The bodies of five victims of the Stardust tragedy have now been identified using DNA techniques.
But a row over the payment of costs associated with a planned examination of the families' claims for a full public inquiry could mean this inquiry is now "dead in the water".
Forty-eight young people were killed and more than 200 injured in the Stardust fire, which engulfed the nightclub in Artane, north Dublin, in the early hours of February 14th, 1981.
But the bodies of five - Richard Bennett, Michael Ffrench, Murtagh (Murt) Kavanagh, Éamon Loughman and Paul Wade - were so badly burned that they could not be identified.
They had been buried side-by-side in a common plot in St Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, north Dublin, but their remains were exhumed last February.
They were taken to the Dublin City Morgue, where DNA sampling was carried out and the samples then taken to the UK for DNA analysis of a type not carried out in the Republic.
The families of the five victims were informed on Tuesday that their bodies had now been identified. They are expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to rebury the remains at St Fintan's or elsewhere.
Speaking yesterday, Terri Kavanagh, sister of Murt, told The Irish Times that, after waiting all this time, the news of the identification had come as a great relief.
"There's no words that can really describe it. We never had a death certificate, so it's not like the person's life is complete, really," she said. "The strange thing is that it's so painful that you detach from it. I couldn't think about it, we carried on with our lives . . . Now that we do know, we are so relieved."
However, she stressed that her brother could have been identified years ago because his remains had included a dental plate - but this had not been done. This meant Murt's father had died without ever knowing that the remains buried in Sutton were those of his son, she added.
The families of the victims have never accepted the findings of the original inquiry into the Stardust tragedy, chaired by former chief justice Ronan Keane, which found that the fire was probably started deliberately. They have consistently called for a full public inquiry.
Earlier this month, the Government appointed John Gallagher SC to examine their case.
But Greg O'Neill, solicitor for the families, said yesterday that the Government's recent decision not to pay their full costs associated with this examination meant that, as the matter stands, the process was "dead in the water".
The families claim they might be responsible for costs exceeding €300,000. An independent assessment of their costs had arrived at a figure of €880,000, to include expenses thus far for research and expert evidence gathered by the families.
The families were due to hold a meeting in the Shieling Hotel in Raheny to discuss their next move last night, and were expected to decide not to co-operate with the review.
A letter from the Department of the Taoiseach to Mr O'Neill, dated April 17th, said the Government was willing "to assist the families with the legal costs arising from the examination - but not to include the considerable research and activity involved in the previous preparation of the report".
"We are amazed that, on the basis that this is going to be an independent process, the Government know what this man is going to ask from us," Mr O'Neill said yesterday.
"The process, as it stands, is dead in the water as far as the families are concerned."