The families of the 48 victims who were unlawfully murdered in the 1981 Stardust tragedy have appreciated the State’s admission of its failure, after a struggle of over four decades. Taoiseach Simon Harris issued a formal apology from the State on Tuesday in the Dáil, expressing regret for the State’s lack of support to the victims’ family members and survivors who were present in the public gallery. Harris stated, regretfully, that the State should have been with them and working alongside them but it had failed to do so.
The State’s apology was delivered less than a week after a Dublin coroner’s court jury conferred an unlawful killing ruling for each of the 48 victims. The victims, who ranged in age from 16 to 27, lost their lives due to a fire at a nightclub in northern Dublin in the wee hours of 14th February 1981.
Antoinette Keegan, who survived the fire but lost her sisters, Martina (16) and Mary (19), in the incident expressed her satisfaction over the verdict and the subsequent State apology. She called for more action, urging that someone should be held responsible. She added that it was the duty of the State and law enforcement agencies to follow up on the apology and consider filing criminal charges. She further criticised the lengthy struggle of 43 years which should have been the State’s responsibility.
Keegan also referred to the expulsion of arson as the cause of the fire from public records in 2009, stating that it was the State’s duty then to launch an inquiry into the fatalities. Before 1pm on Tuesday, over 100 survivors and family members began arriving at Leinster House. They had lunch in the LH2000 wing before being led to the public gallery.
The Deputy Speaker, Catherine Connolly, requested the Prime Minister to address the room at 2pm. Speaking to the families, the PM stated: “You must have encountered countless moments when you believed this day would never materialise over these excessive years.”
Recognising the reality that many among the 48 victims’ parents had “departed from our world before witness to justice”, he conveyed: “I extend my profound condolences that you had to endure a struggle for so long that they were consigned to their final resting place deprived of the truth.”
The Government ought to have ensured assistance and clarified matters, he added. Bringing forth Christine Keegan, the late justice campaigner who passed away in July 2020, he recited her prepared inquest statement. She had written: “The calamity of the Stardust fire robbed us of our joyous family occasions … I wish to pose this query to the Government, the authority: ‘What was the offence of the Stardust victims’ families against the Government to merit this cruel treatment?’.
“I am here to respond to that query,” said Mr Harris. “You bear no fault. The institutions of this State have done you a disservice. The institutions of this State have let you down.”
Jimmy O’Meara, whose brother Brendan O’Meara (23) perished in the catastrophe, expressed anxiety before the apology. “From my perspective, it was articulately addressed but there are remaining questions that demand responses. What caused the excessive delay? Who was responsible for prolonging it to such an extent? Why did it take so long? I simply cannot comprehend this,” he admitted.
Alan Morton, the sole surviving family member and brother of 19-year-old David Morton, had journeyed from England the previous week for the verdicts. “I was absolutely delighted with what I heard. It’s merely unfortunate that they took 43 years to lend an ear and react. We were in need of this much, much earlier.” He shared his remorse that his parents, Maura and Billy, were not alive to witness it.
John Muldoon, Kathleen Muldoon’s brother who was in training to be a nurse when she lost her life, shared his sorrow that their parents, Julia and Hugh, who passed away within the past 13 months did not live to “witness the day when her name was exonerated.”
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