THE mother of Ireland's youngest missing person has blasted her daughter's search for the truth as "ridiculous carry on".
Ann Boyle was speaking on Highland Radio when she made the comments.
"Things can be done quietly," she said, "not running to Dails and running to Westminster and all this carry on."
"That's the most ridiculous carry on I ever seen in my life," she said.
Mrs Boyle was speaking in reference to her daughter, also named Ann, who appeared in a documentary by journalist Gemma O'Doherty about Mary Boyle's disappearance.
Ms O'Doherty's documentary, Mary Boyle: The Untold Story, chronicles the disappearance of Mary Boyle from her grandparents' farm in Cashelard, Co Donegal in March 1977.
Mary Boyle was six years old at the time of her disappearance. Her body has never been found.
The documentary, posted to YouTube, reveals allegations by retired senior police officers that a politician requested the chief suspect not be arrested.
Mary's identical twin sister, Ann Doherty, says that she and her family know who killed Mary. She says the man, who is alive still, was well known to her and her twin. She asserts that he has never has been arrested and still lives in Donegal today.
In the documentary, twin sister Ann says, "I believe that Mary had a secret and because Mary was feisty, Mary would have told."
"So I believe that Mary had to be killed," Ann says, "to stop her telling."
The documentary also includes an interview with a man called Brian McMahon who describes how Gardai were “determined to get a confession” from him and frame him for murdering Mary around the time she went missing. He told Gemma O’Doherty that the guards who questioned him knew he wasn’t guilty.
To read more about Mary Boyle's case, click here.
