Attempts are being made to exhume the body of a Co Kerry farmer to establish if he was the father of a 60-year-old woman who may be entitled to his estate, worth up to £500,000.
Kerry County Council confirmed yesterday that it may grant a licence to exhume the body of Michael Clifford, a bachelor farmer who hailed from near Firies, a village between Killarney and Tralee. The exhumation is to establish if he is the father of the woman.
Mr Clifford died in March 1998, without making a will and with no known close relatives. He was in his early 80s. He is believed to have left an estate worth £500,000 in property and in cash, although he lived modestly and without drawing attention to himself.
The council advised the woman's solicitor, Mr Liam Crowley, to place an advertisement in newspapers stating that all persons claiming an interest in the matter should contact him within 28 days.
The county secretary, Mr Philip O'Sullivan, said he was waiting for time to elapse and for instructions on whether the application for the exhumation licence would proceed.
The decision to grant the licence rests with the council as the cemetery where Mr Clifford is buried, Aghadoe Cemetery near Killarney, is under council management.
"It is most unusual for someone to seek an exhumation licence," Mr O'Sullivan told the Kerryman newspaper.
Mr Clifford, known as "Cloovan", which comes from the Irish for his name, is said to have had an affair with a servant girl who came to work in his house over 60 years ago.
The girl became pregnant but was not considered a suitable match for Mr Clifford. She was banished to the County Home, now St Columbanus Home. The child was born and the servant girl left for England. It is known she kept in touch with her daughter, who still lives in south Kerry.