Gardaí have called off for the night the excavation of a garden in a house in a Dublin suburb in an investigation into the death of a baby 30 years ago.
Gardaí are excavating the garden of a Dalkey house, after receiving information that the body of a baby was buried there in the 1970s.
Officers began the dig in the grounds of the two-storey house in Dalkey yesterday following information claiming the body of a new-born baby was buried there.
The excavation is expected to resume in the morning.
The information is understood to have come from a woman who was questioned in connection with the discovery of the body of a baby in Dun Laoghaire in 1973.
The baby girl was found in a laneway wrapped in newspapers and a black plastic bag. She had been stabbed 14 times with a knitting needle.
It emerged this afternoon that the Dublin County Coroner has set a date for the inquest into the death of the baby girl.
There were no arrests at the time, but a woman came forward in 1985 claiming she had given birth to the child when she was aged 11.
A number of arrests were made and a file was prepared for the DPP, who directed there should be no prosecution.
This woman is understood to have been speaking to gardaí again recently. She is said to have told them another infant’s body was buried in the house in Dalkey in the mid 1970s.
The excavation is anticipated to go on for several days. The current occupants of the house have no connection with the investigation.