Body of woman who died in July removed

The body of woman who is believed to have died in July was removed from an apartment in Kilkenny city centre yesterday afternoon.

It is understood that gardaí were called to the building by a neighbour who had noticed uncollected post.

A Garda spokeswoman said the death was "not suspicious" and the woman, believed to be in her 50s and living alone, had died of natural causes.

A hearse was called to the apartment building, located in a lane just off Kilkenny's High Street, and the remains were removed.

Gardaí could not confirm if a postmortem is being carried out, but said that there was "no Garda investigation".

A local resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Irish Times that "the woman could have been dead for six or seven weeks".

She said the woman is from the Kilkenny area and she "felt very upset" that such a death could go undetected "just yards from the busy city centre".

She added that the gardaí were called at around 2.30pm. The woman also said that the deceased had apparently not been missed until someone noticed that her post had not been picked up since July and said, "the caring society - God help us".