The bodies of the two young Irish women who drowned off the French resort town of Biarritz early on Friday morning will be released to the families by the French authorities today.
The funeral services for the two Dublin students, Ms Heather Young (19) and Ms Janet Nicholson (21), from Rathmines, are to take place on Thursday or Friday.
Ms Young is the daughter of the former Defence Forces spokesman, Comdt Wally Young, and sister of the actress Carla Young, who plays the role of Kira Cassidy in the soap drama, Fair City.
Ms Nicholson had been in Biarritz for several weeks, and Ms Young arrived on Tuesday. They were renting an apartment near Marbella Plage with other young people and went swimming in the Atlantic at about 2.30 a.m.
A third swimmer, a young American man, raised the alarm when they disappeared from view. Biarritz is known as a major surfing location with a dangerous undertow. The women got caught between the current and the ebb tide, according to French police. The current was described as one that could "pull you 200 metres in a few seconds".
Friends of the families of the two women have dismissed a Sunday newspaper report that they had been out socialising in the town that evening. The two students and others had been in the apartment all evening at a barbecue, and only one other person who had a part-time job in a local pub left for work, a family friend said.
Ms Young had won the award for the best novice surfer in University College Dublin where she was a first-year social science student. Ms Nicholson had just finished her final third-level exams.
The group had gone for late-night swims previously. The young man managed to pull himself out, but the two women lost their footing and were swept away, according to the local fire and rescue service spokesman. A patrol boat found the two bodies up to 600 metres from the shore, near the Côte des Basques.
