In late March 1984, more than 600 people packed into a hall in Sixmilebridge, Co Clare.
Footage from the RTÉ archives shows speaker after speaker addressing the gathering - all of them expressing solidarity and support for a local family, the Nugents, whose son had died in unexplained circumstances.
23-year-old Patrick Nugent had been working at the nearby Bunratty Folk Park, where he was employed as a banquet manager.
He was on duty on the night of 10 February 1984, when a party was held to mark the wedding anniversary of William and Chrissie Ryan, from Shannon. The event was attended by around 60 guests, including two off-duty gardaí.
Between 3.30am and 3.45am, an incident took place during which Patrick Nugent sustained fatal injuries.
The exact sequence of events has never been determined.
His colleagues recounted how they heard groans and went to investigate at around 4am that morning.
They saw Mr Nugent lying on his back. When asked by a colleague what had happened to him, Mr Nugent replied: "He clocked me, he clocked me."
Emergency services were called, and the casualty was brought to Barringtons Hospital in Co Limerick, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Mr Nugent had been in good health prior to the incident.
A post-mortem examination recorded a collapsed liver, internal bleeding and lacerations to the lower lumbar spinal region, all believed to have been caused by crushing.
This contradicted what Mr Nugent’s father Joe had been told in the hours following his son’s death.
He spoke to RTÉ’s Today Tonight programme and recalled how he was told his son fell and "it was a heart attack, he collapsed".
The conflict between those initial suggestions and the subsequent post mortem added to the confusion surrounding the death.
This was the dichotomy that prompted the public meeting in Sixmilebridge, at which calls for "a clear statement of the facts" were made by many of those in attendance.
The 1984 garda investigation led to William Ryan, who is now deceased, being charged with manslaughter.
He was later acquitted of all criminal charges in relation to the incident and nobody else was ever prosecuted in connection with the death of Mr Nugent.
A coroner’s inquest in October 1985 shed a little more light on the events of that spring night.
The jury was satisfied that Mr Nugent was struck by someone before he sustained the fatal injuries.
Evidence was also given that Mr Nugent was thought to be "on or near the ground" at the time of impact.
Pathologist Dr William Bennett told the court that the victim died from multiple chest and abdominal injuries, consistent with having been crushed.
A verdict of accidental death was returned, but jurors attached a rider to this, saying they were "far from satisfied as to the circumstances under which Patrick Nugent sustained the injuries which caused his death".
They requested that the matter be further investigated by the minister for justice.
It took a further 32 years before that happened.
In 2017, then-minister Frances Fitzgerald charged Judge Patrick Clyne with conducting an inquiry about the adequacy of the initial garda investigation.
That report was completed in 2020.
Running to more than 100 pages, it was never published, but it is understood to have set out a roadmap for how any new inquiry should be run.
The Clyne Report was given to the Garda Commissioner and, in 2022, he directed that a fresh investigation into the death be opened.
That probe is being led by Inspector David Finnerty at Shannon Garda Station.
For the last two years, detectives have been gathering, reviewing and re-examining all available material.
As part of that process, and following consultation with the Nugent family, a decision was taken to exhume the remains of Mr Nugent from Feenagh Cemetery in Co Clare this week.
On Tuesday morning, a team of forensic scientists cordoned off the grave, and commenced the process.
Mr Nugent’s remains were brought to Dublin, where a post-mortem examination was carried out by the Office of the State Pathologist.
That autopsy was completed on Thursday. The findings have not been released.
Gardaí emphasised that this is a new investigation, utilising the latest technologies and scientific advances to try to crack the case.
However, they are not revealing much in the way of detail about their progress to date, citing "operational reasons".
We do know that attempts are being made to interview surviving witnesses who attended the Bunratty function on the night of 10 February 1984.
Appeals are also being made to anyone else with information to come forward, as investigators search for some heretofore unknown detail that could provide answers to unresolved questions.
This weekend, the solicitor representing the Nugent family said they understood results from the post mortem would be available in a relatively short time frame.
Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, said the sooner this happened, the sooner gardaí would be able to move to the latter stages of their investigation.
He said the Nugent family were hoping for clarity on exactly how their brother sustained the injuries that led to his death and had an enduring hope that somebody might be brought to justice.
But Mr Winters said all concerned were realistic about those prospects, more than four decades after the events of early 1984.
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Many of those who attended that meeting in Sixmilebridge back then are now old and grey.
Others have passed away in the intervening years.
Some may even have their final resting place mere metres from the Nugent family plot in Feenagh.
Despite the passage of time, the sentiments expressed that night still resonate.
In the words of one local: "I came here tonight to see justice done. I feel all this thing is taking too long and we’re pretty adamant that we want to see a proper ending to it."
More than 40 years later, three questions persist: Who "clocked" Patrick Nugent? What did he stumble upon in the minutes prior to his death? And will the person responsible ever be prosecuted?
The wait for a proper ending continues.
