The IRA is preparing to identify the secret burial sites of about 12 people it abducted and killed between 1972 and 1980. The IRA leadership recently made a decision that the graves should be identified so the remains could be returned to their families, senior sources have confirmed.
It is understood that the bodies, known as "the disappeared", are buried in the Republic, in Border counties. Intermediaries will relay the whereabouts of the remains to the authorities in the Republic. The Government is believed to be aware of the latest developments.
According to senior sources, the Garda will be involved in conducting the exhumations and the State Pathologist's office is expected to oversee identification of the remains, which will be done through DNA testing.
Given the time of the victims' deaths, considerable difficulties are expected to arise in locating the bodies. The majority of those abducted and murdered were taken during the 1970s.
There is one woman among them, Mrs Jean McConville, a mother of 10 who was taken from her home in Divis Flats in 1972 and never seen again.
All but one of those abducted by the IRA were civilians. It is not believed the remains of Capt Robert Nairac, an undercover British soldier captured and killed by the IRA in south Armagh, will be among those returned.
The IRA decision to allow the recoveries is seen in Provisional republican circles as the strongest signal yet that "the war is over for good".
It is understood a call made by former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, last month urging the IRA to permit the recovery of the missing bodies had a significant impact on the decision. Mr Reynolds was speaking on May 30th at a 1798 commemoration in Wexford and said such a move would close a painful chapter in recent Irish history.
The bodies covered by the IRA decision do not include all those who went missing during the Troubles. There may be more than 20 bodies unaccounted for but all were not killed by the IRA.
The INLA is believed to have been involved in abducting at least one man mentioned on a list of missing people produced by the Families of the Disappeared, a lobby group that has campaigned for the return of the bodies.
Some families will be relieved to be allowed finally to lay their loved ones to rest. But because of the dark world in which others were abducted and died, it is not possible to establish who will be able to reclaim their dead.
The Sinn Fein leadership has been strongly pressed in recent years to use its influence with the IRA to provide the information necessary for the recovery of the missing.