The body of an Irishman who died in a British nursing home last July is to be repatriated to Co Galway in the coming days.
Preparations are under way to bring the remains of Sean Parker back to Ireland for burial in the village of Glinsk.
Mr Parker died with no known relatives. His body has been in a morgue near London since his death this summer.
Believing he was born and spent the first ten years of his life in Glinsk, locals have been working to organise his burial there.
They were alerted to his death after Medway Council in south east England placed a notice in The Galway Advertiser, in an effort to trace family or friends of the dead man.
Today, the council confirmed that Mr Parker's remains were being looked after by a funeral director in south east England, pending a flight to Ireland in the next week.
Paul Edwards of the council's Bereavement and Registration Department said he was satisfied that the legal requirement to make arrangements for a burial or cremation had been satisfied.
He said that given the case made by locals in Glinsk, Mr Parker's burial there would be the most satisfactory outcome.
Mr Edwards said the alternative would have been to bury the 79-year-old in an unmarked grave in a local cemetery in England.
The Parker family left Co Galway in 1945, after the death of Sean's mother.
They moved to Dublin and it is understood Mr Parker subsequently emigrated to England.
Many people in the area still remember him as a young boy.
A number of individuals and businesses both here and in the UK have offered to contribute to the repatriation and burial costs.
