The exhumation of five unidentified bodies of victims of the 1981 Stardust fire has been completed, it was confirmed yesterday.
The Department of Justice said that the exhumations, which began at St Fintan's Cemetery in Sutton, Dublin, last week, were completed on Tuesday.
The remains were taken to the Dublin City Morgue, where DNA sampling is being carried out. These samples will be taken to the UK for DNA analysis of a type not carried out in the Republic.
The bereaved families' solicitor, Greg O'Neill, said that the process was likely to take 2½ months, with results not expected until late April at the earliest.
At that point the remains will be reburied in accordance with the wishes of the victims' families. The costs will be borne by the department.
Forty-eight young people were killed in the fire which engulfed the Stardust night-club in Artane, Dublin, at a St Valentine's Day dance in February 1981.
Five of the victims were not positively identified and were buried together. They were Éamon Loughman, Michael French, Murt Kavanagh, Richard Bennett and Paul Wade.
Mr O'Neill yesterday thanked the media for allowing the families privacy during the exhumation process.
"The families would like to express their thanks and appreciation to the media for respecting their privacy so that the exhumations could take place with a certain degree of dignity."
