Irish premier to issue State apology to families of Stardust victims

The Irish premier is to issue a State apology to the families of the victims of the Stardust fire.

Forty-eight people were killed when the blaze ripped through the Dublin nightclub in 1981.

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 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.

On 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.

Speaking on Tuesday morning on his way in to Cabinet, Mr Harris said he is keen to deliver the apology to the victims, survivors and families.

“I think these are families that have been failed for over four decades, they are families that have looked for answers for over four decades, they are families who have all too often found these (government) gates shut to them and governments not listening to them,” Mr Harris said.

“I have had really important, heartfelt and emotional engagement with many of the families over the last few days.

“I was very pleased to visit the Stardust memorial in Artane last night, and I wanted to be there and be at the spot of where this fire happened in advance of delivering the apology today and let the apology speak for itself.

“I do really hope it is an apology that can help with the healing process.

“I have worked really hard to try and capture what the families have raised with me, so I don’t want to preview the apology other than to say the State failed these families and the impact of that failure has been devastating.

“It has heaped pain and misery on top of tragedy, and I want try and capture that today.”

He said he will discuss with Cabinet how the State can “publicly commemorate and acknowledge it”.

“That is something I am very eager to do with the families.”

Deputy Irish premier Micheal Martin also expressed support for a redress scheme for the families.

Labour TD Duncan Smith said the apology is “long overdue”.

The Dublin Fingal TD said the fire tragedy has hung over north Dublin like a dark cloud for the last 43 years.

“The families want to see a robust and sincere apology and that is what we want to see,” he added.

“Even though the event took place before the Taoiseach was born, even before myself was born, it is something that we are all familiar with as a long overdue quest for justice.

“Hopefully the families get what they are looking for today.”

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that it was a “hugely momentous and emotional” day for the families.

“The key thing is that the government have to genuinely listen to the families of those who lost their lives and those who survived,” he said.

“They are best placed to set out what it is they want and the important thing is the government truly listens and provides a meaningful apology, and follows through with the actions that the families want so that the long struggle for truth and justice is finally received.

“There is enormous hurt and anger over the way successive governments frustrated them at every turn in their struggle for truth and justice, rather than helping these families, they did everything everything to frustrate their efforts to achieve truth and justice.”

Last Thursday, the jury in the inquest returned a verdict that all 48 victims were unlawfully killed.

A majority decision from the seven women and five men found that 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.