The Garda Serious Crime Review Team has been ordered to carry out a ‘Full Review’ of the investigation into the 1971 murders of Una Lynskey and Martin Kerrigan.

19-year-old Una Lynskey disappeared from Ratoath in County Meath in October 1971 and her body was found in the Wicklow Mountains two months later.

Three local men were questioned about the murder by Gardaí – and all three protested their innocence.

Shortly after Una’s body was discovered, one of those men, 20-year-old Martin Kerrigan was abducted and murdered.

His body was left in the same area where Una’s had been discovered.

Investigation

Mr Kerrigan was originally brought in for questioning alongside two others Dick Donnelly and Martin Conmey about two weeks after Una first went missing.

They were held for around two days and all three claimed they were physically and mentally abused by Gardaí during questioning.

Despite protesting their innocence, two of the men, Conmey and Kerrigan, signed confessions.

They later claimed they were forced to do so by Gardaí.

Mr Conmey and Mr Donnelly were both convicted of the manslaughter of Una Lynskey in July 1972; however, Mr Donnelly later had his conviction overturned.

Mr Conmey spent three years in prison before he was acquitted, with his case declared a miscarriage of justice.

Full Review

The Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has now ordered the Serious Crime Review Team to carry out a ‘Full Review’ of the investigations into the Murders of Una Lynskey and Martin Kerrigan.

Later this morning, the team will make a formal public appeal for information and provide an update its investigation.

Una Lynskey’s murder remains unsolved and Martin Kerrigan’s family say a cloud remains over his memory because he was wrongly accused by Gardaí.

The case is the subject of the next season of Newstalk's Inside the Crime podcast, which will be released shortly.