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Mary Boyle (born 14 June 1970) was a six-year-old Irish girl who
disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organi ...
on the
County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...
-
County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 ...
border on 18 March 1977. To date, her disappearance is the longest missing child case in the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
. The investigation into her disappearance has been beset by allegations of political intervention and police incompetence.


Disappearance

Mary Boyle was last seen at 3:30 pm on 18 March 1977 near her grandparents' rural farm in Cashelard, near
Ballyshannon Ballyshannon () is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is located at the southern end of the county where the N3 from Dublin ends and the N15 crosses the River Erne. Incorporated in 1613, it is one of the oldest towns in Ireland. Location B ...
,
County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...
. The family, including Mary's mother Ann, father Charlie, older brother Paddy, and twin sister Ann, had gone to Mary's maternal grandparents' house on
St Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick ( ga, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit=the Day of the Festival of Patrick), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patr ...
from their home in
Kincasslagh Cionn Caslach (anglicized as Kincasslagh) is a small Gaeltacht seaside village in the Rosses area of County Donegal, Ireland. Despite only having a population of just over 40 people, the village has attracted much international attention due to t ...
in
The Rosses The Rosses (officially known by its Irish language name, ''Na Rosa''; in the genitive case ''Na Rosann'') is a geographical and social region in the west of County Donegal, Ireland, with a population of over 7,000 centred on the town of Dungloe, ...
, further up the coast. Mary was playing outside with her siblings and two cousins when her uncle left to return a ladder to another farm, across the hillside. Mary followed her uncle until they reached a small pool of water that was too deep for her to get through. Whether by her own decision or by her uncle's instruction, Mary turned around halfway into the journey saying she was going back. Her return journey should not have lasted longer than five minutes, whilst her uncle stayed at the neighbours for thirty minutes for a chat. After discovering that Mary had disappeared, her family instituted searches of the local area and questioned passers-by if they had seen the girl. One fisherman was quoted as saying that he had seen Mary being put into a red car and then driven away, although he later corrected this in a
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...
podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
by saying he had not actually seen Mary, but just a suspicious red car. Many of the bogs in the area were drained and scoured in an effort to find the girl. Mary's twin sister, Ann, had stated that she was eating a packet of crisps at the time of her disappearance and if she had fallen into a bog, the packet would have floated on the surface.


Investigations

The Gardaí started a search of the surrounding area and drained a lake behind her grandparents' house. They also created a filmed reconstruction of the disappearance in which Ann Boyle was used as a stand-in for her twin sister. In 2008, the Irish public broadcaster, RTÉ, broadcast a documentary programme about the case called ''Cracking Crime''. Over the intervening years, the performer Margo O'Donnell, a friend of and relation to the family, has funded searches on the surrounding hillsides in an effort to try and locate Mary's body. Police searches have also taken place since 1977, with the latest taking place in 2016 when the Garda Síochána launched a new investigation. However, no evidence has been found. The case has attracted some publicity because of allegations of political interference which centred around the accusation that a politician phoned the Gardaí and told them to not question or detain their main suspect. O'Donnell was said to have walked up to the politician who was accused of making the call in 1977 and asked if he had done so. According to O'Donnell, he said "
hat it A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
was untrue and called me a bare-faced liar." The length of time that Boyle has been missing, and allegations of official involvement, led ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' to label the case "Ireland's
Madeleine McCann Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British missing person who disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of 3 May 2007, at the age of 3. ''The Daily Telegraph'' described the disappeara ...
". The case is now the longest-running missing child case in modern Irish history, and despite the publicity it attracts, it has not been debated in the Dáil. It was raised by
Lynn Boylan Lynn Boylan ( ga, Lynn Ní Bhaoighealláin; born 29 November 1976) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has served as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel since April 2020. She previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for ...
MEP in the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
, where she highlighted the lack of direction in the case. In 2018, relatives and supporters held a silent protest outside the coroner's office in
Stranorlar Stranorlar () is a town, townland and civil parish in the Finn Valley of County Donegal, in Ireland. Stranorlar and Ballybofey (located on the other side of the River Finn) form ''the Twin Towns''. Transport The town is located at the junctio ...
. The protest was intended to force the coroner to hold an inquest into Mary's death which would allow key witnesses to be interviewed on public record for the first time. Boyle's twin sister Ann was among the group, which handed in a petition containing more than 10,000 signatures demanding that an inquest be held. In 2016, the controversial Irish investigative journalist
Gemma O'Doherty Gemma O'Doherty (born 24 August 1968) is an Irish far-right activist and conspiracy theorist. She began her career as a staff writer for the ''Irish Independent'', contributing articles on travel, the criminal justice system and corruption, but ...
, produced a documentary about the disappearance titled ''Mary Boyle: The Untold Story'', which explores several possible causes for her disappearance. In the documentary, Mary's sister Ann posits that Mary was
sexually abused Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assau ...
and then murdered. The film has come under some criticism by the people interviewed for the programme. Both the retired Garda sergeants who talked on screen deny that any political pressure was brought to bear on their investigation; one interviewing officer said he was told to "ease off" when questioning one of the suspects in the case, but this was by a senior officer in the room at the time of the suspect's interview. The film led to O'Doherty being sued for defamation by
Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...
politician
Sean McEniff Sean McEniff (12 January 1936 – 21 April 2017) was an Irish businessman and Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Donegal County Councillor for the Donegal local electoral Area. At the time of his death in 2017, he was the longest serving c ...
for damages of
€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
75,000, although McEniff was never mentioned by name in the film. In 2019, after McEniff's death, a judge granted his estate leave to continue the case. In March 2018, Gardaí issued a request for information regarding the case and stated that the investigation was still live.


Suspects

The initial suspect, questioned soon after Boyle disappeared, was released without charge. Other people have been questioned in relation to the disappearance; Brian McMahon was taken in for questioning by Gardaí in October 2014 but was released without charge the following day. McMahon later went on public record denying any involvement in the disappearance and stating that local people knew he could not have been involved. Robert Black, a convicted
serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
of children, was also proposed as a suspect when it was revealed that he was a cross-border truck driver who often visited County Donegal as part of his job and could have been in the area at the time of Boyle's disappearance. Black was known in the area and had been charged by the Garda for after-hours drinking. His van was identified outside a pub in
Annagry ''Anagaire'' (anglicised as Annagry) is a village in The Rosses district of County Donegal, Ireland. , the population was 236. Name The Irish and official name for Annagry is ''Anagaire'', which in turn derives from ''Áth na gCoire'' meaning "fo ...
, County Donegal, at the time of Boyle's disappearance. A witness later claimed that they had heard crying and whimpering from the rear of the van. However, by the time of O'Doherty's documentary going online, it was widely believed that Black could not have been responsible. Mary's twin sister Ann Boyle and several other relatives publicly claim they believe they know what happened to Mary and who is responsible for her disappearance. This has caused tension and a division within the Boyle family, with Ann's mother (also named Ann) publicly admonishing her daughter in 2016; calling her public appeals "...the most ridiculous carry on I ever seen in my life."


Aftermath

Boyle's father Charlie died in a fishing accident off the coast of Donegal in 2005. In 2011, O'Donnell released the single "The Missing Mary Boyle" to raise funds for a new search for the missing girl. Due, in part, to the younger Ann Boyle's public accusations, the Boyle family remain divided.


See also

* List of people who disappeared *


Further reading

*


References


External links


No Body Recovered (BBC podcast series)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Mary 1970s missing person cases Ballyshannon Irish twins March 1977 events in Europe Missing Irish children Missing person cases in Ireland