The relatives of five young people who perished in a nightclub blaze almost 26 years ago are to lay their loved ones to rest within months, it emerged today.
The unidentified victims of the Stardust tragedy, which claimed 48 young lives, are to be exhumed next Tuesday and Wednesday. Stardust Victims' Committee has also vowed to continue its fight for a new inquiry into the disaster.
It is hoped that new DNA testing could finally identify the bodies of Richard Bennett, Michael French, Murtagh Kavanagh, Eamon Loughman and Paul Wade within three months.
Private prayers will be held at their communal plot on Saturday in St Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, north Dublin, before the area is sealed off by gardaí.
"To be honest it is bringing it all back," said Antoinette Keegan, whose sisters Martina and Mary perished in the inferno. "It is going to be a very emotional time for their families.
"At the moment none of them know where exactly their child or brother is buried. And they still don't know the cause of the fire."
Ms Keegan was one of more than 200 people injured as flames engulfed the nightclub in February 1981.
The following year, after 122 days of evidence at a hearing into the cause of the blaze, former Chief Justice Ronan Keane concluded that arson was the most likely cause of the fire.
The findings have always been contested by survivors, which they claim have been backed by independent experts.
The committee marked the 25th anniversary of the tragedy by renewing its calls for a new inquiry. Hundreds of angry relatives also began holding nightly pickets outside the Silver Swan bar which reopened on the nightclub site the same week.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Justice Minister Michael McDowell last year agreed to fund the cost of exhumation, reburials in individual plots and counselling for those affected.
However, the committee is unhappy that the state could appoint a senior barrister to examine its continued demands for a fresh hearing.
"We want a judge or a retired judge to sit and go through our submissions with experts," she added.
PA