Seamus Ruddy

Seamus Ruddy was one of "the Disappeared". In 1985 he was abducted and killed in Paris by the Irish republican and Marxist guerrilla group, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA)

Personal life

He was a teacher from Newry, County Down

Republican activities and death

Ruddy was a member of both the Irish Republican Socialist Party and its armed wing, the INLA. In 1979 he was arrested at the Greece-Turkey border after he was stopped in a van with weapons intended for the INLA although he was later acquitted. In May 1983 he left the organisation after becoming disillusioned with it. He moved to France where he taught English.

In May 1985 there was a dispute between opposing factions of the INLA. It was believed that he knew the location of INLA arms dumps in the forest near Rouen. He was taken to the forest and killed there. He was age 33 at time of death.

Discovery of body

In May 2017 his body was discovered in Pont-de-l'Arche near Rouen in northern France. He was reburied in Monks cemetery, Newry after his funeral on 17 June in St Catherine's Dominican Chapel. It was the 13th body of "the Disappeared" to be discovered. The body was found by investigators from the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR).

Reaction

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said "I want to commend the commission and all of those involved in [Saturday’s] discovery. Efforts must continue to recover the three remaining bodies. I would appeal to anyone with information to come forward"

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald said she hoped that the finding of the remains would “move us ever closer to finalising the tragic search for all of the Disappeared”.