The bodies of two of the North's "disappeared" were returned to their families for burial yesterday.
Gardai found the remains of Mr Brian McKinney (22) and Mr John McClory (17) in a shallow grave late in June after a 30-day excavation at a site at Colgagh, Iniskeen, Co Monaghan.
The men, from west Belfast, were abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1978 while on their way to work. They were alleged by the IRA to have acted as informers for the security forces.
Forensic and other tests have been carried out on the bodies in Dublin to confirm their identities. They were collected by their families yesterday. The Colgagh location was one of six in the Republic identified by the IRA as the graves of nine people abducted and killed by it since the early 1970s.
Despite extensive searches, only one other body was recovered - that of Belfast man Mr Eamonn Molloy, who was found in a coffin above ground at Faughart cemetery, Co Louth.
The other searches were called off last July. Mrs Margaret McKinney, Mr Brian McKinney's mother, said she planned to hold her son's funeral on Saturday. He would be buried in Milltown Cemetery, west Belfast. "It will be a relief to bury him after 21 years of continuous searching," she said. "The searching will be over, but the heartache won't be because it should never have happened."
Mr McClory is also due to be buried on Saturday in Milltown Cemetery.