" Let Gareth's sons know daddy's dead "

The family of missing Armagh man Gareth O'Connor appealed today for the IRA to lead them to his body so his two young sons will know their daddy is dead.

As the second anniversary of Gareth's disappearance approaches, his father Mark said the family only wants a grave to go to.

"We're not pushing for anvthing other than his body back," Mark O'Connor said.

"We know the IRA killed him. We don't want anything but a place to take the children on a Sunday, to show them and give them a sense that their father's dead.

"We're not looking who done it. All we want is the body for the sake of the two children, to let them get on with their lives."

Gareth O'Connor vanished in south Armagh on Mav 11th 2003. leaving

behind his partner Leona and their two sons, Caolan, now 7, and three-year-old Eoghan.

Mr O'Connor(24)had been on his way to sign bail conditions in Dundalk. PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde has blamed the Provisional IRA for abducting Mr O'Connor.

The family's appeal came as the Irish government agreed to renew efforts for the return of the Disappeared in anv new talks process with Sinn Fein.

"I would ask the IRA -what part of Ireland is burying a person in a bog going to free?" Mark O'Connor asked.

"People say time makes a difference. It makes it no easier. It might make a difference if you had a grave to go to, but you haven't. All you have is a hole in your heart that's never, ever going to be filled." Belfast Telegraph 10 th May 2005