Taoiseach to give State apology to families of Stardust victims
The Taoiseach is set to issue a State apology to the families of the victims of the Stardust fire this afternoon (Tuesday).
Forty-eight people were killed when the blaze ripped through the Dublin nightclub in 1981 during a Valentines disco.
After a more than 40-year campaign for justice, last week an inquest found that the 48 victims had been unlawfully killed.
A previous finding in 1982 said that the fire had been started deliberately, a theory the families never accepted.
That ruling was dismissed in 2009, leading to the latest inquests for the victims, who were aged from 16 to 27 and mostly came from the surrounding north Dublin area.
On Saturday, Taoiseach Simon Harris "apologised unreservedly" to the families at a meeting with them in Government Buildings.
Later, Tuesday, he will issue a State apology in the Irish parliament. Families have been invited to attend, and the names of the victims will be read out in the Dail chamber.
19-year-old Susan Morgan from Londonderry was one of three people from Northern Ireland who died in the blaze.
She was out with a group of friends; Yvonne Graham from Derry was one of them.
She has welcomed the expected apology: “I think the verdict is fantastic. It was a brilliant verdict for all the families because they’ve been through hell and back. They campaigned for 43 years to get justice for their loved ones.
“It’s just as long they apologise that the family have been treated appallingly. They really have and it’s about time that they got one. It’s 43 years too late.
“It’s never going to bring back their loved ones. It’s never going to bring that back. Hopefully, it might help a bit. I don’t know what an apology is actually going to do. It is not going to change anything.
“It is welcome and it’s great that they’re going to get the apology but it’s not going to change what has happened.”
The deputy Irish premier Micheal Martin also expressed support for a redress scheme for the families.
Last Thursday, the jury in the inquest returned a verdict that all 48 victims were unlawfully killed.
A majority decision from the jury of seven women and five men found the blaze, which broke out in the early hours of Valentine's Day 1981, was caused by an electrical fault in the hot press of the bar.
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Taoiseach confirms state apology for Stardust families
Stardust: jury in inquest into nightclub fire deaths returns verdict of unlawful killing
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