The final resting place of the three Manchester Martyrs has been located in a Manchester crematorium by the National Graves Association.
For several years, the National Graves Association has been trying to trace the men's remains, to return them to Ireland for a Christian burial.
There had been no known eye-witness account of the graves of Capt Michael O'Brien, Ballymacoda, Co Cork, William Philip Allen, Bandon, Co Cork, and Michael Larkin, Lusmagh, Birr, Co Offaly.
Allen, Larkin and O'Brien were hanged in 1867 for shooting a policeman during a rescue of two Fenian leaders from a prison van.
They were interred in the new Strangeways Prison but later reburied with other prisoners in Blackley crematorium. Because of this mass burial, it will not be possible to rebury them in Glasnevin. The men's trial generated major controversy at the time, with people claiming they were victims of a miscarriage of justice. They were charged with murder, but it had been claimed that the man who fired the fatal shot had fled to New York.
The Manchester Martyrs case was supported by people such as John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Engels. Emmeline Pankhurst referred to it as a "mistake and a crime" in her 1914 autobiography.
The song God Save Ireland, based on the men's response in the dock to their conviction, became for many years an unofficial national anthem.
Various attempts were made to repatriate the bodies. Monuments were erected to the Manchester Martyrs in several Irish towns including: Ennis, Birr and Carlow.
A grave was bought for them in Glasnevin Cemetery, and a monument erected in Manchester.
Mr Matt Doyle of the National Graves Association said the men's relatives had given their full approval for the tracing of their remains. He said they were pleased that they would now be able to visit their relatives' final resting place.
