Families of the five unidentified victims of the 1981 Stardust tragedy, whose bodies are to be exhumed next week, have appealed to the public and the media not to gather at the graveyard to watch the process.
Preparations for the exhumation began at St Fintan's Cemetery in Sutton, Dublin yesterday, with the exhumation beginning next week. It is envisaged that one body will be exhumed per day. Forty-eight young people were killed in the fire that engulfed the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin at a St Valentine's Day dance in February 1981.
Five of the bodies were not positively identified and were buried together. The five were Eamon Loughman, Michael French, Murt Kavanagh, Richard Bennett and Paul Wade.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman said the preliminary site works, which began yesterday, would take "several days".
She said the remains would be taken to the Dublin City Morgue, where DNA sampling would be carried out. "The samples will then be brought to the UK for the DNA analysis which is of a type not undertaken in this jurisdiction. This process is likely to take about two months.
"When it is complete, the remains will be reburied in accordance with the wishes of their families," she said, adding that the costs would be borne by the department.
The five families met department officials last week. "They emphasised that their wish is for this entire painful process to be conducted with as much privacy and dignity as possible and the department is anxious that these wishes be respected," she said.
