for a postmortem examination to be carried out. A Garda spokesman said preliminary results had confirmed that the remains were those of a female who died as a result of a single shot to the head.
The remains will be taken to Dublin where further tests will be carried out.
