Eighteen remembrance candles flickered into life for each of the victims of the worst tragedy in Irish transport history, in one of the moving ceremonies held yesterday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Buttevant rail disaster.

Around a thousand people gathered in North Cork today to remember the 18 victims of the worst railway accident in Irish history.

A public appeal has traced a relative of the final Irish victim of the 1980 Buttevant rail tragedy just days before a major 25th anniversary event.