The bodies of five unidentified victims of the Stardust fire are to be exhumed at St Fintan's cemetery in Sutton, Co Dublin, and the remains will be sent to Britain for DNA analysis.
Forty-eight young people died in the St Valentine's Day disco fire in February 1981, but five of the victims were never identified.
Relatives of the victims met officials from the Department of Justice in Dublin yesterday and were told about the arrangements for the exhumation.
The relatives have waged a long campaign to have the remains of the unidentified victims, who were buried together, exhumed so that they can be sent for DNA analysis and identified individually.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said last night no expense would be spared in the effort to have the remains identified. She added that preparatory work on the exhumation would begin at St Fintan's on Wednesday and would continue for about four days before the actual exhumation.
That is likely to take place the following week.
The spokeswoman added that considerable care would be taken with surrounding graves during the exhumation and everything would be restored to its current state afterwards.
She appealed to the media to exercise sensitivity during the exhumation, which was an extremely distressing time for the relatives. The cemetery will be closed to the public on the day of the exhumation.
Eamon Loughman, Michael French, Murt Kavanagh, Richard Bennett and Paul Wade were buried together at St Fintan's cemetery. With new DNA forensic techniques, it should be possible to identify the five young men individually.
A spokeswoman for the Stardust Victims' Committee, Antoinette Keegan, said it is hoped the bodies would be identified and given their own graves, bringing some closure to their loved ones.
Last year, Mick and Peg French, the parents of Michael (who died age 18), described how forensic detectives had tried to take fingerprints from books their son used at home, but to no avail. Their son had been due to start work as an auto electrician on the Monday after the fire.
"The only thing they ever came back with was a key to the front door," Mr French said.
"I remember it worked in the door, but where they found it I don't know."
