A group representing families of missing people has called for a national audit of all unidentified bodies buried in Ireland.
The call comes as RTÉ News learned that in the past 25 years, there have been over a dozen cases of bodies being buried without being identified.
Two of the older cases are those of the body of a man washed up near Horn Head in Co Donegal in 1983, and the body of a man washed up on the beach at Kinlough in Co Leitrim in 1986.
In both cases, the pathologists at the time estimated that the bodies had been in the water for weeks rather than months.
The Co Donegal body is buried at a cemetery at Carndonagh where the headstone marks the resting place of 'Unknown Man'. A similiar grave exists for the Co Leitrim man in Manorhamilton.
Both cases occurred before advances in DNA technology.
The only real possibility for either case to be solved would be for potential family members to come forward and for the bodies to be exhumed and examined.
Tosh Lavery of Missing in Ireland Support Services said a database should be set up with information on all of the unidentified bodies and made accessible to the public, so that these cases might be solved.
Families of missing people are also expected to step up their campaign for Gardaí and Coroners to do even more to identify bodies.
Any exhumation of an unidentified body must be approved by the Minister for Justice.
Anyone with information on any unidentified body is urged to contact the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111.
