Work on the exhumation of unidentified victims of the Stardust fire buried St Fintan's Cemetery in Sutton, Co Dublin is to begin in the morning, the Department of Justice has confirmed.
In a statement this evening the Department said "arrangements have been put in place to exhume their remains for identification purposes". The remains will be sent to Britain for DNA analysis.
The process is expected to take about two months. The remains will be brought to the Dublin City Morgue where the sampling necessary for the DNA analysis will be conducted.
When the process is complete the remains will be reburied in accordance with the wishes of their families. All costs will be borne by the Department.
The statement added that due to the relative's wish for privacy there will be media/photography opportunity at the cemetery.
The relatives have fought for a long time to have the remains of the unidentified victims, who were buried together, exhumed so that they can be identified individually.
The five were among the 48 young people who died in the St Valentine's Day disco fire in February 1981.
Eamon Loughman, Michael French, Murt Kavanagh, Richard Bennett and Paul Wade, were buried together at St Fintan's Cemetery following the fire.