HUMAN remains found during building works at a house in Dundalk are "not connected to any ongoing investigation", Gardaí have said.
On Wednesday evening, remains - later confirmed to be those of a human - were found by a builder at the back of a property on Mary Street North.
It is understood that the house has been vacant for several years and is in the process of being gutted and rebuilt.
There had been speculation that the remains were those of 17-year-old Ciara Breen, who went missing in the same part of Dundalk two decades ago.
On February 13 1997, the teenager left the home she shared a few hundred metres away in Bachelor's Walk with her mother Bernadette and never returned.
The houses on Mary Street North, a combination of one and two storey homes, are believed to be more than a century old.
A Garda spokeswoman said that the human remains "are historic" and "not connected to any ongoing Garda investigation".
The person's age and gender remains unclear, and Garda Superintendent Gerry Curley said that it would be "a very slow process".
It is understood that the skeleton is at least 70 years old, with the forensic anthropologist and experts from both the National Museum and Forensic Science Ireland, the Republic's crime laboratory, all due to conduct further tests.
In July, a man who was a key suspect in the disappearance of Ciara Breen died of a suspected drugs overdose while in Garda custody.
Liam Mullen (55) had twice been arrested and questioned but always maintained his innocence.
No-one has ever been charged in connection with the disappearance of the Dundalk teenager.
